Can AI narrow the justice gap?, SpaceX accused of forcing workers to sign illegal agreements, Trump's legal spending, and more??
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?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal stories:
?? AI can narrow justice gap, but women lawyers slower to adopt it, Berkeley study shows
Artificial intelligence can enhance access to justice for low-income Americans, but legal aid attorneys need better access and training on tech tools that bolster lawyer efficiency, a study by the Center for Law and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law found.
Among the legal aid lawyers who were given access to AI tools ChatGPT-4, CoCounsel and Gavel by Berkeley, 90% said those programs increased their productivity, and 75% said they would continue to use them, according to the study.
Researchers surveyed more than 200 legal aid lawyers on their use of AI and gave 91 of them access to a slate of AI tools for one or two months to evaluate how they used the technology and its impact on productivity. The study appears to be the first field experiment of lawyers using AI, wrote Berkeley Law professor Colleen Chien and Munger, Tolles, & Olson partner Miriam Kim, who authored the report.
?? SpaceX forced workers to sign illegal severance agreements, US agency claims
Elon Musk's SpaceX has been accused by the National Labor Relations Board of requiring employees who were laid off or fired from the rocket and satellite maker to sign unlawful agreements barring them from disparaging the company and joining class-action lawsuits against it.
SpaceX is accused in the new complaint of requiring separated employees to sign severance agreements with confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses that restrict them from exercising their rights under U.S. labor law, the labor board said.
Those provisions are common in severance pacts signed by workers, but the NLRB has said such agreements must make clear that workers cannot waive their rights to advocate for better working conditions or file complaints with the NLRB.
The complaint comes as SpaceX is already facing a separate case before the NLRB and has in turn?filed a lawsuit?claiming the agency's structure violates the U.S. Constitution.
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?? Legal spending by Trump group accelerated in February, disclosures show
Donald Trump’s fundraising group Save America stepped up spending on legal fees last month, further draining money from efforts to return him to the White House, financial disclosures showed.
In a filing to the Federal Election Commission, the fundraiser detailed legal expense outlays totaling more than $5.5 million in February, the biggest single month of such spending since Trump, a Republican, formed the organization in 2020 following his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in that year's presidential election.
The spending marked an acceleration from the close to $3 million Save America reported spending on legal bills in January. The group, which raises money together with Trump's election campaign but is legally separate, has now spent more than $55 million on legal bills since the start of 2023.
?? Lawyers for Theranos, Boeing whistleblowers launch new law firm
A group of 10 lawyers from law firm Constantine Cannon said they have left to launch their own firm, Whistleblower Partners, to pursue whistleblower cases.
The new firm has nine partners and one associate, along with a group of senior counsel and of counsel who will work part-time at the firm, partner Michael Ronickher said. It will advance whistleblower allegations and advocate on related issues, like pressing to expand government incentive programs for insiders to air their claims, the firm said in a press release.
"You certainly have more freedom, as a whistleblower-focused firm, to sue whoever needs to be sued," Ronickher said.
Whistleblower Partners' clients include?Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who provided documents used in a Wall Street Journal investigation and a Senate hearing on Meta-owned Instagram's alleged harm to teen girls, and?Ed Pierson, a former Boeing manager who warned of production issues at the airplane maker's 737 MAX factory in 2019.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File, and have a great day!
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