On Legal AI is perhaps the first fact-based attempt to map the territory between AI and the law. While grounding the conversation in hard theory, Joshua Walker takes the reader through a flurry of (interstitially entertaining) real-world examples to resolve on a single “recipe” for developing legal AI, and making AI “legal”. On Legal AI will aid readers in becoming far more productive and valuable to enterprise and government by specifically illustrating how to leverage practical legal automation, and how to avoid falling prey to its dangers. It seeks to marry the best mores and methods from law, computer science, and design—in time to catch the present wave of opportunity.
Joshua Walker is a forerunner in the emerging field of legal informatics, having built legal data collections for over 20 years. Walker co-founded Lex Machina, Inc., has leveraged legal analytics to aid in the prosecution of genocide-related crimes in Kigali, Rwanda, for the ICTR, and has assisted major technology companies with complex M&A and IP litigation problems, working at several major law firms in Silicon Valley. While practicing, he co founded CodeX: The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (to present knowledge, the first law and computer science lab in the United States). Later, as Executive Director of the Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse, Walker architected the largest and most relied upon U.S. patent litigation data system, engaged the Stanford Artificial Intelligence laboratory in the project, and designed the legal edge of information extraction algorithms that continue to scale to new litigation domains. Walker then led the successful commercialization and spin off of this program from Stanford, as Chairman and CEO of Lex Machina. Published in both the legal academic and informatics community, he is regularly relied upon by global media for his expertise in IP and data rights issues. Walker has also supported the U.S. judiciary, the G.A.O., and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with patent litigation data. Walker received his A.B. degree in Special Concentrations, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1995 and his J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School in 2002, where he was a Cornerstone Scholar. He is currently the Chief Product Officer at Aon IP Solutions.