Members Archives - Computer & Technology Section

Category: Members Archives

Message from the Chair

Ron Chichester on August 24, 2023

Dear Section Members,

I have the honor and privilege to serve as the 2023-24 Chair of the Computer and Technology Section (C&T) of the State Bar of Texas. The C&T Section’s membership is diverse and has members from solo practices to major law firms and lawyers from major technical industries and Fortune 500 companies. As I like to say about the C&T Section, when it comes to technology and the law “Our Bench is Deep”. As an example of our “bench” recently the State Bar created a Taskforce regarding AI and ChatGPT composed of seven lawyers, three of which were members of the C&T Section.

The C&T Section is rich in resources, no matter how small or large your firm and no matter what level of technical knowledge. We are here to help you. In this ever-changing world of legal technology like AI and ChatGPT, and our duty of technical proficiency, we are here to provide those resources for you.

7th Annual Tech and Justice for All CLE program
December 1, 2023

Don’t forget to register for our upcoming 7th Annual Tech CLE program taking place in Austin on December 1, 2023. The full brochure and registration options information will be forthcoming, and your section membership will provide you with an immediate discount upon registering for this outstanding CLE.

Member Benefits
As a member of the C&T Section, here are some of your immediate benefits:

Free CLEs
For the price of just one CLE course, the C&T Section provides members with four quarterly free CLEs covering major issues at the intersection of technology and the law.

Our first CLE alone is worth the price of joining the section. On September 29, 2023, starting at noon, section member John Browning, Chair of the State Bar of Texas Taskforce regarding Ai/ChatGPT, will present “To ChatGPT, or not to ChatGPT, that is the question” and you don’t want to miss this benefit as a section member.

John’s recent ChatGPT presentation was just cited in an opinion by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Allen Michael Lee v. The State of Texas, case number 10-22-00281, in the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Judicial District.

Texas Bar Legal App
Our Texas Bar Legal app is available to all members and provides Texas and Federal Codes, Rules, and Statutes. We support Apple and Android devices and even a weblink. More information regarding our app can be found here.

Circuits
The C&T Section publishes the quarterly Circuits Newsletter covering a broad range of topics regarding technology and the law. Here you will find articles regarding such topics as current technology, practical applications and utilizing technology for your practice.

Covering the latest Legal Technology
The ABA Tech Show is a must event for staying up to date with the latest legal technology and we annually send our members to cover and report on the seminars, lectures, updates and products for multiple speakers and vendors. This year’s review can be found here.

Need to Join or Renew Your Membership?
Dues are still just $25

With all these benefits of a membership to the C&T Section, I encourage you to join or renew your membership now. If you haven’t already, please renew your membership with our Section by logging into your MyBarPage at the State Bar of Texas Website. We encourage you to join now and reach out to your fellow lawyers and friends. Let them know about the low annual membership fee of $25 in exchange for multiple valuable benefits!

I am excited for the new challenges of technology this year will bring, and promise our continued emphasis on delivering the best information and assistance for lawyers to you and our State Bar.

Finally, I would like to thank Pierre Grosdidier for his outstanding service as the Section Chair for the past year.

Warm regards,

Reginald A. Hirsch, Chair
Computer and Technology Section
State Bar of Texas

Free CLE: “Space Law, AI, and Cybersecurity: Protecting the Security and Sustainability of the Next Frontier”

Ron Chichester on May 31, 2023

The Computer & Technology Section makes free CLE available to attorneys as a service of the Section and the Texas Bar. This CLE is entitled: “Space Law, AI, and Cybersecurity: Protecting the Security and Sustainability of the Next Frontier”
Speaker: Charles Lee Mudd, Jr.

Course Number: 174195229
The recording will be available until 03/31/2024.
MCLE Credit: 1 hour of participation with .25 hours of ethics.

You can find the video here.

The 6th Annual Technology and Justice for All CLE is on Friday, December 2, 2022

Ron Chichester on October 19, 2022

Registration is now open for this year’s Computer & Technology Section CLE. The CLE is in Austin on December 2nd. Seating is limited and prior events at this location have sold out. Speakers include Mitch Zoll, Mark Unger, Natalia Santiago, Judge Xavier Rodriguez, Judge Karin Crump, Charles Mudd, Grecia Martinez, Shawn Tuma, William Smith, Grant Scheiner, and Shannon Warren. Register at https://statebaroftexassections.redpodium.com/cts2022cle.

Texas Bar Foundation Gives Judge Xavier Rodriguez Statewide Recognition

Admin on March 4, 2021

Judge Xavier Rodriguez of San Antonio received the 2021 Samuel Pessarra Outstanding Jurist Award from the Texas Bar Foundation. The award was established in 1995, when the Foundation received a bequest to the endowment from the estate of Mrs. Samuel Pessarra in honor of her late husband Samuel Pessarra for the purpose of funding the Outstanding Jurist Award. Samuel Pessarra, a native of Quintana, attended Baylor University and Baylor University School of Law. Mr. Pessarra was a member of the Brazoria County Bar Association, where he served as president, director and secretary. The Pessarra Outstanding Jurist Award honors an active Federal or State Judge (including retired judges or judges of senior status who continue to sit) who exhibits an exceptionally outstanding reputation for competency, efficiency and integrity.

Judge Rodriguez is a former Texas Supreme Court Justice and currently sits on the bench as a United States District Judge for the Western District of Texas. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree from the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas Law School. Prior to assuming the bench, he was a partner in the international law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski (now known as Norton Rose Fulbright). Judge Rodriguez is a frequent speaker on continuing legal education seminars and has authored numerous articles regarding employment law, discovery and arbitration issues. He is the editor of Essentials of E-Discovery (TexasBarBooks 2014). He is a member of The Sedona Conference Judicial Advisory Board, the Georgetown Advanced E-Discovery Institute Advisory Board, and serves as the Distinguished Visiting Jurist-in-Residence and adjunct professor of law at the St. Mary’s University School of Law. He was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Texas Bar Foundation.

In 2011 he was awarded the Rosewood Gavel Award for outstanding judicial service from the St. Mary’s University School of Law. In 2017, he received the State Bar of Texas Gene Cavin Award for Excellence in CLE, recognizing his long-term contributions to continuing legal education. He is an appointed judicial member of the Computer and Technology Section, Chair of the State Bar of Texas Litigation Section, Past Chair of the State Bar of Texas Labor and Employment Law Section, and Past Chair of the State Bar of Texas Continuing Legal Education Committee. He is currently enrolled in the Duke University, Bolch Judicial Institute’s LLM Program in Judicial Studies.

Judge Rodriguez will be publicly recognized at the Texas Bar Foundation Annual Dinner held on June 18, 2021 at the Omni Hotel in Fort Worth. The University of Texas School of Law will receive a $1,000 scholarship donation in honor of Judge Xavier Rodriguez.

2018 Strata Data Conference

Ron Chichester on September 16, 2018

Google saw fit to bestow a free ticket to a member of the Council to attend the Strata Conference (https://conferences.oreilly.com/strata) in New York City. The Strata Conference is all about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science, as well as some attendant topics. Size-wise, this conference is on a par with LegalTech and the International Legal Technology Association (“ILTA”) Conference . However that is about where the similarity ends. As far as I could tell, I was the only attorney in attendance. They were curious to know why I was there, but when I described e-discovery, data breach situations and the like — they got it. A very welcoming lot. Here are some observations:

1. As with the legal conventions, AI was all the rage. Not surprising, however, because the Strata conference is all about data, so Data Science (aka “Big Data”) plays an more important role. AI is used to analyze Big Data. There is just so much data that only a machine could cope with it.

2. Open source software applications dominate the field. In fact, there was one presentation entitled “Commercial Software in an Increasingly Open Source Ecosystem.” Large companies now insist on open source applications (for a variety of reasons). So much so that when they go looking for solutions, they turn to the open source versions first. Even Microsoft was touting how well you could run Linux and other open source applications on Azure. Microsoft knows that it has a credibility problem in this area, but they are truly making an effort to make amends with the open source community (and by extension, corporate America).

3. AI and Data Science are quickly being institutionalized in corporate America. Corporate networks are being modified to capture company data for use in AI-based applications (which have an insatiable thirst for data).

4. The pace of AI development is exponential, and that pace won’t slow down anytime soon. Indeed, the pace of infrastructure modifications to take advantage of AI development will ensure that that exponential rate of GPU (graphic processor units) growth continues for the near term.

5. Moore’s law is officially dead — kind of. The current rate of growth of *CPU* capability is 1.1:1, rather than the 1.5:1 during the heyday of Moore’s law. Don’t despair. The growth rate for *GPU’s* (favored by AI applications) is currently 1.5:1. Moore’s law isn’t quite dead yet, but it has shifted a bit.

6. AI is getting easier to develop and use. Software is being developed to abstract the process of creating AI. This abstraction process is intended to insulate normal people from the nitty-gritty of developing AI. I saw one Microsoft engineer build an AI-based chat bot in less than 5 minutes (he timed himself, right in front of us). The point is, AI is getting easier to develop and use all the time. Soon, even a lawyer will be able to do it. What this portends is hard to fathom, but people would be wise to monitor the developments. Even better, AI has now hit the “hobby” level, in that the tools to start developing AI are free (from a software royalty standpoint) and the hardware costs to do it (beyond a snail’s pace) are modest.

Section News

Category: Members Archives