This presentation was given at the Third Annual ASU-Arkfeld eDiscovery Conference in Tempe, Arizona at the Sandra Day O'Conner Arizona State University College of Law, on Friday, March 17, 2014. The presentation was given as an "Ignite" presentation, similar to a TED talk, which was 6 minutes long with auto-advancing slides that changed every 20 seconds. The notes provided with the slides are a close script to what was said with the slide. A video recording of the presentation should be available online in the near future (from this original posting day--April 1, 2014).

My name is Andy Ninh, and when I gave this presentation live, I was a 3L law student at Michigan State University College of Law.

Please visit my website: www.andyninh.com.

1. Daydream with me. Imagine a day in the life of an attorney who uses Google Glass in Legal Practice. I wake up, put on the device, and give it the command, “Okay Glass, Daily Agenda.” I immediately sift through my daily tasks, meetings, and travel plans...and I receive a notification.

2. It’s an email from a senior partner that says to check his latest comments on the trial notes before going to court today. “Okay Glass, Client Management.” “Client Taylor Swift.” “Review Most Recent Notes.” And just like that I am able to see my senior partner’s comments and manage my client’s file all from the comfort of my home, while connected to a secure network owned by the firm.

3. On my way to court, I get turn by turn GPS directions, and when I arrive to the court I check in to notify the judge, via his tablet or his own pair of Google Glass, of my arrival. In court, I live stream the oral arguments to my firm so that my senior partner and team of attorneys can view and comment if necessary.

4. I have all my trial notes as cards viewable through Glass, relevant case law and statutes will be pulled from a remote database using voice recognition because I’m talking about them, I can view all exhibits and evidence, and even send them directly to the judge via his tablet, or project them on a large screen for the jury to see. Now, after I win my case, I can schedule future court dates with the judge and Glass tells me of any potential conflicts.

5. A couple hours later, I arrive at the airport and Glass notifies me that my flight is delayed 15 minutes...not the end of the world. After scanning a QR code to check in for my flight, I receive a text message from a client that is read to me by Glass. I immediately respond via a voice command and proceed to security.

6. The next day, I use Glass during a deposition. Again, I live stream the deposition to my firm over a secure network, while simultaneously recording it. I no longer have to flip through big stacks of paper, and I even utilize facial recognition technology to detect emotions, and whether the deponent is telling me the truth, which gives me an advantage in guiding the discussion.

7. Now let’s step away from the daydream for a bit, but just imagine how different your life would be with Google Glass. As I touched on, Google Glass has huge implications for trial practice. Among the examples I used, what about using Glass during voir dire to pull up relevant information on the jury? You could pull up social media profiles, blogs, criminal backgrounds, or any information that may lead you to suspect a jury member will be biased, all using facial recognition and connected databases.

8. I think the big take away here is the device’s capability to be connected to huge databases. Now what about e-discovery? While connected to a database, you could call clusters of documents using voice search, and even tag responsive documents with the wink of an eye. You could also use Glass to detect words on a piece of paper, without having to read through it.

9. Doc Review - sample set to feed into machine learning algorithm to improve predictive coding as we know it; device will better recognize important chunks to show you

10. Its makers claim that Spritz allows users to read at staggeringly high rates of speed: 600 or even 1,000 words per minute. (The average college graduate reads at a rate of about 300 words per minute.) Spritz can do this, they say, by circumventing the limitations imposed by our visual system. When using the app, words are presented one at a time, in the exact spot where our gaze is “focalized,” or primed for visual recognition. Then that word is whisked away and another appears in the same, optimal place — and quickly, quickly, others follow.

Combining this technology with Google Glass could boost productivity.

11. Also, instead of spending thousands of dollars sending a large team of attorneys across the country for a deposition, you could just send one attorney with Google Glass. There the attorney could video conference with the firm to get advice from a senior partner, or have other attorneys ask questions. This would not only save the firm and thus the client tons of money, but the firm can make more money by having more attorneys available for additional work.

12. Let’s take this a step further. By incorporating big data and predictive coding, Glass may have the ability to predict case outcomes after interviewing a potential client, based on numerous factors like how certain judges have ruled in your jurisdiction, or maybe even personal success rates in similar cases. The point there is Google Glass is personal to the user, and it can learn from you. This not only takes out the guess work, but also provides new avenues to increased income.

13. And that brings me to the big question: how will Google Glass make you money? Let’s face it, most attorneys hate handling billing and time keeping. Assuming you bill for time, Glass can keep an accurate record of when you are performing actual client work. It can also automatically keep track of that time, organize it by client, and provide that data to a program that will automatically perform all the accounting, so you don’t have to.

14. By using eye-tracking technology, and image and voice recognition, the device can detect when you’re drafting a motion, or on the phone with another attorney or a client, or watching a YouTube video, or taking a coffee break. In this way, you are only billing a client for relevant legal work. Not only does this give you more oversight, but also saves the client and firm money, providing more transparency between the firm and client, which helps establish trust.

15. Now despite all the huge potential that Google Glass has, many people have privacy concerns with the device. For example, a few months ago I had someone ask me whether it was true if I could just wink and Google Glass would take a picture of her, and at the time that wasn’t true. Well guess what? That is possible now, and I just took a picture of you. (haha) Sorry.

16. All jokes aside, I believe that we are willing to give up an inch of privacy for a mile of more efficiency, fun, and to use the latest technology. I also believe there will safeguards on the device that prevent certain invasions of privacy. As I stated, the device is very personal. So privileged client information will be more secure in that only the attorney who owns the device can access it.

17. Now I pose the question, “Is Google Glass a solution?” For example, there is a Glass app that detects when a user is nodding off and falling asleep at the wheel. It alerts the driver and wakes them up. Assuming Google Glass could be worn while driving, this has the potential to save hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Also, what about location-based legal alerts that are pushed to the device. I envision traveling to a foreign destination and having Glass tell me local laws I may not be aware of.

18. Wake up people, this isn’t really a daydream. This is reality. In fact, there is at least one attorney out there using Google Glass in legal practice. He successfully used Google Glass in a deposition and has been granted permission to use it in trial. I firmly believe that Google Glass will play a pivotal role in augmenting legal practice, and the movement has already begun. Keep an eye out, and more to come. Thank you.