Lawyers doing good work at reasonable prices is good for just about everyone. They settle on some standard ways to think about and implement legal applications. They contribute practice software examples and components to a common repository, while also following OPT principles in their own private or commercial applications. The result is an upsurge in legal technology innovation, productivity, quality, reusability, and interoperability. We are at one of those special points in history where public good and private interest are closely aligned in a sector of human activity.
Law is ripe for fundamental improvement through collaborative commerce in practice systems.
The window of this opportunity is wide open, and will likely remain that way for at least a while. We're still living in the ancient world of law office automation, and the open sourcerers among us have one of the best chances, in my opinion, of redeeming the unrealized promise of advanced legal technology. I don't think the oft-mentioned analogy of the human genome mapping project is too far afield, either in its magnitude of work or its astounding benefits. AmeriCounsel, founding sponsor of the Open Practice Tools initiative, was launched in March 2000 to bring lower costs and increased convenience to the legal services market place. We provide resources to enhance attorney efficiency so that participating lawyers can pass along cost savings to customers.