JPMorgan Beating Startups to the AI Revolution. Artificial Intelligence to Eat White Collar Jobs – Is Going Solo in the Freelance Economy the Answer?

It is not just startups shaking up the AI world.  JPMorgan discusses its artificial intelligence program. Going Solo in the Freelance Economy starts looking better.

When I left Big Firm, it was for personal reasons.  I did not leave shaking my fist at a horrible culture and history of injustice.  I did not experience that.  I started thinking about a professional life staring at a different set of walls.  I began to question my place in the Big Firm ecosystem and whether I could succeed without the safety net.  Lucky me, I could.

For many attorneys, the choice will not be theirs to make.  Technology is coming for their jobs.

Junior attorneys in bigger firms spend most of their time in some sort of document review and document processing roles.  This is necessary grunt work, and it is how junior attorneys learn, when they pay attention.

Billable rates have continued to increase, and clients push back when they can.  However, discovery in litigation and due diligence in transactional work must get done.  What happens when software can take the place of expensive junior associates?

It is about to happen.

There have been a number of articles lately about first generation artificial intelligence tools for this type of work and their early adopter law firms.

Last week, Bloomberg reported on JPMorgan’s COIN, or Contract Intelligence, program.  It reviews commercial loan agreements, something that consumed 360,000 hours of work by lawyers and loan officers each year.  That task now takes seconds, has fewer errors, does not ask for vacations or have the other baggage associated with human employees.

In addition, JPMorgan’s machine learning and big data system helps automate software coding.

In legal circles, litigation document review was seen as the low-hanging fruit for AI software.  However, any white collar position that provides a service that is based on rote activities can and will be replaced by software.  It may not be tomorrow, but it is sooner than you think.  JPMorgan is already planning to license its service to its bigger clients who are staffed to the rafters with white collar “thought employees” who are about to be replaced by code.

Many people believe their job cannot be at risk to computers because computers do not have the judgement capabilities of humans.  But:

As for COIN, the program has helped JPMorgan cut down on loan-servicing mistakes, most of which stemmed from human error in interpreting 12,000 new wholesale contracts per year, according to its designers.

The software is doing other tasks that lots of humans now perform:

For simpler tasks, the bank has created bots to perform functions like granting access to software systems and responding to IT requests, such as resetting an employee’s password, Zames said. Bots are expected to handle 1.7 million access requests this year, doing the work of 140 people.

I am not writing this as a doom-and-gloom article about lost employment.  I think this is ultimately a good thing.  No one knows about the opportunities that will arise from this shift.

It does mean that people should recognize the shift and their place in it.  Stability, comfort and complacency in large organizations has been an antiquated notion for a while.  Maybe Going Solo and finding your place in the Freelance Economy is a path forward.

Artificial intelligence drives the Freelance Economy, eats white collar jobs.
Artificial intelligence drives the Freelance Economy, eats white collar jobs.  Some large enterprise companies are beating startups to the AI revolution.

Monster Books and Records; Unrequited Demands and Other Lessons for Startups and Seasoned Companies

Everyone from startups to seasoned companies and their shareholders can take a lesson from the Monster books and records demand debacle.

I know what you’re thinking:  “How lucky am I to have two books and records articles in two weeks!”

Monster Worldwide (of job board fame) was acquired and merged out of existence.  A shareholder had made a books and records demand prior to the merger but did not bring suit to enforce it until after the merger.  The demand letter said it would assume Monster would not take certain actions unless Monster said otherwise by a deadline.  Monster did nothing. Former shareholder loses.

Here’s a timeline that will be helpful:

  • August 8 – Monster and Acquiror enter into a merger agreement
  • September 6 – Acquiror commences a tender offer to Monster shareholders under the merger agreement
  • October 19 – Shareholder sends demand letter to Monster seeking access to books and records
  • October 26 – Monster rejects demand in current form but offers to cooperate on limited access
  • October 26 – Shareholder emails about the limited offer and stating that if the merger closes before he files a complaint, he expects that the company will refrain from asserting any argument that he lost standing to inspect documents because the merger closed before he filed his complaint. If the company will not refrain from making any such argument, please tell me by 10:00 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow.”
  • October 28 – Withdrawal rights for the tender offer expire; Monster responds to Shareholder refusing to refrain from anything
  • November 1 – Merger completed
  • November 4 – Monster notifies Shareholder that its request was moot since the merger occurred
  • November 22 – Shareholder files complaint

The Shareholder claimed he still had standing according to some policy arguments based on the timing of his demands to Monster, but the court noted that this was simple:

The language of Section 220(c) is plain and unambiguous. By requiring that a plaintiff under Section 220, to seek relief from this Court, demonstrate both that it “has”—past tense—complied with the demand requirement, and that it “is”—present tense—a stockholder, the legislature has made clear that only those who are stockholders at the time of filing have standing to invoke this Court’s assistance under Section 220.

Since the merger had occurred, the Shareholder was no longer a shareholder at the time of the complaint.  Therefore, he did not have standing under DGCL Section 220(c) to file a suit to enforce his right to books and records.

As we mentioned in our previous post, all corporations are bound by the books and records requirements of their jurisdiction of incorporation.  Startups are not exempt just because they like confidentiality and “stealth mode.”

Likewise, shareholders making a demand must conform to strict requirements of the statute.  A company can refuse and delay access on the basis of an improper request.

Joe Weingarten v. Monster Worldwide, Inc.

Monster denies books and records request since it doesn't really exist anymore in its old form.
Monster Worldwide – You can have our job listings, but not our books and records