How Lawyers Use Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is not a replacement for lawyers but rather an augmentation tool to improve efficiency and accuracy, changing how legal services and advice are consumed and delivered. Below is a list and a brief description of Artificial Intelligence tools to ‘up your game’ and solve some of the problems in your law firms. Read to the end to find out what software the big firms are using. AI, as it pertains to the law, covers the following key topics:
Contract Analytics: Use RAVN (iManage Solutions) to process thousands of documents. Use this app for quick analysis and classification of large amounts of documents. The Serious Fraud Office (UK government department) processed 600,000 copies daily. For people in compliance, this may be of great benefit to you.
Expertise Automation: Berkeley Bridge, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft offer clients a subscription-based knowledge portal. You can use these applications to automate repetitive work requiring expertise and support on-demand legal services 24 hours a day. Use cases include automated contract drafting and legal analysis reporting.
Analytics & Prediction:
Use Lex Machina for predictive analytics for a competitive advantage that includes, but is not limited to: which attorneys win before which judges. Identify lateral recruits. Could you customize the pitch strategy to gain new clients? Another way Lex Machina is utilized is for lawsuits; in just a few minutes, you can have information on average matter duration, damage awards, resolutions, opposing counsel litigation history, and judge’s historic rulings on motions and related decisions. This allows for more effective legal strategy preparation for the client.
Electronic Discovery: Use Catalyst’s Predict system for the collection of electronic data related to legal cases.
Legal Research: Use Casetext to identify and collect information that supports a legal matter.
For example, you can locate the most relevant and utilize citations in minutes, whereas
traditional methods could take hours.
So which AI software are the big law firms using:
Allens Linklaters (Allens and Linklaters alliance) created a real estate due diligence app, or REDDA, along with Kira, Neota Logic, and HighQ. REDDA performs lease reviews, identifies risks, and reports the results. Lawyers can now focus their time on the flagged issues rather than spending 5+ hours reviewing one lease (real estate transactions can have 200+ leases).
Allen & Overy’s Fuse (technology innovation hub) brings together clients and legal tech companies to solve challenges across law, regulation, and deal-making. Companies involved in Fuse include Bloomsbury AI, Kira Systems, and Neota Logic.
Baker McKenzie has an AI platform personal assistant, Lancelaw, which provides lawyers with relevant and personalized news. Two lawyers trained Lancelaw. Baker McKenzie also uses eBrevia for transactional due diligence.
One of Bryan Cave’s technology initiatives includes its TechX program – an incubator designed to help its attorneys better understand and use technology. This includes AI and learning how to apply it to their work and how it can be used with other technologies.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a Magic Circle firm, uses a mix of AI solutions, including Kira, HighQ, Neota Logic, and HotDocs, to provide more transparency into their services in a more efficient manner.
Foley & Lardner offers clients a compliance solution created using Neota Logic: FOLEY Global Risk SolutionsSM (GRS). The solution is provided as a service through a fixed annual fee and includes the following:
Risk assessments.
Relevant policies/procedures.
Up-to-date information on FCPA enforcement.
Training.
Legal advice/counsel on FCPA or bribery issues.
Quarterly and annual reports.
Risk monitoring.
Husch Blackwell’s Clery Compliance Toolset (using Neota Logic) is an online tool that provides clients 24/7 access to creating security policies/procedures, logging incidents, establishing if an incident needs to be reported, and generating security reports.
Ogletree Deakins’ O-D Comply is a subscription service that helps clients keep in compliance and on top of changes in federal and state laws. The web-based solution covers common compliance issue topics
Background check
Employment Application
E-signatures
Garnishments
State leave laws and state wage & hour issues.
How to apply AI to your Law Firm
Since artificial intelligence is capable of imitating human behavior, lawyers would do well to improve their efficiency by applying some, if not all, the AI tools discussed below. In an attempt not to waste your time discussing the theory of artificial intelligence, I get straight into which programs you can use to increase efficiency in your law practice. Enjoy!
ROSS Intelligence. For research purposes, this tool is a gem. I am by no means throwing LexusNexus and WestLaw under the bus. But, gone are the days of using standard search logic (and/or functions). Big law firms are using ROSS Intelligence to improve search results because of its use of natural language processing. Legal professionals can type in questions or queries and find the most accurate information instead of the attorneys reading all results produced by the search engine- helpful or not! A bonus feature of this software is that after the associate has completed legal research, they can use ROSS Intelligence to automatically generate briefs or legal summaries of the results generated from the search results.
Lawgeex, Klarity, Clearlaw, and LexCheck. These AI programs help review contracts, extract data from those contracts, and provide analytics about the data extracted from the contracts—all with the use of natural language processing technology. These programs read through the contracts, analyze them, and determine which portions of the agreement to keep and discard. Keep in mind that this software does not create a completely hands-off approach for attorneys; they still have to determine the exact language and content of the contract based on the suggestions made by the software.
Robin AI. Robin AI is an AI software tool that assists in contract drafting by learning clauses in the ordinary or standard contracts of the firm. If you want to reduce the time taken to draft and collaborate with opposing counsel more efficiently, check out Robin AI. Or use Robin AI’s playbooks (firm’s precedent) to assist in contract review.
The use of artificial intelligence is not to remove attorneys from the legal process altogether. Artificial intelligence undergoes extensive learning from attorneys; even with experience, supervision is required. The goal is not to replace attorneys but to let artificial intelligence software do monotonous work at greater accuracy and much quicker than attorneys. Attorneys remain heavily involved as supervisors, consultants, and final decision-makers.