AI Use Case in Legal Service - Overview Part 1

Searching for the optimal AI solution for Human Resource? Consult with Stevie AI!

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the legal industry by enabling smarter workflows and more strategic decision-making. Law firms and legal departments are now employing AI to tackle a myriad of tasks that traditionally required extensive human labor. AI's ability to process and analyze vast quantities of data at high speeds is a game-changer, offering insights and efficiencies that were previously unattainable. As AI technology advances, legal professionals are finding innovative applications for it, from automating routine processes to providing predictive analysis on legal outcomes.

The conservative legal sector has traditionally been slow to adopt new technologies, but the rise of AI has been embraced for its ability to enhance the quality and accessibility of legal services. In an era where data is king, AI tools are proving invaluable in extracting relevant information from the expansive legal data universe. AI assists in conducting thorough legal research, managing complex documentation, and executing in-depth due diligence with a level of precision that significantly minimizes human error and maximizes productivity.

However, the adoption of AI in legal services is not without its challenges. The integration of AI raises questions about ethical implications, such as data privacy and the potential for algorithmic bias. Despite these concerns, the trajectory of AI in the legal realm is one of upward growth, with a focus on creating synergies between human expertise and machine efficiency. By augmenting the skills of legal practitioners with AI, the sector is set to continue its evolution, promising to deliver more innovative and cost-effective legal solutions to clients.

Challenges in Legal Services

Here are several problems in the Legal domain where AI has the potential to make significant impacts:

1. High Volume of Data Management

Legal professionals often face the daunting task of managing and sifting through a high volume of documents to find relevant case information, which is time-consuming and prone to human error.

2. Complex Legal Research

Lawyers spend a significant amount of time conducting legal research. The process involves finding precedents, interpreting statutes, and staying updated with the latest regulations, which can be overwhelming due to the vastness and complexity of legal databases.

3, Contract Review and Due Diligence

Contract review is labor-intensive, requiring meticulous attention to detail to identify obligations, rights, and liabilities. Similarly, due diligence processes are fraught with the need to review large sets of documents under tight deadlines.

4. Predictive Analysis

The ability to predict outcomes of legal proceedings is vital for advising clients and making strategic decisions. Traditionally, these predictions are based on lawyers' experiences and may lack precision.

5. Access to Justice

Many individuals struggle to access legal assistance due to high costs or a lack of understanding. The legal industry seeks ways to make legal services more accessible and affordable to the broader public.

Let’s dive deeper into each specific issue. We will examine how AI is offering solutions and provide real-life examples to illustrate its impact.

High Volume of Data Management

Learn more about High Volume of Data Management here.

High Volume of Data Management - E-Discovery in Litigation

Description

During the discovery phase of litigation, law firms often need to process and review terabytes of electronic data to identify relevant information. This includes emails, documents, presentations, databases, voicemail, audio and video files, social media, and websites.

AI Use Case

Deloitte leverages AI in its Discovery services to transform the e-discovery process in litigation and investigations. Employing advanced technologies like machine learning and natural language processing, Deloitte enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of sifting through enormous datasets. Their approach allows for rapid, accurate identification and production of relevant electronic information, ensuring cost management and risk reduction. AI tools such as predictive coding become instrumental in this context, learning from human-reviewed documents to improve relevancy detection, thereby optimizing the review process amidst the burgeoning volumes of litigation data.

High Volume of Data Management - Mergers and Acquisitions Due Diligence

Description

M&A due diligence requires reviewing large volumes of documents to understand a company's obligations, liabilities, contracts, and litigation risks. The volume of data involved in due diligence can be vast, especially for large multinational deals.

AI Use Case

Kira Systems applies its AI expertise to streamline the due diligence process in M&A transactions, with its platform Kira swiftly extracting pertinent data from contracts and documents. By automating the detection of risks and obligations, Kira substantially cuts down the time required for manual document review, thus facilitating quicker and more informed decisions. This efficiency is invaluable for law firms and corporations seeking to navigate the complexities of M&A deals, enabling lawyers to dedicate more attention to strategic analysis and negotiation rather than document scrutiny.

High Volume of Data Management - Regulatory Compliance Document Review

Description

For compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, organizations must review and monitor a substantial amount of documentation to ensure they are following all legal requirements, which can include policy documents, training materials, and incident reports.

AI Use Case

IBM's Watson leverages its advanced AI capabilities to aid organizations in regulatory compliance, offering tools like Watson Compare & Comply to automate the labor-intensive process of document review against regulatory standards. It helps companies, especially in the financial sector, by continuously monitoring their documents for compliance with the ever-changing landscape of financial regulations, privacy laws, and trade agreements. This not only ensures adherence to current laws, thereby mitigating risks of non-compliance, but also significantly reduces the associated costs and labor, streamlining the maintenance of regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

High Volume of Data Management - Management of Case Law and Precedents

Description

Law firms and legal departments must keep track of a growing repository of case law, statutes, and precedents. The sheer volume of existing and new legal content that needs to be referenced for case preparation and court proceedings is immense and continuously expanding.

AI Use Case

Thomson Reuters' Westlaw Edge platform employs AI to enhance the management of case law and precedents, providing legal professionals with powerful search capabilities that understand the nuances of legal terminology and case relevance. It offers predictive analytics and legal document analysis to streamline legal research, making the discovery of insights and relevant precedents more efficient. This technology allows lawyers to rapidly assimilate vast quantities of legal data, recognize patterns, and stay updated with legal trends, thereby significantly impacting the quality and speed of legal services and case strategy development.

Complex Legal Research

Learn more about Complex Legal Research here.

Complex Legal Research - Precedent and Statute Interpretation

Description

Legal professionals often need to interpret case law and statutes to understand how they apply to specific legal issues. This requires finding and analyzing relevant precedents, statutory provisions, and administrative regulations, which may be spread across thousands of sources and jurisdictions.

AI Use Case

LexisNexis provides a tool called Lexis Analytics, a suite of AI-powered analytics tools that aid in the interpretation of precedents and statutes. It allows users to extract meaningful insights from court data, judge analytics, and more, to predict outcomes and find relevant case law and statutes faster than traditional methods.

Complex Legal Research - International Law Research

Description

Lawyers working with international law must navigate through multiple legal systems, treaties, and international agreements, which can vary greatly from one jurisdiction to another. Research in this area often requires fluency in multiple languages and familiarity with various international legal databases.

AI Use Case

Wolters Kluwer's Kluwer Arbitration is an AI-powered research tool for international law, providing access to a comprehensive collection of primary and secondary source materials. The tool facilitates research by offering access to an extensive database of international arbitration awards, treaties, and guidelines.

Complex Legal Research - Intellectual Property (IP) Searches

Description

Conducting thorough research to support patent filings, trademark applications, or to defend against infringement claims involves searching through extensive databases of existing patents, trademarks, and copyrighted materials, as well as technical and scientific literature.

AI Use Case

CPA Global (now part of Clarivate) offers IP management and software solutions that use AI to improve the patent research and analysis process. Their tools use AI to search global patent databases efficiently, analyze patentability, and track the legal status of patents to aid in strategic IP decision-making.

Complex Legal Research - Multi-Jurisdictional Litigation Research

Description

For litigation that spans several jurisdictions, legal research can be particularly complex, as it may require understanding the nuances of different legal systems, procedural rules, and potential conflicts of law. This kind of research is necessary to develop legal strategies that are effective across different courts and legal environments.

AI Use Case

Thomson Reuters' Westlaw Edge provides an advanced legal research platform that caters to multi-jurisdictional litigation needs. It uses AI to assist with research by providing information on case law from different jurisdictions, powered by an extensive database that covers legal information from across various countries and states.

Contract Review and Due Diligence

Learn more about Contract Review and Due Diligence here.

Contract Review and Due Diligence - Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

Description

During M&A transactions, legal teams review a vast amount of documentation related to the target company, including contracts, employment agreements, intellectual property rights, litigation histories, and financial documents to identify potential liabilities and risks.

AI Use Case

JPMorgan Chase adopted an AI software called "COIN" (Contract Intelligence) to analyze legal documents and extract important data points and clauses during M&A due diligence. This tool has helped in reviewing documents that would typically consume thousands of human hours and serves to reduce the time and cost of these transactions.

Contract Review and Due Diligence - Real Estate Transactions

Description

Lawyers must examine various documents, such as leases, purchase agreements, and title documents, in real estate transactions. This review process is crucial to identify any legal issues that might affect the property transaction, including zoning laws, easements, and covenants.

AI Use Case

Leverton, an AI-powered data extraction platform, provides solutions for real estate documents' abstraction. Leverton's AI assists in extracting key terms and data from property-related documents, speeding up the due diligence process in real estate transactions.

Contract Review and Due Diligence - Corporate Compliance Audits

Description

Companies conduct regular audits to ensure that they comply with legal and regulatory standards. This involves reviewing internal policies, contracts, and operational procedures against current laws and regulations to identify areas where the company may not be in compliance.

AI Use Case

PwC has developed an AI tool to assist with compliance audits. The tool can parse through the vast amounts of a company's documentation to check for compliance with regulatory requirements, helping to flag potential issues and streamline the audit process.

Contract Review and Due Diligence - Banking and Finance

Description

In banking and finance, due diligence involves reviewing loan documents, security agreements, and borrower’s corporate documents to ensure the enforceability of agreements and assess the borrower's legal standing and creditworthiness.

AI Use Case

Kabbage, an online financial technology company, uses AI to automate the process of analyzing the creditworthiness of small business loan applicants. The AI system reviews traditional and non-traditional data sources, including bank account information, payment processing data, and social media, to quickly assess an applicant's financial health.

Searching for the optimal AI solution for Human Resource? Consult with Stevie AI!

For the part two of the blog, please go here.