17

MAR
2017

The legal AI revolution has Race to the cloud: the state of Winning the battle to
started - but why now? the legal DMS market teach legal technology and
innovation at law schools
 IT’S TIME TO TAKE

THE NEXT STEP

Turn Office 365 into a legal DMS

www.epona.com

2 | LEGAL IT TODAY
 CONTENTS

5 From the editor

7 Race to the cloud: the state of the
legal DMS market
11 What’s happening at Epona?
14 The current state of
play in AI and law
14 The current state of play in
AI and law
18 Winning the battle to teach
legal technology and innovation
at law schools
22 The legal AI revolution has started
– but why now?
26 ELTA seeks to provide a legal
technology platform for Europe
30 Using ‘big data’ to gain
competitive advantage
34 The Verdict

11 What’s happening
at Epona? 30 Using ‘big data’
to gain competitive
advantage

LEGAL IT TODAY

Legal IT Today is published by: Contributors:

Asfour in cooperation with Legal IT Professionals Brian Podolsky, Daniel Martin Katz, Christy Burke,
Richard Tromans, Lisa Hart Shepherd
Editor: Jonathan Watson - jonathan@legalittoday.com
Design: TOF ontwerp - info@tofontwerp.nl ISSN: 2214-2355
Advertising information: Rob Ameerun - rob@legalittoday.com

LEGAL IT TODAY | 3
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From the editor

Welcome to Issue 17 of Legal IT Today!

By the time you read this, the UK will probably have invoked survey data can be presented in an online dashboard format to
Article 50, the provision in EU law that sets out the process inform strategic planning and review progress.
whereby member states can withdraw from the bloc. This
could mean that the European legaltech marketplace, which is Also in this issue, Brian Podolsky reviews the latest news from
already fragmented – as Tobias Heining of the European Legal the DMS industry, assessing what the likes of NetDocuments,
Technology Association (ELTA) points out in this issue – is about iManage and Worldox have been up to. He asks whether
to fragment further. Microsoft’s Matter Center is indeed starting to matter and
highlights the work of third-party integrators such as Epona
If Brexit, as some are predicting, leads to a less-qualified Legal, whose DMS offering he describes as ‘the best of the
workforce, lower tech investments and higher transactional costs SharePoint bunch’.
in the UK, then legaltech entrepreneurs may have to think twice
before choosing London as their base. If they do look elsewhere, Coincidentally, Epona Legal is the focus of our vendor profile.
one of the first places they are likely to consider is Berlin, where Its managing director, Bart van Wanroij, tells us that the firm’s
ELTA’s first international conference will be held in June. key aim for the foreseeable future is to help clients utilize Office
365 to its fullest extent as legal professionals. He asks why, if
They could also look to Amsterdam, where the second edition you are an IT director at a large international company with over
of Lexpo, our legal innovation event, will be held on 8-9 May. 100,000 employees, and the legal department only accounts
The event brings together top international speakers from the for about 60 people, would you invest in a separate DMS when
legal industry. If you want the latest news and views from the sufficient functionality already exists in the Microsoft solution
big European names at leading law firms and in-house legal that the rest of the company is already using?
departments, along with key suppliers of innovative products
and services, book your ticket now! Christy Burke has compiled a report for us on the ongoing battle
to introduce more technology education at US law schools.
One of the key speakers at Lexpo this year is Daniel Katz, who She finds that while there are a number of inspiring examples
will deliver an address entitled ‘Artificial Intelligence + Law – of schools offering innovative technology programs – in places
Hype, Reality, Economics and Plausible Opportunities’. It will such as Florida, Michigan, Nashville, Oklahoma and Stanford –
focus on separating fact from (science) fiction and on trying to they are still perhaps the exception rather than the rule. Many
direct the industry to a set of use cases that can be plausibly schools still feel their role is to focus on the theoretical side of
implemented. Daniel has also written an article for this issue of law, but Christy argues that technology and innovation can
Legal IT Today in which he argues that the growing relevance be successfully added to today’s law school curricula without
of AI for law, increased technical possibilities and the changing sacrificing a school’s integrity or appeal to prospective students.
economics of the legal industry are combining to create a
unique opportunity for the legaltech sector. For the Verdict, we return to the topic of AI and ask our panel
of experts for their views on how law firms should approach AI
Those taking part in the moderated panel session that follows and how they can distinguish hype from reality in the sector.
Daniel’s address include Richard Tromans. He runs the Artificial Contributors include Andrew Arruda, CEO and co-founder of
Lawyer website, which is dedicated to new developments in ROSS, and Peter Wallqvist, CSO and co-founder of RAVN Systems.
legal AI and automation. Richard has also written about AI for
us in this issue, arguing that the increased capabilities of natural I hope you enjoy Legal IT Today. As ever, we aim to share ideas
language processing and a heightened focus on fixed fees in the and opinions across the global legal IT community and stimulate
legal marketplace are turning AI from a theoretical discussion discussion. Please get in touch with feedback and suggestions
into something that law firms are really using for client work. for topics, features, and images. It is always good to hear from
you. See you at Lexpo!
Another Lexpo speaker is Lisa Hart Shepherd, CEO and founder
of the international legal market research company Acritas. Jonathan Watson
She will lead a session that explores the areas where clients are Editor
disappointed with their law firms and what those firms can do to jonathan@legalittoday.com
improve. In this issue, she tells us about some of the areas where uk.linkedin.com/in/jrwatson1
data can be useful to the ‘business’ side of law, for example how @jwatson1

LEGAL IT TODAY | 5
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 Race to the cloud: the state
of the legal DMS market
BY BRIAN PODOLSKY

What’s been happening in the DMS industry and what do key vendors
have in store for the rest of this year?

Sometimes change is exponential. result was that in 2016, project ‘White

The recent rising market share of Rabbit’ was morphing from vaporware
NetDocuments comes to mind. Other to actual software. With the release of
times the long shift ends up being iManage Work 10, it’s here as the New
circular: think of saving to folder Professional, or Work 10 for Office.

T
he DMS industry is dynamic. structures before the DMS, then
Sometimes the change is linear, as saving to profile cards, and now The new interface is fast, responsive,
when popular products add new saving to matter centric structures. and intuitive. The document timeline
functionality. In 2016, we saw major With this in mind, let’s see how the feature exposes the vast history of a
advancements from the market leaders. market is taking shape. document that’s often been covered in
iManage introduced a new responsive dust within the database. The new and
web interface, while NetDocuments The ‘new’ new iManage separate Threat Manager product goes
further solidified its integrations with iManage quickly reinvented itself after a step further, using all the historical
Microsoft Office 365 and Azure. its split from HP. Newly unrestrained data within the database to develop
Worldox expanded its cloud platform from its former parent company, behavioral baselines for each user.
to the UK and announced a major iManage put major investments into With an eye on current activities,
integration with Workshare. R&D as well as customer support. The Threat Manager only learns, but will

LEGAL IT TODAY | 7
also notify an administrator of any cloud platform that uses Lucene’s Now we have NetDocuments 3.0. So
anomalies within the system. Elasticsearch technology. That’s right, far this year, the company has already
no more IDOL in the iManage Cloud. announced an additional level of its
Will the new interface work for When will we see the last of IDOL in SOC 2 certifications known as SOC 2+,
everyone? Probably not (at least for this the on-premise release? as well as ndFlexStore, which allows
initial release), so iManage still provides customers to hold certain content in
the classic FileSite interface. Since this is NetDocuments 3.0 any local or private datacenter. These
the first release of Work 10 for Office, I’m not referring to product version advancements continue NetDocuments’
I expect there to be a few bumps in numbers but to the iteration of the effort to break down all the roadblocks
the road and limits to customization. company itself. NetDocuments 1.0 that have traditionally prevented law
As with other DMS products, I expect came out of the ashes of SoftSolutions firms from adopting the cloud.
to see improvements and further in 1999. A cloud-only DMS, ahead of
enhancements later in 2017. its time when it began, NetDocuments On 2 March 2017, NetDocuments
1.0 had its customers but never announced a new investor, the $3bn
Although iManage Work 10 can be really caught on. Three years ago, private equity group Clearlake Capital,
implemented on-premise, it is meant a large capital investment allowed which is purchasing the stock of
to be used via the software as a service the company to vastly improve its NetDocuments’ previous investor. Unlike
model. The new responsive web data center infrastructure storage, other DMS vendors who have been
interface requires an additional server security, performance, and reliability. bought and sold in the last decade, the
to render document previews. The Combined with the introduction of direct current NetDocuments management
recommended specifications for this integration into Microsoft Office with team will continue to run the company
server are frankly shocking and may ndOffice, these improvements spawned and maintain significant ownership.
cause small to mid-size firms to take NetDocuments 2.0. This is the company
another look at the cloud. Under the that has seen incredible growth across
hood, the iManage 10 Cloud has been the legal sector. It may not have directly
rebuilt as a true cloud platform. It is no
longer just a hosted set of dedicated
inspired iManage’s focus on the cloud,
but it made its competitor aware that it
Legal technology
WorkSite and IDOL servers in a data
center. It is a multi-tenant, secure
needed a truly modern cloud platform to
compete in this space.
is Microsoft’s
world – we are
just living in it

With more resources and a focus on

additional R&D and potential acquisitions
to broaden the functionality of their
product, there is significant reason to be
excited about what’s in store.
Expect more advanced integration with
Office 365, a revamped workspace
interface, enhanced collaboration,
and new encryption at the bit-string
level of the search engine. One item
I am particularly interested in is the
integration with Microsoft Flow, allowing
for document and matter workflows
leveraging Office 365.

Worldox innovates
There haven’t been any new Worldox
versions since GX4 was released in late
2015. That doesn’t mean the company
has been sitting idly by. Worldox
engineers have been hard at work
expanding its cloud platform to the
UK and developing several major new
technological initiatives. The first is a
collaborative product called Worldox
Connect, powered by Workshare.

8 | LEGAL IT TODAY
Worldox Connect allows professionals it’s still Windows 10. Perhaps the GX4 Europe and is currently gaining traction
to securely access and collaborate platform will be rebranded with that in North America. I expect more market
on Worldox files while on the move type of upgrade model, or remain as it is. penetration in the small to mid-size law
or using mobile devices. The second firm areas throughout 2017.
major innovation is the redesign of Will Matter Center finally matter?
the Worldox Indexer as a Windows Finally, any review of the DMS landscape A key indicator of how the upcoming
service. Consumers have wanted this must include Microsoft’s Matter Center. roadmaps are faring will come in the
functionality for years and it is now After all, legal technology is Microsoft’s run-up to ILTACON in August. Will there
becoming available with performance world – we are just living in it. While be hints of major releases? Or will there
and management improvements. Matter Center itself has been essentially just be press releases citing cloud-
Lastly, Worldox will be rolling out new open-sourced and made available on adoption growth and new customers?
functionality that will encrypt the entire GitHub before it was ever finished,
document repository. This will ensure third-party integrators have taken it Brian Podolsky leads the Enterprise
that the only application that can decrypt across the finish line. Content Management (ECM) Practice
and read documents on the file server Group in the New York office of Kraft &
will be the Worldox client itself. Look out Epona’s DMSforLegal is, in my opinion, Kennedy, Inc. He has extensive experience
for these advancements in 2017. the best of the bunch. DMSforLegal has implementing and supporting Microsoft
been a standalone add-in for SharePoint Office, iManage, NetDocuments,
Currently, there are no plans for a for several years. But now, with the newly OpenText eDOCS, and Worldox document
Worldox GX5 release. As Worldox can developed Matter Center for creating management systems, as well as third-
easily be upgraded, GX4 may be the and managing clients and matters, party integrated add-ons to these
last version released, just as Windows Epona has integrated with Office 365 systems. He also drives Kraft Kennedy’s
10 will be the last version of Windows. to provide a true DMS in the Microsoft research on the latest ECM technologies
New features, rollups and functionality Cloud. The product demos beautifully including email management, enterprise
will be added, and they will likely receive and integrates almost so seamlessly into collaboration and search, and provides
technical or branded names (think Outlook that you’d think Microsoft wrote guidance and best practice standards to
‘Windows 10 Creators Update’), but it. The company already has a foothold in clients implementing ECM solutions.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 9
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 VENDOR PROFILE

What’s happening
at Epona?
BY JONATHAN WATSON

Epona Legal is one of the leading companies helping legal

professionals to make the most of Microsoft’s Matter Center for Office
365. Jonathan Watson asked Epona’s managing director, Bart van

W
hat is Epona Legal’s Wanroij, why this option is proving increasingly popular for many firms
mission?
The core of the company is
delivering software and services to legal whether at law firms or corporate legal departments. When Matter Center is
professionals. Our flagship product is departments. And in our view, in- demonstrated, there is a huge uptake.
a document and email management house professionals are becoming more
system (DMS) that uses Office 365 important than ever before, because In a large company, the legal department
(SharePoint). It does very well. Office 365 they operate in organizations where all might account for only 20 or so people
as a Legal DMS is attracting around five of the non-legal users are also utilizing in a workforce of over 100,000 or so.
new clients per week, sometimes very Office 365. Would you then get them a bespoke,
small ones, sometimes large, by which I very specific DMS hosted in the cloud, or
mean more than 500 users. Why are people choosing Matter would you say actually, there might be
Center for Office 365? some interaction between legal and the
One of the things that separates us Microsoft’s account managers in each other business users in the organization?
from other SharePoint vendors is that country have been approaching their
we have a very specific focus. We are corporate clients about Matter Center as To me, that’s a no-brainer. Corporate
only interested in the legal professional, all of their top 100 customers have legal legal is already all over Office 365, which

LEGAL IT TODAY | 11
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LEGAL IT TODAY
@phoenixbs phoenix-business-solutions
is a horizontal platform; it’s better to biggest choice our clients need to make that’s what we did. That meant we were
have a perfect legal DMS that is based if they go cloud – which they all do forced to leave the iManage partner
on that. It might be different if you are in the end – is whether their cloud is program, because we were seen as the
looking at a very large law firm and their Apple, Google or Microsoft. For legal, competition. But we had to respond to
core business is based on a particular that is very easy to answer. At this point, client demands.
DMS. That’s a very different choice, except for the Acrobat products, most
where you might opt for what we could of the choices they make are 100% Nowadays our clients’ demands
call ‘the Ferrari option’. Microsoft-oriented. We tell them there is supersede the traditional subfolder
no vendor lock for Epona. We are not so with documents and e-mail in Outlook.
relevant for them – their biggest choice They want machine learning features,
is to remain in the Microsoft family of such as feeding a document to Office
products and services. 365, say a pleading, and then being
Helping clients to able to ask Office 365 what other
What have been the biggest pleadings are in the system without any
utilize Office 365 to changes in the market you have need to add metadata or other search
seen in recent years? keys to that document. With Office
its fullest extent as The major trend we are seeing now is 365, I have no need for very expensive
servers being moved away from the external technology. Why pay twice for
legal professionals local network and growing confidence, something that Office 365 already has?
even in legal, in hosted, externally
is our main goal for sourced cloud services. In the beginning, What should we watch out for
we created custom software; then we from Epona this year?
the next couple of created products; now I consider what
we deliver to be more of a service. That
What we are seeing now is a trend
to switch from SharePoint as a DMS
quarters service includes certain products at this
precise moment, and these products will
repository to the full consumption
of all Office 365 capabilities. For
probably evolve over time for the specific example, we’ve been awarded a large
needs of the user we are catering to. subcontract to connect 21 of the largest
law firms in the Netherlands to the
Does it offer better value? Between 2006 and 2010, we were an digital courts. We will be connecting
We’ve been able to reduce project iManage consultancy, but then we found their document management systems
fees to 10% or less of some of our that a lot of people left law firms for integrally to those workflows.
competitors. There’s a McDonaldization general counsel positions at corporate
process going on. A couple of years ago, legal departments. The first thing they What we want to do this year is help our
we did a DMS project for a law firm for said when they got there was: where’s clients with legal project management at
€140,000. Today, one offer we just sent my DMS? So they would call us and ask task level. The enterprise task is going to
out is for €2,500, and that’s for doing us to come over and install the iManage land in a law firm in Office 365 in a very
more than we did a couple of years product right away. convenient way and we’re using Groups
ago. It is very difficult to compete at this and Teams in Office 365 to help with
price. We can offer this because we have We tried, but the network architects at that. And if professionals are not having
McDonaldized the process. You just push companies that had 60,000 users and conversations at the level of tasks, they
a few buttons and you’re there. legal teams of 100 said: why not just can’t do realistic enterprise resource
do it with SharePoint? Some clients planning (ERP). We want to solve the
Our offering is completely vendor– gave us the budget to create something ERP element in the equation by
independent because in essence, the that looks like a DMS on SharePoint, so looking far more at the task level or
other than that, the document or email
level, within the matter.

Email will disappear at some point, just

like faxes and telexes, and we need
a completely new technology to save
conversations from various different
channels into the matter. Even the client
can be part of the same matter, so that
could produce even closer co-authoring
and collaborative scenarios. That’s the
trend we’re seeing, and we’re just
choosing Office 365 Groups and Teams
to do it with. Helping clients to utilize
Office 365 to its fullest extent as legal
professionals is our main goal for the
next couple of quarters.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 13
The current state of
play in AI and law
Lexpo Speaker
BY DANIEL MARTIN KATZ

The field of AI and law has a long history, but its best years are yet to come

T
he past few years have witnessed includes an academic journal published developments from the field. Much of
a renaissance for the field of by Springer and a series of academic the early work in the field of AI and law
artificial intelligence (AI) and law. conferences. This June, King’s College was directed at solving the general AI
Hardly a week seems to pass without in London will host the 16th biannual problem using law as an applied domain,
another article touting the rise of edition of ICAIL – the International and this led to limited applicability to
the ‘robot lawyer’ (for examples, see Conference on Artificial Intelligence and everyday legal work.
here, here, here, here, here and here). Law. Despite these and other examples
As both an academic researcher and of long-term academic research, there The second factor is technical possibility.
commercial provider, I am quite happy are at least three factors that have The combination of Moore’s Law,
to see new interest in the overall field undermined more general interest in the Kryder’s law, algorithm as utility (e.g.
and for those who are new to the field of artificial intelligence and law. #MLaaS) and a growing amount of
space, I thought I might offer a quick appropriately trained human capital is
landscape orientation. The first is relevance. Historically opening up the technical possibilities
speaking, much of the work generated (particularly over the past 36 months).
A renaissance in AI and law by the AI and law community did
The field of AI and law is actually many not have a dramatic amount of The third factor is economics. Until
decades old, with a diverse set of commercial applicability. This meant the global financial crisis, there was
work across a variety of domains. This the legal industry paid little attention to generally little serious interest among

14 | LEGAL IT TODAY
the enterprise legal clients (Fortune There have been efforts to bring has won the war. The biggest factor
1000, BigLaw etc.) in finding ways to such ideas into the work that lawyers may well have been Kryder’s Law: 1 GB
do law better. As described below, undertake. For example, A2J Author, a of storage in 1981 cost over $300,000,
the economics of AI itself are also platform that has helped deliver access whereas now it is less than 10 cents.
shifting. Taken together with changes to justice (A2J) to more than three
in the business of law, this shift in million users, grew out of a collaboration For a large number of problems, the
the economics of AI is creating an between CALI, Chicago Kent College ability to store data at scale practically
opportunity vacuum that many are of Law and the Institute of Design for free has dwarfed the need to rely
seeking to fill. @ Illinois Tech. The goal is to make a exclusively on mapping an expert’s
range of legal processes less opaque for expertise. Even assuming that an expert
The division bell low-income users. A2J Author allows can express his or her actual underlying
There is a fundamental division in AI that legal aid professionals to create guided cognitive process, there is no reason to
carries through into the AI and law field. interviews that can be made available to devote all of one’s energy to the task of
This is the distinction between so-called end-users in furtherance of completing having an expert express that process.
‘rules-based AI’ and ‘data-driven AI’. The simple court processes. The alternative approach is to collect
division is a methodological one, and it observational data at scale and build a
runs deep. For properly posed problems, the expert model that tries to mimic the underlying
systems paradigm works well. That processes or approaches by which an
The basic distinction between rules- said, except for a narrow set of use expert interrogates the data. The key
based and data-driven is this: in cases, expert systems and rules-based validation step for such a prediction
engineering some class of artificially AI are likely to meet the same fate model is to backtest it out-of-sample
intelligent systems or processes, one in law as they have in other fields of before deploying it in the market, in the
can either (a) characterize from first human endeavor. Expert systems are same way algorithmic traders would
principles the underlying rules supporting notoriously brittle. If engineered properly, backtest a trading algorithm. To find
decision-making by an expert or (b) under certain circumstances they can out more about the technical side, you
use data to ‘learn’ or predict the rules perform well for a narrow range of tasks. can consult the course materials we use
governing that process. However, for most problems - particularly in our ‘machine learning for lawyers’
more complex problems - they are course.
In the broader world, the most likely to fail. The best-case scenario for
commercially successful expert system an expert system is a low complexity In a hype cycle, trust but verify
is TurboTax. TurboTax, along with a problem where a solution to said With that important background,
number of other commercial providers, problem could allow for scalable justice. let’s turn back to law. I have noticed a
deconstructs a form such as the 1040 But in the enterprise legal market, the trend among lawyers when it comes
form into a guided interview whereby range of possibilities is going to be pretty to questions about AI and law. There is
the answers provided to a given limited. this unstoppable desire to reduce the
question direct the end-user to the problem to a binary operator. Either there
proper follow-up question. Behind Data won the war (terms of surrender is a rise of the robot lawyer, or this is all
the scenes, the user traverses a tree are available) hype and there is nothing here at all.
structure that leads to a terminal node I am prepared to offer the rules-based
when sufficient information has been AI partisans a dignified surrender but in I might suggest a more pragmatic
collected. This information is then used the battle between dueling camps in AI reaction. Let us understand the general
to populate the entire form. (rules versus data), it is clear that data nature of the Gartner hype cycle and

LEGAL IT TODAY | 15
 Experience Matters

Delivering true client success requires understanding Legacy tools that rely on manual data entry, collect
each client’s “big picture” objectives, and mobilizing incomplete, poorly-structured information, and deliver
your firm’s unique experience and expertise to provide a fire hose of raw search results (Including that one
service and results that meet and exceed them. lawyer who billed an hour to a complex matter, who is
now an “expert”) aren’t up to the challenge.
Today, any firm looking to deepen client relationships
and win new business must be able to demonstrate its What’s needed is a fresh approach: one that’s built
unique skill and value proposition quickly. specifically to address real-world environments; one
that delivers automated, integrated data management,
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16 | LEGAL IT TODAY The Future of Client Success

 learning as a service (#MLaaS) and the
enterprise open source movement is

Taken together with changes in going to offer major changes for all of
technology, legal technology included.

the business of law, this shift When IBM Watson first came on the
scene, it was a transformative event,
in the economics of AI is creating but not for the reason that many of
us originally thought. IBM Watson has
an opportunity vacuum that many some cool elements, but at the end
of the day it is really just a suite of

are seeking to fill solutions, a menu of options.

It is up to the domain-specific engineer
to configure elements of that menu
into a specific solution to a specific
problem (often a non-trivial feat). The
stick around during the ‘trough of where I will deliver an address entitled business model is algorithm as a utility.
disillusionment’. There are folks out there ‘Artificial Intelligence + Law - Hype, In the case of IBM specifically, some
hyping this trough because it supports Reality, Economics and Plausible of the offerings, such as Alchemy,
their commercial interests. But it’s true Opportunities’. It will focus are pretty high-end (particularly for
that the promises cannot be delivered on separating fact from (science) tasks such as entity extraction).
upon, and so, relative to the lofty fiction and on trying to direct the Others are just pedestrian.
predictions, I fear that a winter is coming industry to a set of use cases that can
for AI and law. be plausibly implemented. What IBM Watson did do, however, was
draw competition from other top-tier
Despite these challenges, there is a Machine learning as a service technology companies. In the years since
range of very serious use cases out (#MLaaS), open source and the Watson’s debut, several tech companies
there. To the extent those are pursued, shifting economics of legal AI have offered their own version of
the future is bright. I will expand further People often ask me what is on the #MLaaS. These include Microsoft Azure,
on each of these and other related frontier for this field. I typically respond Amazon (AWS), Google and others. This
topics at Lexpo 2017 in Amsterdam, that the combination of machine was recently characterized in a special
report in the Financial Times as machine
learning in the cloud.

The presence of algorithms as utilities

has significant economic implications.
Instead of having to build an entire
solution to a given problem, the focus
of solution engineering has shifted to
engineering the last mile of a given
problem. Relative to building a product
soup-to-nuts, the cost of production will
see a significant drop.

At the same time, the number of free

high quality open source algorithmic
offerings has grown significantly. Open
source has become the Silicon Valley
trend du jour for the largest industry
players, with Facebook, Microsoft,
Baidu and Google participating. The
rise of #MLaaS, together with the
enterprise open source movement,
implies that the best legal technology
has yet to be built. Our best years are
still ahead of us.

Daniel Martin Katz is an Associate

Professor of Law at Illinois Tech –
Chicago Kent College of Law where he
directs The Law Lab. He is also the Chief
Strategy Officer at LexPredict.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 17
 Winning the battle to teach
legal technology and innovation
at law schools
BY CHRISTY BURKE

A small group of pioneers are working to establish technology

and innovation programs at US law schools. Some are succeeding
brilliantly, though perhaps not easily.

O
ne might expect that every law training but do not have the power to
school would want to train its bring about change.
students to succeed in the legal
profession. Logically, this should include The American Bar Association (ABA) is
learning technology and innovation encouraging law schools to change. In
skills. However, many law schools are January 2014, the ABA Task Force on
not yet convinced that this kind of the Future of Legal Education released
practical non-theoretical education is a report calling upon law schools, bar
their responsibility. Or there may be associations, regulators and others to
faculty members or administrators at the redesign their financial model and revise
school who see the value of technology law school accreditation to permit more

18 | LEGAL IT TODAY
experimentation and innovation. In
regards to law schools teaching legal
technology, the report noted: ‘although
changes in the delivery of legal services
Technology and innovation can be
have made competence in the use and
management of law-related technology
successfully added to today’s law
important, only a modest number of law
schools currently include developing this school curricula without sacrificing
competence as part of the curriculum.’
a school’s integrity or appeal to
In August 2016, the ABA launched
its Center for Innovation based on
a recommendation from the ABA’s
prospective students
Commission on the Future of Legal
Services. The Center urged lawyers and
law schools to break new ground in major challenge is to convince deans, evolution of legal service delivery, but
response to the modern evolution of law faculty and administrators – many of many of those are still not teaching law
practice. But even with encouragement whom believe their job is to teach law students about technology and how it is
from the ABA, many law schools have students only about the theory, not the transforming legal service delivery.’
been reluctant to add new curricula practice, of law – that students must
focused on technology and innovation. learn about technology and actual law Linna believes law schools should
practice before they graduate in order provide the whole scope of legal
A battle that has already lasted for to become successful.’ education, including technology
many years education. ‘Law students will definitely
This struggle seems recent, but it’s Daniel W. Linna Jr., Director of LegalRnD need technology skills after they
not new. Twenty years ago in 1997, – The Center for Legal Services graduate,’ he says. ‘Technology is critical
Andy Adkins established the Legal Innovation and Professor of Law in to serving clients at all levels, from legal
Technology Institute at the University Residence at Michigan State University aid to complex work for corporations.
of Florida Levin College of Law. He College of Law, says that only a handful Clients are disaggregating legal matters,
has seen the battle for technology of law schools are teaching substantial asking what needs to be done by a
training at law schools waged for many courses focused on technology and lawyer, what can be done by others and
years. ‘At UF Levin College of Law, innovation. ‘These include process what can be automated.’
we started teaching a no-credit law improvement, project management,
practice management and technology metrics and data analytics, automation, Technology education cannot be
course in 2000,’ he says. ‘Few schools entrepreneurism and legal operations,’ relegated to the business or technical
were teaching technology then and he says. ‘More law schools are talking colleges, he adds. ‘Lawyers must
the number has grown, but slowly. The about the business of law and the understand innovation and technology
to work with experts in other disciplines
on improving legal services. Law students
and lawyers both need to embrace
technology while also demonstrating
how they can provide tremendous value
for clients and society. Law schools
should be at the forefront of preparing
lawyers to succeed in the 21st century.’

In addition to teaching law students

about innovation and technology,
Linna says LegalRnD is addressing
real-world problems. ‘Our students
complete process automation projects,’
he says. ‘We are part of the Corporate
Legal Operations Consortium and its
leaders have spoken to our students.
We’re working with the Michigan Bar
Foundation and courts and legal aid
organizations on process improvement
and other projects. We’re working on
data analytics projects with the Lawyers
Trust Fund of Illinois and several legal
aid organizations. These projects help
expand access to legal services in their

LEGAL IT TODAY | 19
communities and provide our students One of the Fellows on Hagan’s team at
with hands-on experience.’ Stanford Law is Jose Fernando Torres, an
attorney from Colombia who founded
Margaret Hagan, Director of the Legal Law schools need Latin America’s first center for legal
Design Lab at Stanford Law School, innovation, the Center for Innovation in
has studied law school education in to step up and get Law, at the Sergio Arboleda University
depth. ‘Inertia is the number one factor in Bogotá, Colombia in 2013. Torres
stopping law schools from innovating,’
she says. ‘Today’s law firms need a
creative to provide believes that technology classes should
be mandatory – not simply offered as
different type of student. The students
know things need to change but
more than a electives. ‘Law students need to be
taught basic skills like proficiency in
they’re not sure how to make it better. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and then move
Our goal is to get students literate theoretical exercise to more sophisticated topics such as
enough to determine when cybersecurity, blockchain and artificial
technology is the solution. Law for students intelligence in order to use technology to
students equipped with technology become a better lawyer,’ he says. ‘Having
tools have an edge; there is a more good legal skills is no longer enough. At
visible benefit in their portfolios.’ Stanford, we encourage law students to
and demonstrations to test the efficacy branch out and take courses in design
To create innovation, Hagan has of Stanford’s teaching. Hagan says her thinking, business, entrepreneurship and
reached outside Stanford Law to forge best strategy for catalyzing change is to legal informatics.’
collaborations with other graduate involve a wider group of stakeholders,
programs within Stanford, including including faculty and administration but High-level involvement helps
design, business and engineering. She also students, alumni, law firms and to drive change
has also connected with other law other non-academic professionals to When a push for innovation comes from
schools and established labs, R&D groups advocate for new ideas. a law school’s dean rather than faculty

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20 | LEGAL IT TODAY
 and case management systems. LTC4
certification is an essential part of our
training effort, allowing our graduates
to demonstrate their technology
proficiency to employers.’

OU Law is the first law school actively to

offer LTC4 certification to its students,
according to LTC4 Chairman and
Founding Member Bonnie L. Beuth
who is an IS Systems Trainer at law
firm FordHarrison. ‘When law students
achieve LTC4 certification, law firms
hiring them can be assured that the
students’ technology qualifications meet
an industry standard,’ she says. ‘Hiring a
law student certified with LTC4 industry
standard competence saves a firm time
and money in technical training, since
those new hires will need less time to
adapt to the firm’s technology.’

Technology and innovation can be

successfully added to today’s law school
curricula without sacrificing a school’s
integrity or appeal to prospective
students. In fact, law schools that
level, the results can be extraordinary. Professor of Law at Vanderbilt. ‘Jenkins’ provide more innovative, practical
Larry Bridgesmith, Adjunct Professor of classes provide law students with the education and technology skills can
Law at Vanderbilt Law School, notes that use of technology to address problems leverage this to differentiate themselves,
Chris Guthrie, Dean and John Wade- being faced by non-profit providers attracting discerning students who
Kent Syverud Professor of Law at the of legal and other civic services,’ says value experiential opportunities that can
school, established the Program on Law Bridgesmith. ‘This year seven Tennessee help to prepare them for a successful
& Innovation which includes a focus on non-profits will receive the benefit career. The battle to add technology and
legal technologies including document of legal technology apps built by innovation courses at law schools can be
review, predicting liabilities and litigation Vanderbilt Law students to help deliver won, and hopefully these victories will
outcomes, using computer algorithms their services better, faster and at less inspire other institutions to act.
and other skillsets. cost to the service providers.’
Christy Burke is president and founder
‘Dean Guthrie launched Law & Innovation Another success story for dean of Burke & Company, a New York-based
and under his leadership, the program involvement is at The University of PR and marketing consulting firm. She
has created an ethos of innovation Oklahoma College of Law (OU Law), is a prolific writer, having published
at the law school,’ says Bridgesmith. where Darin K. Fox, Associate Dean, columns in Legal IT Today, Legal IT
‘The program has received a significant Director of the Law Library and Professor Professionals, Law.com, Legal Tech (now
amount of university attention and has of Law, launched a Digital Initiative Cybersecurity Law & Strategy), the ABA’s
attracted top-notch students who are project in 2014 requiring law practice Law Practice Today, Intellectual Property
choosing Vanderbilt Law because of it. technology training for all students. Today, Attorney at Work, Peer to Peer
We offer conferences that bring lawyers, Upping the ante, Fox recently provided and Marketing the Law Firm. For more
students, technologists and academics an opportunity for all students to information, visit burke-company.com
together. Our next event on April 7th achieve LTC41 certification. or follow Christy on Twitter:
focuses on Blockchain and the Law and @ChristyBurkePR.
people are coming from all over the world ‘The University of Oklahoma College of
to present, learn and participate in vibrant Law is dedicated to producing practice-
discussions. Law schools need to step up ready lawyers who are proficient
and get creative to provide more than a working in the digital environment,’ Fox 1
LTC4 (Legal Technology Core
theoretical exercise for students.’ says. ‘OU Law’s Digital Initiative project Competencies Certification
focuses on training our entire student Coalition) is a non-profit organization
One example of academia meeting the body in law practice technology. OU that has established industry standard
practice of law and technology solutions Law provides more than 50 training legal technology core competency
available to promote access to justice sessions to students each year on learning plans and certification for
is the Technology in Legal Practice a variety of topics, including legal law students, law firms and corporate
class taught by Marc Jenkins, Adjunct documents, courtroom presentation legal departments.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 21
 The legal AI
revolution has started
– but why now?
Lexpo Speaker
BY RICHARD TROMANS

2
016 will be remembered as the Why did 2016 turn out to be the year when artificial intelligence
year when legal AI and advanced (AI) really started to have an impact in the legal market?
automation went from being a
subject for theoretical discussions about
‘the future’ to being something very And the reasons behind the change ideas related to artificial intelligence that
real in the eyes of the market. It became are often overlooked. we are still grappling with today.
something that law firms were really
using for client work. How did we get here? After this came a long and complex
The first point to make is that the period during which dozens, if not
Yet while it might sometimes feel broad church today called ‘AI’ can trace hundreds, of computer scientists slaved
like legal AI burst onto the scene its roots back to the 1950s and early away on the many branches of AI,
fully formed last year, with a mass of computer scientists such as Marvin mostly in relative obscurity. In part this
misleading headlines about robots Minsky. And we should not forget was due to the fact that a lot of early
accompanied by pictures of androids people such as Norbert Wiener, who AI research, whether in areas such as
with glowing electric eyes, the pioneered the idea of cybernetics in the natural language processing (NLP),
reality is a little different. As with all 1940s. We should probably also pay image recognition or robotics, didn’t
major movements, change rarely tribute to Alan Turing, who in the 1950s result in products or services that
starts where people think it does. introduced some of the philosophical people could easily identify.

22 | LEGAL IT TODAY
For legal AI, the branch of AI that is
focused primarily on textual analysis and
extracting meaning from unstructured
data, the wait for identifiable
AI is way more important than just a
commercial vendors took even longer.
It was only in the early 2010s that piece of technology – it will change the
a small group of pioneering legal AI
companies started to explore their way way firms think about the production,
into the complex and often difficult-
to-understand world of commercial pricing and staffing of work
lawyers. It would take another five years
or so before large-scale uptake of legal
AI systems began in earnest.
UK-based RAVN, one of the best-known On the other side of the Atlantic from
Fortunately for the legal AI industry, legal AI companies, launched in 2010 RAVN, another legal AI company was
the firms that were making use of and has done years of groundbreaking stealing the headlines. ROSS Intelligence,
companies such as Kira Systems work developing its own cognitive a firm focused on legal research
and RAVN Systems were not small, engine using machine learning and NLP. applications (at least for the moment),
experimental boutiques but some of Toronto-based Kira, probably the other had in 2015 already begun to capture
the largest firms in the US and Canada. best-known AI company in the legal people’s imaginations with talk of a new
That gave considerable credibility to the document analysis space, has also been dawn for the legal industry.
legal AI companies and effectively sent around since 2010 and has spent several
a message to the market that said: ‘the years iterating and improving the system California-based ROSS soon won a
legal AI revolution has begun. You’d that it offers today. huge amount of publicity and was
better get on board.’ described as ‘the world’s first artificially
intelligent lawyer’. On 16 May 2015,
The Washington Post announced: ‘A
future where ROSS, or similar robot [sic]
lawyers, is used across the country, might
not be too far away.’

Truly things had changed. And then,

what had appeared to be an area
dominated by US, Canadian and UK
legal tech founders soon changed into
something far more global. France,
Germany, the Netherlands and other
nations also started to produce legal
AI companies. No doubt many other
markets are doing the same, though
perhaps not all are getting as much
attention as they deserve.

Why now?
Legal AI has taken off now for two main
reasons. The first is that the capability
of NLP has increased to the point where
it is genuinely useful in even the most
complex areas of legal research or
document/contract analysis.

Nevertheless, it’s probably fair to say that

some of the core NLP technology legal AI
companies are using now is not radically
different to what was available back in
2010, even if they have now improved it
and made it their own. So what changed?
What pushed legal AI over the top?

Enter the second major factor: client

pushback on fees and ‘the new normal’.
The 2008/9 financial crisis prompted

LEGAL IT TODAY | 23
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24 | LEGAL IT TODAY
L-391205_SzE.indd 1 1/14/16 9:34 AM
many in-house teams to push back hard Legal AI arrived at just the right time challenge is getting people to accept that
on fees for process-level work and this to be adopted. The technology was AI is way more important than just a piece
pressure has never really gone away. ready and waiting and the law firms of technology – it will change the way
This led firms to create low-cost process needed a solution to their fixed fees firms think about the production, pricing
units away from financial centres as problem. All that was needed was for and staffing of work. It will change client
clients made greater use of legal process the legal AI companies to reach out relationships. It will alter the way business
outsourcing and alternative legal and communicate what they could do. development and marketing teams sell
providers – while still keeping up the The rest, as they say, is history. But it’s a legal services to clients. And it will change
pressure on process work. history that has only just begun. how the buyers of legal services consume
those services and how they expect them
The other key factor, which was driven The future to be delivered.
by the ‘new normal’ approach, was a far The issue now is that legal AI is not fully
greater focus on fixed fees, especially for understood in terms of what it is capable In short, while the legal AI revolution
what was considered process work. If you of achieving or delivering to law firms. It may now have finally begun, its impact is
are on a fixed fee, then anything you can is often delegated to the IT department only just starting to be felt. There is a lot
do to produce that work more quickly, to ‘look after’ even though no law firm more to come yet.
more accurately and at a lower cost to that has successfully adopted AI systems
your firm protects your profit margin and has done so without the direct input and Richard Tromans is the founder of
your relationship with the client. support of the firm’s management. TromansConsulting, which advises legal
businesses on strategy and innovation,
But now there was something that could When I advise legal sector clients on the including advice on adopting AI systems.
help with matters such as due diligence, adoption of legal AI and related systems, He also runs the Artificial Lawyer website,
lease extraction or primary legal research. I often find that the challenge is rarely which is dedicated to new developments
It was called legal AI. the question of what AI actually is. The in legal AI and automation.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 25
ELTA seeks to provide a
legal technology platform
for Europe
BY JONATHAN WATSON

ELTA is a new association formed to bring Europe’s fragmented

legal technology sector together. ELTA board member Tobias
Heining gives Jonathan Watson an update on progress so far

T
he European Legal Technology knowledge about legal technology and
Association (ELTA), officially its use within companies, law firms,
launched in September 2016, is start-ups and other initiatives.
an association of law firms, companies, and implement it, but they tend to be
legal technology providers, start-ups and Such an association is sorely needed focused on their own national markets.
individuals. It was founded by law firms in Europe, says Tobias Heining, We thought that it would be a good idea
Baker McKenzie and CMS, German law director of business development and to develop a platform in Europe to help
school Bucerius, consultancy Roland communications at CMS in Germany people join forces, bring ideas together
Berger, legal technology firm Leverton and a member of the ELTA management and defragment the market.’
and six private individuals. board. ‘The market is quite fragmented,’
he says. ‘There are a lot of legal Since the September launch, ELTA has
It has gained more than 140 members technology players, legal departments organised meetups in Austria and in
so far and hopes to provide a platform and law firms in Europe looking for Germany, most recently in Munich in
specifically for the promotion of a way to approach legal technology March. Another one is planned to be

26 | LEGAL IT TODAY
 technology companies, in-house legal
departments and law firms. ‘These are
basically the three players who will
have to work together in the future,’
says Heining. ‘The intersection between
the three is changing, often due to
technology. Expectations are changing
and approaches to working together
are changing. We want to bring all
these three sides together to exchange
views and maybe come up with some
common goals.’

Who needs ELTA when we already

have ILTA?
Is such a platform really necessary? US-
based legal technology association ILTA
has been around for many years and is
the leading networking organisation in
the market. Heining’s response is that
ILTA, in common with many US-based
organisations, primarily deals with the
US market and sees the rest of the
world ‘in brackets’.

‘We feel that there might be a different

approach to legal technology in
continental Europe due to its different
legal framework,’ he says. ‘We have a
civil law framework, whereas the
Anglo-American framework is more
focused on case law. We suspect that
this might produce different approaches
to legal technology.’

At ELTA’s first meetup in Berlin in

Tobias Heining September, ELTA chairman Hariolf
Wenzler (chief strategy officer for
Austria and Germany at Baker
held in the Netherlands and ELTA’s first McKenzie) said that Europe was
international conference is coming up ‘years behind the US’ in terms of
in June in Berlin. ‘Our first goal is to legal technology. ‘The market for
internationalise as fast as possible,’ If we manage to legal technology in the US is more
says Heining. ‘The board members advanced and so maybe acceptance
have been travelling around to meet become a truly and implementation is more advanced,’
up with legal technology initiatives all adds Heining. ‘However, that could
over Europe to see if they would like to
participate in ELTA. We don’t want to
international also be because there is a different
regulatory framework for the legal
set up something in parallel to profession in Europe.’
other institutions and initiatives in platform in 2017,
Europe; we want to be the platform The biggest difference between the
for them to join forces.’
that would be a two continents is that in the US, legal
technology investors tend to be more
While ELTA has its origins in Germany, it focused on litigation and ediscovery,
is not a German association; it wants to great achievement whereas in Europe they are more
be European. ‘If we manage to become focused on tools that can drive efficiency
a truly international platform in 2017, in terms of how legal departments and
that would be a great achievement,’ law firms work. ‘These include platforms
Heining says. The association also wants to reach for project management, due diligence
across the sector boundaries between software, risk management and tools
ELTA is not just about bringing people the key drivers of Europe’s emerging for the assessment of potential threats,’
together across national boundaries. legal technology narrative – legal Heining says.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 27
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One of ELTA’s first projects is to draw Plenty of life in the ‘old dog’ BigLaw 90s and then BlackBerries, he notes.
up a map of the legal technology sector At the September meetup, Wenzler
in Europe to provide an overview of was also keen to stress that big law ‘There is life in the old dog yet,’ said
what is happening across the continent. firms are not as sluggish and resistant Wenzler at the ELTA meetup. ‘BigLaw
Heining finds that in Germany, as in to change as some legal technology is neither dead nor dying. Our time is
many other countries, some companies vendors like to make out. For example, not over; our days, months, or years
are much more advanced than others in many believe BigLaw to be uninterested are not numbered.’
dealing with legal technology. Some in clients’ demands to drop the billable
law firms, such as Baker McKenzie, hour. However, according to Wenzler, Resistance to technology tends to arise
CMS and Dentons, have accepted an alternative fee arrangements sheet because lawyers are strong individuals
that legal technology will change the is now a key part of any pitch when big who do not like to have rigid processes
legal market and want to take the law firms meet clients and prospects. imposed on them, says Heining.
initiative so that they can help to ‘Lawyers don’t like people setting up
shape the evolution of the market It would not make sense for big law processes that they are compelled to
rather than waiting for that evolution firms to ignore commercial demands use and adhere to if they have not
to shape them. from their clients, adds Heining. ‘If they developed these processes themselves
want us to change the way we work, in the course of their work.’
‘When I speak to the in-house legal then we will. If that includes technology,
counsel who have embraced legal then we will use technology – full stop.’ And at some conservative firms, the
technology, they say they do not want to Big law firms have shown they can be management can be very resistant to
be pushed around,’ says Heining. ‘They very adaptable. Their lawyers are highly technology because they somehow think
say that if change is coming, then they intelligent people, and one should not they retain the power to prevent change.
want to participate in it and drive it, not underestimate the drive for change that ‘This is a highly questionable approach
be driven by it.’ they can initiate if they want to. Law and I think they will get the bill for that
firms were quick to start using PCs in the very soon,’ he says.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 29
 Using ‘big data’ to gain
competitive advantage
BY LISA HART SHEPHERD

In this article we talk through some of the areas where data can be useful to the ‘business’ side of law. We
will explore two specific examples of where legal departments and law firm leaders are using survey data
in an online dashboard format to inform strategic planning and review progress. The role of technology is
key in enabling the data consumer to easily interrogate and filter down to specific data points to support a
particular information need – when they want it.

T
he legal industry is a laggard when of different areas, asking questions
it comes to the use of big data – on benchmarking and other issues
or even little data, come to think to explore and measure opinion and
of it. But alongside many other changes experiences in different topical areas.
taking hold in the industry, legal services
buyers and suppliers alike are starting to Over the last couple of months we have
embrace the strategic and tactical started collecting client examples of
uses of data. innovation in the legal industry, either
in their own departments or at one of
Acritas, the international legal market their legal services providers. To date,
research company I founded in 2002, it seems that less than half of clients
conducts an annual survey of more than have observed any innovation at all.
2,000 senior in-house counsel across And when we drill down to where that Lexpo Speaker
the world. The data covers a range innovation is happening, we find that

30 | LEGAL IT TODAY
clients’ legal departments are driving it • that an average ratio was useful, when
twice as often as suppliers. in reality spending averages differ

Looking at the list of those suppliers,

hugely depending on region, sector
and size of business; and
Client demands
traditional law firms are few and far
between. The two most featured legal
• that the report would be useful at the
time we chose to send it.
continue to
services suppliers so far are Thomson
Reuters and PwC. The feedback on We responded by deciding to build increase when
Thomson Reuters in particular focuses an online analytics tool which senior
on its various systems that enable users in-house counsel could log into it comes to
to interrogate data sources or automate whenever they needed information.
processes. These range from e-billing
analytics to the firm’s Contract Express
We built in the functionality to filter
the benchmarks on industries, regions
value and the
document automation service – tools
that help legal departments to operate
and size of business and to show which
percentile the respondent sat on, in
gap between
more intelligently. comparison to the range of responses
we had in each segment. This enabled expectations and
Providing evidence and guidance for users not only to use the tool to
legal departments in budget review compare historical spending levels and standards is not
and forecasting team size, but also to assist in future
One of the services we at Acritas provide
to our GC panel benchmarks their total
budgeting and headcount requests. getting any smaller
legal spend and team size. For a decade For example, if they were looking to
now, we have been capturing and enter a new market like the US or
analysing legal spend levels – that’s more China, they could look at typical spend the US typically spends twice the global
than 10,000 data points in all. levels for an organisation of their size average per dollar of revenue.
and sector in that market – and then
Traditionally, we provided a hard copy use this as evidence in their budget Spend levels can also vary according to
report, post-interview, of their key request. This is of crucial importance, other factors like the internal/external split
statistics versus the averages for the year. because spend levels vary dramatically of budget, adoption of fixed fees or the
We realised that this model was based for organisations with different growth phase of the business. We plan
on two incorrect assumptions: demographic make-up. For example, to develop our analytics tool further

LEGAL IT TODAY | 31
 no surprise that clients, particularly the
larger ones, are implementing e-billing
analytics systems that access broader
market data.

Providing market insights to help

plan strategy and marketing tactics
Law firms buy into the Acritas global
survey each year to varying extents –
sometimes a single country, sometimes
globally. Traditionally, much like the
participant report, we delivered the data
once a year in a ‘state of the nation’
style slide presentation. The same issues
arose with that style of delivery. Law
firm leaders had to take the data in the
format we thought best and at the time
that suited our delivery schedule.

To change this, we decided to invest

in developing an analytics platform for
clients, allowing them to interrogate
the data in their own way at a time that
suited them, wherever they were in the
world. This might be to support a
sector or regional marketing plan, to
explore a new merger opportunity, to
obtain competitor intelligence
or simply to track the progress of
brand development.

We distilled the questions into eight

different topic areas and developed
dashboards for each topic, displaying
the data in chart format. We added
filters to enable clients to look at the
segment of the market they were
drilling down on – be it a particular
country, sector or demographic break,
such as gender. This approach has the
added benefit of enabling clients to look
at specific data needs confidentially,
to help legal department management to be systemised in a way that can help without the need to share their aims
to learn from the bigger data – is there in accurate budgeting. It is therefore with one of our analysts.
an optimum level to outsource? How
much, if anything, do alternative fee
arrangements typically save over a year?
What impact does the growth rate of a
business have on legal spend? Until firms invest in recording,
It is astonishing to see in our survey that coding and processing information
value has continued to be the number
one biggest criticism of law firms over a
decade. Law firms are definitely making
in a way that produces insightful
improvements, but client demands
continue to increase when it comes to
intelligence, they are at risk of losing
value and the gap between expectations
and standards is not getting any smaller. market share to newer, more tech
Firms have access to masses of historical savvy market entrants
data when it comes to matter billing and
typical fees, but in most cases it is yet

32 | LEGAL IT TODAY
 The dashboards we have developed
have taken years to build. Each has
been through several iterations and
the process has been far from pain-
free. Altogether there are over a
million data points in the research
findings each year. But today’s world
means that people have different
expectations when it comes to
absorbing information. They need to
Park Plaza
access information at the time that is
right for them and to control how they
search and review that information.
8&9 MAY 2017 Schiphol Airport

We never expect these projects to be

complete. They will continue to evolve huge number of data points that already Lisa Hart Shepherd is CEO of Acritas,
and improve and user feedback is key exist in relation to their core business, the international legal market research
to making that happen effectively – from accurate matter cost recording company she founded in 2002. She
along with a little imagination from alongside the parameters of the matter has worked on projects with many of
those developing the ideas for to enable better budgeting, through the world’s largest law firms, devising
the tools themselves. to looking at the long term outcomes research programs to help clients
of legal work. Until firms invest in achieve service excellence, brand
Big data can help law firms to run recording, coding and processing strength, employee engagement and
their own businesses better. Client and information in a way that produces global growth.
employee feedback, for example, is insightful intelligence, they are at risk
tremendously under-utilised. But even of losing market share to newer, more
more powerful would be to access the tech-savvy market entrants.

6580 DW 133.5x190_01.pdf 1 20/02/2017 11:31

CM

MY

CY

CMY
Matter Pricing, Financial Business Managed Reporting
Evaluate Quantum Assign
K Budgeting and Tracking Intelligence Services

Analyse Flexibility Alignment

Monitor Timeliness End User Management
Manage Autonomy Peace of Mind

LEGAL IT TODAY | 33
 How do you separate the hype
around artificial intelligence (AI)
from reality? What are the
practical first steps for law firms
to add AI to their arsenal of
practice support tools?

For this issue, we asked four experts for their advice

on how law firms should approach AI

THE VERDICT
34 | LEGAL IT TODAY
Andrew Arruda Eric Hunter
CEO & Co-Founder / ROSS Global Futurist and author
of ‘The Sherlock Syndrome’
While artificial intelligence is / Director of Knowledge,
a field of computer science Tech and Innovation,
that has been around Bradford & Barthel LLP
for over 60 years, AI has Executive Director, Spherical
become very popular as Models LLC
of late as the necessary
ingredients to make AI The key to understanding
work are now available. AI within the legal industry
These include huge is to look outside the legal
amounts of computational industry. Study and understand what’s driving AI within
power; breakthroughs in multiple industries, such as gaming; high tech; consumer
training methods; and vast amounts of digital data to train technologies; the auto industry; online advertising
AI systems. The definition of AI shouldn’t vary. Simply put, industries; the online political news industry; the online
AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes by sports news industry; the online movie industry; online
machines. video distribution innovations; online music distribution
innovations; and the latest research in space, renewable
Separating hype from reality is simple: what does the energies, global science and global climate. Learn what’s
software purporting to be enabled by AI do? Demo it. Also, possible there, what’s being researched, and how AI drives
ask questions: what forms of AI tech are being used within analytics within the companies and entities involved, their
the solution? How? What is the company’s AI pedigree? business decisions, customer interest and target audiences,
Has the company won awards for its AI tech? Which other scientific discovery and most importantly, human behavior.
organizations work with the company?
The ability for AI to mirror, influence, be influenced, and
Practically speaking, firms should approach adding AI to help exponentially expand human behavior in both the
their arsenal of tools the same way they would any other individual sense and as a collaborative group is extremely
technology: have a process for assessing whether the tool telling in these industries and their target audiences.
will aid the firm or not and execute on it. Firms should We are just scratching the surface of the possibilities.
make decisions that are driven by data and ensure they After researching these industries in both the tangible
don’t forget that legal technology, AI or not, is about applications and the possibilities, come back to the legal
providing better services for their clients. industry itself. The differences between hype and reality
within the legal industry, what AI can tangibly do and what
is repackaged for marketing, become all too clear.!

Peter Wallqvist
CSO and Co-Founder /
RAVN Systems David Whelan
Manager, Legal Information
If you look up the definition / The Law Society of
of artificial intelligence in Upper Canada
the dictionary, it states:
‘A computer system Law firms should first
able to perform tasks decide if there are activities
normally requiring human within the firm that humans
intelligence.’ AI already currently perform that
exceeds human competence they’re willing to replace
in certain areas, such as with a machine with
RAVN ACE, but it’s important to stress this uses ‘applied’ AI, intelligence. Like any practice technology adoption, the firm
which means it’s guided and reliant upon humans. should have a specific need and ask why AI is a determining
factor in the decision.
Plenty of vendors claim to be providing AI but don’t actually
use any machine learning algorithms. At RAVN we use a As they review apps, the firm should distinguish automation
combination of AI technologies in our software stack to from AI. For example, a macro or trigger system isn’t
deliver functionality which could not be delivered with machine learning, nor are most ‘did you mean’ search
statically coded models and to solve business cases which results. Voice dictation transcription could be. If the
were not solvable by computers before. Our AI platform technology isn’t learning, it isn’t AI. AI has been brought
automatically performs the organising, discovering and to bear primarily in word-centric, document-heavy law
summarising of content that used to be done manually by practices. It is a narrow slice of what intelligent humans
teams of humans. in law firms do and claims to AI in other legal technology
areas may be offering magic in lieu of intelligence.

LEGAL IT TODAY | 35
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36 | LEGAL IT TODAY