Legal AI Trends to Look Forward to in 2021

Transcription Technology

With most proceedings now taking place virtually via video-conferencing, the Indian judicial system is discussing the possibility of live-streaming court proceedings. 

The Supreme Court’s e-committee, tasked with all technological matters related to courts with a view to promoting transparency in court operations has set up a panel of four judges to frame rules for live-streaming of hearings in high courts and trial courts. The panel is now expected to submit its report on the same to the e-committee, headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. 

The idea for live broadcasting of Supreme Court hearings was first recommended in 2018 by a three-judge bench led by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in the Swapnil Tripathi case. The Supreme Court, in the case of Swapnil Tripathi also recommended the practice of allowing transcribing facilities to provide access to information for litigants. 

Traditionally, the stenographer in Indian courts does not actually record all the proceedings. Only limited directed parts of proceedings are transcribed. However, automatic transcription software are fast changing the speed at which a transcript can be generated. Technology has drastically reduced the turnaround for court transcripts from weeks to as little as four hours!

Rise of Alternative Legal Service Providers 

The search for customized legal and technology solutions has led law firms to embrace help from the experts.  This has resulted in LPOs and alternative legal service providers finding novel approaches to assist law firms and in-house legal departments in streamlining their operations. Staff downsizings, remote work and other requirements have forced a rapid transformation on the legal industry. Many law firms have thus come around to accepting legal technology and have become more open to experimentation.

Smart and Automated Documents

Some forward-thinking law firms are now gaining a competitive edge by using automated software to draft documents. 

AI-players like LawGeex use artificial intelligence and machine learning to review contracts. LawGeex’s approach is based on the client’s predefined policies. According to their portal, unlike solutions that only flag unacceptable or missing clauses, LawGeex redlines the contract in real-time just like a human lawyer. They even boast of handling live negotiations with the counterparty.

Some of the other players in the market offering automated contract reviews and documents are: cloud-based ANAQUA Studio designed for drafting patents and prosecution; SmartShell supports paralegals performing document reviews, drafting, formatting and identifying issues on patent applications; LegalSifter helps organizations and law firms negotiate and organize contracts using A.I. and expertise; and many others.

AI Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
 
Many in-house company law departments are now using AI Chatbots to do their repetitive and mundane tasks more efficiently and rapidly. For instance, Accenture, India uses a Legal Delivery Center Assistant chatbot which connects users with Accenture’s Legal resources in real-time. “Available 24/7, the chatbot is a pre-emptive tool to make legal compliance easier by giving all Accenture users quick access to information on frequently asked questions,” says Rajeev Chopra, MD-Legal, Accenture India.

Robot Lawyer LISA—Legal Intelligence Support Assistant is said to be the world’s first impartial Artificial Intelligence (AI) lawyer. According to an article by Autom.io, LISA’s first product is a confidentiality agreement or non-disclosure agreement that eliminates the need to use lawyers during the negotiation process by starting in the middle ground between both parties.

A two-way AI app that can be accessed from a computer or smartphone, LISA asks a series of questions to the initiator. The document is created and sent to the reviewer. The reviewer uses LISA to make any changes. Once everyone is happy, the legally binding NDA is ready to be signed and used. LISA has also recently branched out into property tools, such as drafting commercial and business and residential leases.

Compliance and Due Diligence Tools 

In a bid to make legal departments cost-efficient and risk-eliminators, many companies are now leaning toward technology-assisted environments. In an exclusive conversation with Rajeev Chopra, MD-Legal, Accenture India, we learnt of some of the best practical uses of AI in the legal space. Some of these tools in use at Accenture India are:

Compliance Tracking Tool: The legal function at Accenture uses a technology-driven approach to its compliance monitoring process. The organisation has automated its compliance program through a comprehensive compliance tracking tool.

Non-Standard Software Review Tool: The Non-Standard Software Request (NSSR) tool is a software compliance tool that ensures the company is compliant with its software license agreements, its clients’ contractual provisions as well as applicable local laws and regulations whenever Non-standard Software is used at Accenture.

Force Majeure Tool: Accenture has an AI-enabled Force Majeure Tool that consolidates and hosts key contractual and Business Continuity Planning (BCP) obligations so that they are easily accessible across the globe, during any eventuality as well as for the purpose of knowledge sharing.

Some of the popular AI-powered contract review platforms that cater to due diligence for legal professionals include:

• Denver-based Catalyst has an Automated Redaction product that is capable of removing sensitive and confidential information on documents.
• Kira Systems performs due diligence and contract review by searching, highlighting, and extracting relevant content for analysis.
• LEVERTON, an offshoot of the German Institute for Artificial Intelligence, also uses AI to extract relevant data, manage documents and compile leases in real estate transactions. The cloud-based tool is said to be capable of reading contracts at high speeds in 20 languages.
• eBrevia claims to use natural language processing and machine learning to extract relevant textual data from legal contracts and other documents to guide lawyers in analysis, due diligence and lease abstraction.
• The natural language search capability of the ROSS Intelligence software can be used by lawyers by asking questions, and receiving information such as recommended readings, related case law and secondary resources.
• iManage’s RAVN and its M&A Due Diligence Robot is designed for M&A documents to automate the review process and extract data from cluster sets.
• LitIQ, capitalizes on computational linguistics technology to reduce contract-related disputes 
• LegalSifter claims to cut time and financial costs through its AI software that looks for specific concepts in documents such as general terms and conditions and confidentiality agreements
• Seal, whose software is used by Dropbox, PayPal and Experian, was able to reduce the time spent to 48 hours from 255 days by a utility company by searching for thousands of contracts with specific clauses according to their case study
• Luminance claims to be the only tool that searches and ranks unusual and anomalous documents and clauses for lawyers
   
   Information credited to EMERJ for due diligence tools.