Etain’s Post

Yesterday I took part in the third Tech in Legal event, hosted by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. We got a glimpse into the future by seeing how GenAI can (and will!) be used by lawyers. Also we discussed the challenges when implementing contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools. My key takeaways are: 🔤 Language and words are the basis for GenAI models, making lawyers very well positioned to be an AI frontrunner. Be that innovative legal department! 🎯 Prompting is the name of the game: high quality input = high quality output. Use the COSTAR framework! 💡 MS Co-pilot is currently not seen as a game changer for legal teams. Specific legal AI tools simply do a better job. And Legal Tech develops at such a pace that a short term focus works best. 🥇 Critical for a successful implementation of a CLM tool are: user friendliness, support of vendor and IT department, solid understanding of legal processes. ⚙️ There are many CLM tools around. Most of them excel at a certain stage of the contract lifecycle. For example contract generation or storage. Better integration with signing tools and automated document review are areas of improvement. Thanks Steven van de Reijt, Douwe Groenevelt, Johan Koggink, Ivar Timmer and Helen Hulsker for an inspiring evening!

A major demand from lawyers and clients working on reasonably complex matters is a simpler way to do things like - See how things are progressing against the work and financial plans - Set better plans - of both types - in the first place - Get ahead of things if it becomes clear that plans will have to change - rather than waiting for lagging indicators like WIP and billing - Learn to do these things better not only in the traditional ways (teaching, conversation, observation and your personal experience of what works and doesn't) but also more effectively from your organisation's experience This is what our Juralio software now helps with. No magical AI claims, just a really strong focus on design, on understanding the reality of the process, on making it easier, on adding numbers, on joining it all up, on calculating the implications and making it clear to you so you can do something about it. All in a way which treats the whole exercise of planning, process, execution and pricing as something collaborative and trust-enhancing. But on the subject of AI and data, the fact that it makes it easier to articulate and see what's going on also leads to better data for organisations which, properly handled, can be used to improve how work is done. We're based in Scotland and currently focused on the needs of medium and large law firms and legal departments in the UK and the EU. Yes, both. It doesn't need to be "them and us." You can contact us via the website, or just DM me. Photo: meadow on former industrial wasteland as I walked into work yesterday.

Contracts consist of a good portion of the untapped unstructured data at enterprises. OpenContracts (https://lnkd.in/eGE5G7XT) is a new open source project that makes it super easy to analyze and annotate contracts. This is an invaluable open resource for anyone building LLM/RAG solutions for contracts. #opensource #llm #rag #contracts

Say goodbye to lengthy documents! PrizmDoc's new Auto-Summarization feature is here to save you time by automatically condensing documents into concise summaries. Whether you're managing contracts, reports, or any other content, this AI-powered tool helps you get to the point faster. Ready to streamline your document processing? Learn More: https://hubs.la/Q02LNFP10

LegalTechTalk was great. We needed three days to decompress and get back on our feet, but it was well worth it 😅 Here are three key insights we gained from the many insightful conversations: ✅ Adding new capabilities on top of existing systems is a game-changer Tech fatigue is a real issue in the legal industry, making firms hesitant to adopt yet another solution, particularly due to the lack of integration between systems. Firms exploring low-code tooling aim to replace multiple systems with bespoke solutions that can handle all tasks. While this rip-and-replace strategy offers real business value, it’s also a complex and lengthy process. Integrating existing systems and extending their capabilities with low-code is an approach many firms haven’t considered before but offers significant benefits without drastic changes. For instance, pulling data from several systems, such as HighQ and iManage, into one intuitive and integrated portal, can be transformative. ✅ The billable hour is here to stay but opens the door for new revenue streams The legal industry is built on the billable hour, and it’s here to stay. However, the key difference to expect in the coming years is that the billable hour will be reserved for complex and bespoke work, which is unlikely to be automated. Commodities, on the other hand, will be turned into digital products, alleviating lawyers from mundane tasks. This creates a win-win situation: clients gain instant access to commodity knowledge in a cost-effective, self-service manner, such as through a portal, while lawyers generate new revenue streams (like subscriptions) and free up time for bespoke work. ✅ Clients are the drivers of legal transformation Transformation was the key buzzword during the event, but when it comes to actual change, the legal industry is behind the curve. Change is difficult, especially in an industry rich in tradition. Even with the emergence of AI, which was met with more skepticism than six months ago, many firms are still unclear on how to adapt. The answer: listen to your clients. Clients know what they want and are pushing firms to deliver more diverse services. Put the client at the center of everything you do, and transformation happens organically.

We launched Brightflag a decade ago. Today is the biggest product release in the company history. It’s a series of GenAI releases culminating in the biggest leap forward we have ever made in eBilling and Matter Management. We’ll be demoing it all at CLOC. (and a link to tour the new features is in the comments) Here’s what we launched: 1) Gen AI Invoice Summaries: Have your invoices summarised and delivered shortform to email. Our GenAI reads, reviews and summaries the invoice. Quick approve if you like it, dive deeper if you don’t. 2) Brand new AI-Invoice Review: Diving Deeper into an invoice? Use Brightflag’s AI to do a detailed review on more complex invoices. Flag issues, summarise important information in a fraction of the time. And most importantly - drive savings for your department. 3) Ask Brightflag: This is the big one. A whole new way to do Legal Ops, interacting with your Ebilling and Matter Management system through natural language. You can:   -Forget report builders, dashboards, manual visualisation - simply type your question in plain language - ‘What are we spending with our 5 largest firms?’. And Brightflag answers. -Take actions - ‘What are the 20 most overdue invoices for review. Ok, now approve all under 10k, and show me the rest.’ -Automate Matter Summaries - ‘Summarize what’s happening on the 5 highest risk litigation matters?’ And this is just the beginning of Ask. We are embarking on a long-term project to take our GenAI technologies, and use them to DIRECTLY help Legal Ops teams in their most important jobs every day. See you all at CLOC. I’ll be there to proudly talk about everything our amazing team is working on.

Dharmesh Shah, CTO of HubSpot, highlighted a key truth: "People want results… NOT software." This insight is crucial for General Counsels and law firm partners in the realm of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM). It begs the question: Are we developing software, or are we creating a solution? Traditional CLM tools offer automation and contract organization, but often fall short of true transformation. It's time to evolve beyond automation and embrace genuine AI—technology that notably enhances productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness by understanding context, learning from data, and providing intelligent recommendations. At Legalbook.io, we prioritize understanding user needs, ensuring our AI-driven solutions yield tangible results. Our tools analyze contract clauses, predict risks, and propose optimizations, aiding in resolving complexities and enhancing outcomes for clients and firms. Dharmesh Shah's perspective shapes our approach: We aspire to develop tools that spark meaningful change and deliver genuine value. Are you simply developing software, or are you crafting a solution that truly impacts? Embrace AI that innovates, elevates your practice, and drives results, not just software. #LegalTech #AIInnovation #ContractManagement #ProductivityBoost #LegalBookResults

EMAILS NOT REACHING YOUR FILE? GIVE MAIL MOVER A TRY! Incomplete audit trails are bad news in the legal sector and missing emails are the usual suspects. Through AI driven, automated e mail filing MailMover solves the problem. At a low monthly cost per user and with seamless CMS integration, your days of searching through out look are over. If your firm wants to: - Increase operational efficiency - Reduce risk and - Ramp up productivity then book a free Demo directly through our LinkedIn page! #MailMover #emailmanagement #emailautomation #lawtech

🚀 Thirteenth Installment of My Series: 🌟 Casetext, Part of Thomson Reuters - Revolutionizing Legal Research with AI 📚 Welcome to the thirteenth installment of my series! Today, I'm featuring  Casetext, Part of Thomson Reuters, a pioneering company in the legal technology space based in the United States. Founded in 2013, Casetext provides advanced AI-driven tools to enhance legal research and practice. Empowering Legal Research with AI: Casetext has been a leader in legal AI innovation since 2013. They have developed CoCounsel, the world's first AI legal assistant, which completes tasks such as document review, legal research memos, deposition preparation, and contract analysis in minutes, delivering results that lawyers can trust. Key Highlights: CARA (Contextual AI Research Assistant): Automates legal research by analyzing litigation documents and using that information to generate relevant legal queries. CoCounsel: A generative AI-powered legal assistant launched in 2023, further enhancing the capabilities of legal professionals by performing complex legal tasks swiftly. Integration with Legal Databases: Seamlessly integrates with a wide range of legal databases to provide comprehensive research results. User-Friendly Interface: Designed for ease of use, enabling legal professionals to quickly find and utilize relevant information. Advanced Features: Document Analysis: AI-powered analysis of litigation documents to understand context and relevance. Automated Legal Research: Uses machine learning to generate pertinent legal queries based on analyzed documents. Data Security: Ensures the security and confidentiality of sensitive legal data through robust measures. Real-World Impact: Casetext's tools are widely used by legal professionals to enhance their research capabilities and streamline their workflow. For instance, CoCounsel assists lawyers by automating routine tasks, allowing them to focus on more strategic aspects of their cases. Today, over 10,000 law firms—from solos and small practices to more than 40 Am Law 200 firms—rely on Casetext to elevate the quality of their practice. In August 2023, Casetext was acquired by Thomson Reuters for $650 million, marking a significant milestone in its journey and positioning it for further advancements in the legal tech space. Learn more about how Casetext can transform your legal research at: https://casetext.com/ Stay tuned for tomorrow's spotlight on another innovative startup transforming the legal industry! #GenAI #LegalTech #Innovation #FutureOfLaw #AI #LegalIndustry #Casetext

The use of Ai code assistants like GitHub CoPilot and Codium is only going to continue to grow. Most code supply chain analyzers like the Black Ducks of the world are well equipped to point out code origins, but not so much whether code was generated by Ai or not (at least thats what I know and could be wrong). Certainly lots of good value from both a product and data science perspective, but licensing can be a huge risk which Copyleaks can help mitigate.