LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
SEPTEMBER
/
OCTOBER 2018 49
| ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |
in the first 30 days aer its launch.
"Generally, the average number of mes-
sages per conversation varies between four
to six questions," Berger says. "Taking an
average of three minutes per conversation,
Parker Australia has provided clients and
potential clients with just shy of 300 hours
of legal information."
It's all in the name of efficiencies. Cam-
eron Belsher, the Vancouver and Toronto-
based head of McCarthy Tétrault's merg-
ers and acquisitions (M&A) group, told
Canadian Lawyer that AI due diligence
tools have produced savings "of around 60
per cent, with greater cost predictability, ef-
ficiency, and accuracy."
To achieve these efficiencies, McCarthy
Tétrault relies heavily on Toronto-based
Kira Systems contract analysis soware.
So do Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg
LLP; Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and
Torys LLP.
And it's not just M&A practices that
can benefit from AI. Contract analysis
soware can also make for more efficient
lease abstraction for Real Estate practices
and enhance Financial Services practices
by ensuring accuracy and consistency of
advice. Stikeman Elliott LLP is using AI
technology to build and train its own in-
house repository for classifying, accessing
and leveraging the firm's knowledge tools;
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP employs
AI technologies to round up competitive
intelligence information that might ben-
at York University's Osgoode Hall Law
School in Toronto. "It's not legal tech that's
driving change — it's today's generation."
And today's generation is focused on
quality of life, including meaningful work.
"Millenials have grown up in the digital
age and they want to cut out the mindless
and tedious tasks that oen characterize
associates' and students' workdays," says
Anne McNulty, Director of Legal Knowl-
edge engineering at Kira. "AI helps them
focus on learning."
Kira allows users to import documents
in more than 60 formats. It converts the
files into machine readable form, and then
uses machine learning models to identify
concepts and clauses that the users speci-
fy. On-screen editing, workflow and col-
laborative tools allow users to refine the
results in real time. Search and analysis
functions identify issues and trends across
documents, and allow comparisons be-
tween them that enable lawyers to iden-
tify subtle differences that may signal hid-
den risks or liabilities.
"Instead of entering a data room and
wondering where to start, Kira gives law-
yers tons of visibility right away so that they
can target their clients' needs in short order
and determine what kind of expertise the
M&A team will require from within the
firm," McNulty explains. "Training time
is about one hour and the learning curve is
short and very, very intuitive."
To be sure, Kira's soware is not the
first iteration of contract analysis soware.
Rules-based and comparison-based AI has
been around for several decades. But these
efit the firm's clients; Lavery
Lawyers' Lavery Legal Lab
on Artificial Intelligence has
combined AI with transla-
tion tools for patents and
technical documents; and
some years ago, Wortzman
Nickle, Canada's first law
firm dedicated to e-discov-
ery, was swallowed up by
McCarthy Tétrault.
Osler, Hoskin & Har-
court LLP has created Osler
Works – Transactional, an
Ottawa-based 20-lawyer
team integrated with other
professionals that uses a
combination of people, pro-
cess and technology to support deal teams
and clients.
"e team spends all of its time explor-
ing and developing cutting-edge tech to
streamline processes and reduce the time
and cost involved in basic business trans-
action such as due diligence and contract
review," says Patricia Kosseim in Osler's
Ottawa office.
Quite apart from their functional util-
ity, however, AI investments have become
important talent attraction and retention
tools for law firms. "I think what's driving
a lot of the change is there are new entrants
to the profession who don't care about how
we've done things," says Amy ter Haar, a
program lawyer in legal curriculum design
SUKESH KAMRA
NORTON ROSE
FULBRIGHT CANADA LLP
"What we're seeing
is a true monumental
disruption, where a culture
based on precedent and
conservative attitudes has
had to open up and embrace
change on many fronts,
including legal tech, pricing,
staffing and compensation.
It's a complete revolution
for which some firms are
more ready than others."
