(Sep 16) What happened in LegalTech last week?
Australia to regulate AI in high-risk environments; Singapore boosts legal AI education. Major law firms adopt AI, automation, and cloud solutions driving efficiency and innovation.
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Key Stories
This week highlighted decisive movements and partnerships in the legal tech sphere, with a significant push towards AI regulation and adoption. Notably, Australia is setting a benchmark by enforcing mandatory AI regulations for high-risk environments and proposing voluntary AI safety standards for general use. These initiatives aim to cultivate a safer and more accountable AI landscape, punctuated by public consultations until October 2024 (Shaping the future: Australia’s approach to AI regulation – Technology's Legal Edge).
Meanwhile, Singapore's TechLaw.Fest showcased a wave of strategic partnerships, notably the collaboration between its Academy of Law and Microsoft, directing free GenAI resources to the legal community. Additionally, the Ministry of Law and Lupl have released an innovative AI-driven Copilot module to simplify legal workflows, with funding support available until March 2025 (TechLaw.Fest in Singapore: New collaborations – Legal IT Insider).
The landscape of legal AI tools also witnessed a competitive edge as Osborne Clarke's OC-GPT-4o AI was claimed to outperform Harvey's legal AI in accuracy, though the comparison's validity remains disputed due to varying evaluation methods (OC Repeats Harvey Tests – Artificial Lawyer). In tandem, vLex announced a substantial upgrade to Vincent AI, expanding its capabilities across 12 skills and adding multi-jurisdictional support. This upgrade includes advanced legal research and transactional features, positioning vLex as a comprehensive AI solution in the legal tech market (vLex Vincent AI Upgrade – Dewey B Strategic).
All Other Stories
In broader legal tech developments, the week saw a mixture of strategic moves, tech enhancements, and leadership changes. Lawfront's selection of ShareDo for its Case Management System (CMS) and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for its Practice Management System (PMS) signifies a robust step towards legal innovation and operational efficiency (UK top 50 challenger Lawfront selects ShareDo – Legal IT Insider).
Highlighting the evolving resistance and adoption rates of GenAI in law firms, ILTA's survey revealed a stark difference in GenAI tool use, with larger firms being more proactive compared to their smaller counterparts. This disparity points to existing barriers such as resistance to change and user skill gaps (AI adoption gap and resistance – Fringe Legal). On another front, Avvoka and Bryter have both unveiled new GenAI-powered features, enhancing their document automation and contract review capabilities respectively, while IBM's acquisition of Accelalpha highlights a strategic effort to bolster its legal practice management solutions (Document Automation Platform Avvoka – Legal Technology News, Strategic Acquisition: IBM to acquire Accelalpha – Legal IT Insider).
Notable leadership movements include Mayer Brown's induction of Evette Pastoriza Clift as global CIO, marking a significant shift in their tech strategy (Mayer Brown hires Evette Pastoriza Clift – Legal IT Insider). Further, Harneys and Alt-V Law's migration to iManage Cloud underscores the ongoing trend of leveraging cloud solutions for improved efficiency and collaboration (Harneys and Alt-V Law Set New Benchmark – Legal Technology News).
Links and summaries
Want to explore a story more deeply? Here are the original links to the stories, with summaries to aid review.
Key stories
Shaping the future: Australia’s approach to AI regulation (Technology's Legal Edge)
The Australian Government's recent proposals on AI regulation mark a significant step toward ensuring safe and responsible AI deployment. The Proposals Paper introduces mandatory guardrails for 'high-risk' AI settings and a Voluntary AI Safety Standard applicable to all AI systems, offering businesses a framework for best practices. Currently, Australia's regulatory system is deemed inadequate for AI's distinct risks, making these updates critical. The Voluntary Standard aligns well with international norms, facilitating smoother global operations for Australian entities. Businesses are urged to adopt these voluntary guidelines proactively, ensuring readiness for eventual mandatory compliance and enhancing AI trust, safety, and alignment with societal expectations. Public consultations on the proposals will conclude by October 4, 2024.
TechLaw.Fest 2024, spearheaded by Singapore's Academy of Law and Ministry of Law, became a hotbed for significant legal tech announcements. Highlighting the event, the Academy of Law and Microsoft Singapore inked a GenAI collaboration to develop resources that enhance legal professionals' effective and ethical use of AI. The first output, a guide on AI prompt engineering, was unveiled to refine legal-specific AI prompt skills. Concurrently, the Ministry of Law and Lupl introduced a Copilot module for law firms, integrating Microsoft 365's AI capabilities into Lupl's Legal Technology Platform. This initiative enhances legal workflow management and efficiency. With government-backed funding to offset initial subscription costs, these advancements mark a pivotal stride in modernizing Singapore's legal sector.
The recent claim by Christian Braun of Osborne Clarke (OC) that their OC-GPT-4o system surpasses Harvey's AI in legal genAI capabilities is noteworthy but complex. Braun reported using Harvey's publicly available BigLaw Benchmark tests on OC's securely hosted Azure environment, achieving results that sometimes exceeded Harvey's own outputs. However, critical discrepancies remain: the rigorous evaluation methods, including penalizing non-compliant outputs (e.g., tone, hallucinations), used by Harvey, versus OC's methods, are not fully transparent. This underscores the necessity for standardized evaluation frameworks in legal genAI, without which comparing AI systems' performances remains speculative and inconsistent. The differences highlight the vital role of well-crafted prompts and comprehensive assessment rubrics in determining AI efficacy within legal tech.
vLex (Fastcase) has announced a substantial upgrade to its Vincent AI platform, expanding its workflows from 4 to 12 and introducing AI tools for additional jurisdictions such as France, Portugal, and Brazil. Alongside new usability features, the upgrade enhances transactional and litigation tools, and introduces multi-turn conversations, prompt assistance, and the ability to analyze entire document collections. Notably, Vincent AI is integrated with Docket Alarm, offering deep insights from over 820 million legal documents. This release underlines vLex’s dominant position in the legal tech industry, leveraging its vast global data set to enable comprehensive and efficient legal research across jurisdictions.
All the rest
At the LEX Summit, Filevine CEO Ryan Anderson stressed the importance of a unified platform for the legal industry. He criticized fragmented solutions and promised that Filevine would offer an integrated system for matter management, document management, and timekeeping. Anderson also highlighted new user-inspired features, emphasizing the company's commitment to customer needs without additional costs.
AI adoption gap and resistance to change (Fringe Legal)
ILTA's technology survey highlights a disparity in GenAI tool adoption between large and small law firms. Nearly 50% of large firms are piloting tools like Microsoft Copilot, compared to just 4% of small firms. Key barriers include resistance to change, lack of user skills, and limited training time.
Harneys and Alt-V Law migrated Harneys' extensive legal document database to the iManage Cloud. This large-scale project enhances operational efficiency and global collaboration. The move highlights Harneys' dedication to leveraging technology for superior legal services.
Avvoka has introduced GenAI-powered features to its no-code document automation platform. These updates include SmartAutomation, auto questionnaire completion, AI-powered operation builder, AI data review, and AI-ready documents. The enhancements aim to streamline document creation while ensuring user control.
IBM to acquire Oracle legal PMS partner Accelalpha (Legal IT Insider)
IBM plans to acquire Accelalpha to boost its legal practice management solutions. Accelalpha's team will join IBM Consulting, utilizing IBM's AI and hybrid cloud expertise. This move aims to enhance value for legal ERP customers.
American Legal Technology Awards Finalists Announced (Artificial Lawyer)
The 2024 American Legal Technology Awards has announced its finalists from 232 submissions across 10 categories. The Awards Gala will take place on October 6th at Barr Mansion in Austin, Texas, hosted by Damien Riehl and the event's co-founders. More information and tickets are available online.
Legal Ops Insights from Volt’s Chief Legal Officer, Stephanie Lopes (Artificial Lawyer)
Stephanie Lopes, Chief Legal Officer at Volt, discusses using technology to enhance legal operations. She highlights contract lifecycle management tools and stresses balancing new tech with risk management. Lopes envisions AI and automation enabling legal departments to focus on strategic tasks and align with business objectives.
Noslegal’s Open Source Legal Data Standards See Adoption (Artificial Lawyer)
The noslegal open source data standards team has gained significant traction among major law firms. They plan to expand their community with a meeting in London on October 2nd. Their modular taxonomy, which is simple and jurisdiction-neutral, enhances data standards for AI and other applications, setting them apart from standards like SALI.
AffiniPay has appointed Nate Skinner as Chief Marketing Officer to expand into new market segments. Skinner brings over 25 years of experience from Onfido, Oracle, and Salesforce. This follows AffiniPay's significant investments and its 13th consecutive year on Inc.5000’s Fastest Growing Companies List.
Access Legal has introduced Access Managed Device Solutions for law firms. The service offers fully configured IT equipment with MS 365 integration, support, and device management. This helps legal professionals focus more on client service by streamlining IT operations.
Tiger Eye Blueprint, originally created in 2015 for iManage, has been revamped in 2023 to integrate various data sources and enhance functionality. The updated platform now features REST compatibility, flexible authentication, and improved UX, configurability, and curation. A product demo will be available on 19th September.
Bryter launches new AI Extract Agent for contract review + workflows (Legal IT Insider)
Legal automation firm Bryter has introduced Extract Agent, an AI tool for contract review and data extraction, on 11 September. The tool integrates with workflows and combines large language models with Bryter's AI, requiring minimal configuration. CEO Michael Grupp emphasized its practical benefits for legal teams, following their recent AI Agents product launch.
Never Thought Artificial Lawyer Would See This One…. (Artificial Lawyer)
Bryter has introduced Extract Agent, an AI-driven tool for contract review, marking its shift from no-code automation to AI. This move aligns with the broader trend of legal tech firms adopting AI for more efficient document analysis. The legal tech market is now highly competitive, with many companies offering similar AI-powered solutions.
SimpleClosure: A Legal Tech Story of Triumph Over Adversity (Artificial Lawyer)
SimpleClosure, founded by Dori Yona, helps businesses navigate the complex process of dissolution. The company offers customized shutdown plans and handles all necessary paperwork. SimpleClosure has partnered with law firms and processed more shutdowns than most lawyers do in their careers.
Lawfront has chosen ShareDo as its new case management system to drive growth and digital transformation. This change aims to replace old systems, boost efficiency, and integrate AI across its firms. The move helps Lawfront aim for a top 40 UK firm position by leveraging advanced technology.
BRYTER has launched the AI Extract Agent to streamline contract review and data extraction, integrating seamlessly with legal workflows. This user-friendly tool requires minimal setup and automates document review, saving significant time. Major companies like Bertelsmann have already adopted BRYTER's AI Agents.
Exterro has enhanced its legal hold solution with a new Request Management module to automate e-discovery workflows and advanced reporting features. The platform now offers a modern user experience and upcoming AI-powered tools for better task execution. Additional upgrades include a near-native Slack Viewer and advanced connectors for enterprise applications.
LegalOps.com announced the 2024 “Running Legal Like a Business” Awards, highlighting innovations in legal department management. The awards celebrated achievements in intellectual property, AI, diversity, and vendor management. Winners were honored at the RLLB 2024 event in Las Vegas.
Mayer Brown hires Evette Pastoriza Clift as global CIO (Legal IT Insider)
Mayer Brown appointed Evette Pastoriza Clift as its new global CIO, succeeding Doug Caddell. Pastoriza Clift has over 20 years of IT leadership experience from Fried Frank, Clifford Chance, and Herrick Feinstein. She aims to enhance the firm's technology to provide greater value to clients.
vLex unveils major upgrade to research assistant Vincent AI (Legal IT Insider)
vLex's Vincent AI received a major upgrade, expanding its capabilities to transactional tasks and adding coverage in France, Portugal, and Brazil. The Autumn '24 release includes 12 new AI workflows for contract analysis, research, and multi-document processing. It integrates with Docket Alarm for deep litigation insights and supports collaborative, cross-jurisdictional legal work.
vLex Builds Out Its Transactional GenAI Skills With Convergence Strategy (Artificial Lawyer)
vLex has introduced new genAI tools through its enhanced Vincent AI, improving contract analysis, M&A due diligence, and multi-document processing. This upgrade strengthens vLex's competitive position against legal tech giants like Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis. Additionally, Vincent AI now integrates with Docket Alarm for advanced litigation data analysis.
Litera GenAI Survey: Doc Creation + Proofreading Top Use Cases (Artificial Lawyer)
A Litera survey found that genAI's main legal uses are document creation, proofreading, and contract review. Despite accuracy concerns, many lawyers need more education on genAI's best applications. The survey included 162 legal professionals from various global regions.
Jus Mundi Bags $22m, Launches ‘Jus AI’ Arbitration Assistant (Artificial Lawyer)
Jus Mundi raised $22 million in Series B funding to launch Jus AI, an arbitration-focused legal assistant. The funding, led by Acton Capital and True Global Ventures, will support R&D and global expansion. Jus AI will enhance legal workflows with multilingual capabilities and tools for document summarization, translation, and drafting.
LawNext: How One Legal Tech Startup Is Simplifying Data Collection from Mobile Devices (LawSites)
Matt Rasmussen, a veteran with 20 years in litigation technology, co-founded ModeOne to revolutionize mobile data collection for legal needs. ModeOne's SaaS technology allows selective, remote data collection from mobile devices. Rasmussen shared insights about this innovation on the LawNext podcast with Bob Ambrogi.
This New AI Copilot Is Your Guardian Angel During A Deposition (LawSites)
Filevine launched Depo CoPilot, a generative AI tool for real-time deposition transcription and analysis. It assists lawyers by identifying goals, spotting inconsistencies, and suggesting follow-up questions. Depo CoPilot is accessible to all and does not need Filevine's case management platform.
vLex has upgraded its Vincent AI, expanding from four to 12 AI-assisted workflows and adding new transactional capabilities and country support. The platform now includes multi-turn conversations, prompt assistance, and integration with Docket Alarm for deeper document analysis. These enhancements position vLex as a comprehensive legal intelligence company, beyond just legal research.
OpenAI o1 Models Will Boost Legal GenAI + Agentic Flows (Artificial Lawyer)
OpenAI's new o1 release improves generative AI's reasoning abilities, benefiting legal tech significantly. Companies like Spellbook and Harvey see potential in tasks such as document revision and legal reasoning. This rapid AI advancement could transform the legal industry, prompting law firms and clients to consider future preparedness.
MacroAgility Systems has introduced the Workspace Generator, a new tool in the iSyncKit suite that automates iManage workspace management. It features pre-defined templates, multithreading, and strong security options to enhance efficiency. The tool aims to save time, minimize manual errors, and increase productivity for law firms and enterprises.
