Earlier this month, Luminance was delighted to attend Legal Geek 2021 as the flagship conference returned to London, bringing together over 800 legal professionals and innovators during the two-day event.

Following a challenging and unprecedented year for the legal sector, we have witnessed a complete revision of traditional working practices. Remote working, increased market volatility and ever more complex regulatory requirements have all contributed to the exciting surge in technology adoption. Emerging from the pandemic, it seems apparent from the electrifying atmosphere at Legal Geek that this trend towards embracing next-generation technology is only set to continue.

Taking to the Legal Geek stage to address the buzz surrounding legal innovation were Luminance’s Commercial Director, Frederica Kitchen, and Joe Cohen, Practice Development and Innovation Manager at the world’s largest law firm and long-standing Luminance customer, Dentons.

The Triple Win: Why Adopting Technology Benefits Us All

Frederica opened the discussion by asking why the adoption of legal technology is important and who is set to benefit the most from it. As Joe explained, the goal for legal professionals has always remained the same: to deliver optimum client delivery. However, if they wish to do this in today’s climate, then they need to leverage the latest technology. They need to leverage AI.

Notably, Joe identified three key beneficiaries when it comes to the adoption of AI. Firstly, the lawyer, who is freed from the labour-intensive process of document review. With technology expediting the review process, providing a level of insight and analysis that simply cannot be matched by manual review methods, lawyers can spend their time on more important tasks, such as developing strategy, applying creative thinking to their case and ultimately advising clients. Secondly, the client, who can take advantage of faster response times from their lawyer, higher quality legal counsel and the first-mover advantage, informed by the technology’s data analysis and findings. Finally, law firms, which are emerging as winners because they can taking on more projects with fewer resources, open up additional revenue streams, unlock higher profits and ensure they are retaining the best and brightest talent.

Transforming Document Review with an AI-Powered Legal Team

With Dentons using both Luminance’s pioneering Diligence and Discovery platforms in their offices around the globe, Frederica asked Joe what success looks like when it comes to deploying AI.

Joe gave an instance when, in the summer, Dentons was tasked with a commercial matter that was so large a senior associate at the firm said the review would have been “impossible” to complete without Luminance. Joe went on to explain that Luminance expedited the entire process to ensure that the team was able to execute the deal. He elaborated that prior to using Luminance, the team had already clocked approximately 500 hours on the matter, leaving him to wonder how much longer it would have taken to complete without the assistance of AI!

Joe identified Luminance’s clause extraction, datapoint recognition and document classification features as essential to the matter. With so many crucial details to review within the gigantic dataset, not to mention within such a short timeframe, the project simply couldn’t have been delivered without Luminance’s unsupervised machine learning, which allows the platform to read and form a conceptual understanding of documents and legal data. Thanks to this unique capability, the lawyers at Dentons were provided with unparalleled insight into their datasets during the complex, high-volume review.

Of course, Luminance’s unique machine learning approach means it can be deployed across a wide range of matters. Joe explained how Dentons’ Helix Team uses Luminance’s AI during contract negotiation to compare original drafts with executed versions. Luminance’s ability to track these clause changes has helped the team to develop their negotiation strategy and better advise clients on whether to change their position.

As Frederica noted: “AI opens up the art of the possible. It’s not just about saving time on legal work; it’s about pitching for more projects and delivering projects that weren’t deliverable to clients before”.

A Future with AI

Against a backdrop of law firms of all sizes journeying towards the adoption of technology, the discussion concluded by addressing the issue of ‘tech-sceptics’. Though some concerns surrounding AI persist, it’s important to recognise that times are changing and lawyers need to embrace innovation to remain competitive. Ultimately, AI represents opportunity, and this is something that should be welcomed by all.

Watch the full recording of Luminance’s discussion with Dentons at Legal Geek 2021 here.