AI and the Elite Law Firm

Elite global law firms are no exception to the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Harvey AI, which uses a version of the GPT large language model trained on legal data, case law and firm-specific precedents and materials, promises to be transformative for leading law firms handling sophisticated matters.

It recently attracted USD21 million in funding, with the Series A round led by Sequoia and participation from OpenAI. Allen & Overy and PwC have been announced as enterprise customers for Harvey, which is currently in beta. 

However, AI is already in use for a variety of legal tasks, and existing products and services covered in Chambers LawTech are as relevant for the elite firms as for the rest of the legal industry. Today, AI technologies can assist with streamlining document review, legal research and brief analysis, managing large volumes of data in complex deals or disputes, and even with predicting the outcome of litigation. 

Unlike volume-based or lower value legal tasks, the sophisticated work that elite law firms undertake is unlikely to be displaced by technological solutions or outsourced providers. However, smart use of technologies like AI can help leading law firms to reduce time spent on low value tasks, freeing up their fee earners to focus on the most important parts of a deal, agreement or dispute. 

AI can assist with the often immensely time-consuming task of reviewing and analysing vast volumes of documents and other electronically stored information during transactional due diligence and large-scale disclosure/discovery exercises. 

AI tools like Luminance can swiftly process vast volumes of documents, increasing efficiency and reducing human error, and can identify connections, classify documents based on relevance, and create dashboards to allow human reviewers to visualise data and conduct more efficient second-stage reviews. 

AI-powered contract analysis tools can review contractual language, flag potential risks, and suggest revisions. These platforms allow M&A deal teams to review large contracts databases, mitigating risk by highlighting contracts or clauses that fall outside organisational policy. This technology can also be used in regulatory compliance monitoring exercises. 

Natural language processing platforms like Lexis+ or Westlaw Edge can search vast precedent databases in minutes, identify patterns, and extract and summarise ratio decidendi and other insights, enabling litigation lawyers to conduct legal research faster and more effectively. 

Similarly, platforms such as Fastcase and LitiGate can be used to review briefs and evidence bundles, identifying connections between documents, highlighting weaknesses or inconsistencies, and suggesting relevant precedents. 

Law firms and litigation funders can also use predictive analytics to assess the likelihood of success in disputes matters. Products such as Solomonic can review historical case outcomes, identifying relevant factors and predicting potential outcomes. Litigation funders can use these prediction engines as a first sift on their investment opportunities. Filtering out cases that do not fit the funder’s investment strategy or have insurmountable obstacles to success or recovery could significantly streamline the unproductive work of reading dozens of briefs that the funder will ultimately reject.  

In both cases, the technology supports the decision maker to find relevant information as swiftly as possible and filtering out “noise”. 

AI is unlikely to replace human decision makers in sophisticated legal matters, and it is certainly a long, long way away from being able to replicate the decades of experience, legal knowledge and commercial nous of a Chambers-ranked law firm partner.

But AI-powered LegalTech products should not be seen merely as a replacement for low-end, commoditised legal services; by automating the lower-value work inherent even in the most complex deals and disputes, AI can help fee earners at elite firms to spend more time on the most important, sensitive, strategic and professionally fulfilling aspects of their matters.