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The power of code: nearly 300m cases are in the Docket Alarm database

Most organisations still struggle to form effective data strategies, none more so than in the legal sector, where, ironically, data touches every part of a business’s operation. The nominees here reveal how powerful the use of data can be in streamlining business processes.
Case studies compiled by RSG Consulting.

WINNER
D2 Legal Technology

D2 Legal Technology uses data strategies to assist clients improve operational efficiency. Recent work includes helping the International Swaps and Derivatives Association to standardise its master agreement template, addressing variations that had accumulated over 30 years.

Using AI-enabled software, D2 has built a clause library to streamline contract negotiation. It has also helped Australian investment bank Macquarie review its contracts in advance of Brexit.

Aon
Ten years ago, the value of most big companies lay in physical assets. Now many of their assets are intangible. One critical intangible asset is trade secrets, which unlike patents and trademarks are unregistered. Aon, the diversified risk management company, launched a confidential registry in May 2019 to list companies’ trade secrets, which allows them to be valued and insured.

California secretary of state and SimpliGov
After facing a 140% increase in trademarking applications due to legislative changes around the sale and taxation of cannabis, California employed SimpliGov, the workflow automation company, to digitise the trademark process. A user-friendly platform has reduced registration times by more than half and a fully searchable database now contains 13,000 trademarks and all modifications.

Banco Santander and Deloitte Legal
Deloitte Legal and Banco Santander have developed a regulatory notification service that filters and summarises data from 100 European regulatory bodies and feeds it to the bank, where it is distributed to appropriate departments. The integration of the filtering system with Santander’s own tools has saved time for the bank, which has to deal with regulatory changes daily.

CDS and Relativity
When European data regulations known as GDPR came into force last year, ediscovery solutions provider Complete Discovery Source (CDS) used Relativity to conduct an AI-powered document review. In one example, CDS reduced the document set by 99 per cent, allowing its client to meet a 40-day deadline set by regulators.

Fastcase’s Docket Alarm
After the establishment of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Washington in 2012, attorney Michael Sander developed Docket Alarm, which collates data to help lawyers prepare for trials.

The database includes information on court decisions for more than 285m cases from the federal judiciary, 20 state courts and seven federal agencies. In 2018, Docket Alarm was acquired by Fastcase, a legal research and publishing company.

IACCM and KM Standards
Helped by AI technology provider KM Standards, the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management traced correlations and patterns in thousands of contracts to develop a universal set of contracting principles based on best practice.

KPMG Australia and Neota Logic
KPMG Australia turned to Neota Logic’s low-code platform to help solve some common problems, including issuing workplace visas and reporting data breaches. The new Business Visitor Assist app streamlines the visa process while the Data Breach Assist app uses decision-tree logic to assess the urgency of each case.

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation and eBrevia
Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation uses eBrevia’s data analysis tool to increase efficiency across five business areas. The tool transforms text into data through natural language processing. The workload for reviewing documents in class-action lawsuits has been halved.

Ocwen Financial and QuisLex
US mortgage provider Ocwen and law company QuisLex have developed a process to analyse long and complex contracts, including mortgage-backed securitisations. The analysis uses artificial intelligence to compare hundreds of contracts and reduce the number of contract clauses that need to go before panel law firms. The time taken for such reviews has halved and the companies have saved more than $10m in outside counsel spending.

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