AI has begun to infiltrate virtually all business sectors and law fraternity has not been spared. South African law firm Webber Wentzel has announced the adoption of Luminance's artificial intelligence (AI) technology platform.
The Luminance AI platform is a streamlined platform that pairs the computing power of artificial intelligence with human training and experience to make contract review faster and more accurate.
Developed by London-based start-up of the same name, the Luminance AI platform uses machine learning techniques from the University of Cambridge to find key information within thousands of contracts. Clauses, documents, currencies, locations, governing laws and more are automatically tagged for faster navigation of documents, while anomaly detection highlights areas of potential risk. The platform can also be deployed in any language.
Celia Pienaar, legal project manager who oversees alternative resourcing at Webber Wentzel's Legal Services Centre, says the firm opted to deploy the technology in a bid to enhance its due diligence processes particularly for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. M & A transaction are those in which the ownership of companies, other business organisations or their operating units are transferred or combined.
"We have been using a number of innovative technology solutions to continuously improve efficiencies and add value when we deliver our legal services to our clients. Machine learning technology is the next step in our journey, focusing on enhancing the management and review of increasingly large volumes of documents," she said,
"Luminance's advanced machine learning streamlines due diligence and similar high volume processes. Its unique visualise dashboard provides an immediate, holistic understanding of the data room content. We're excited to deploy Luminance across the firm and work with our clients to further enhance the top-tier service they have come to expect of our brand."
Pienaar adds that the company particularly values the platform's built-in collaboration tools which will allow its lawyers to quickly group and assign documents, track live progress, and significantly reduce the amount of time spent organising workflow.
CEO of Luminance Emily Foges says the use of AI in the law sector is becoming prevalent.
"In the past, legal AI platforms have used bespoke solutions to assist lawyers in the complex field of due diligence. With this new generation of machine learning that can understand in a similar way to the human brain, we will also see an increase in popularity of technology that is language agnostic. This will allow legal AI platforms to be used around the world to recognise legal concepts in multiple languages, so lawyers can dedicate more time to advising clients and higher value activities. Webber Wentzel understands the importance of innovation in the legal sector, and we are thrilled to welcome them as the first SA law firm to adopt our language agnostic technology."
She adds that looking ahead, lengthy deployments and training periods will no longer be a requirement. "Because true AI adapts and learns as you use it, I expect to see an even greater appetite for the technology as individuals and firms gain confidence in its ability to accelerate their insight."
Since its launch in September 2016, Luminance has gathered over 70 customers across 18 countries - including Spanish Araoz & Rueda, American Holland & Knight LLP, International law firm Bird & Bird's as well as Australian McCullough Robertson, to name a few.
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