Canadian law firm, Aird & Berlis, has seconded one of its corporate associates to Toronto-based legal AI company, Diligen, as part of a wider relationship that will see the firm make use of the company’s technology for due diligence and real estate matters.
The secondment of associate, Aaron Baer, is unusual in that it is more often the case that law firms invite legal AI companies into their offices to work with them on a consulting basis, for example, to help train staff on how to use NLP and machine learning systems, or to develop new types of document search.
In this case, the direction of travel is to Diligen, which is also based in Toronto (pictured above), a legal AI company that Artificial Lawyer has followed closely for some time, but which has kept news of its client wins close to its chest until now.
That said it is understood the company has users of its AI doc review technology among multiple law firms and corporates, including on both sides of the Atlantic.
The firm said that Baer practices corporate and commercial law and has a keen interest in legal technology. He has played a leading role in the firm’s adoption of AI, legal project management and data analytics tools.
The idea is that Baer will work with Diligen on developing new use cases, shaping the product roadmap and training Diligen’s NLP system to identify additional legal concepts.
In turn, Diligen will benefit from the real-world insights of another practising lawyer, and Aird & Berlis will gain additional perspective on the emerging legal tech ecosystem.
Steven Zakem, Managing Partner at Aird & Berlis, said: ‘We believe that AI will play an increasingly prominent role in the delivery of legal services and are thrilled to be collaborating with Diligen.’
Konrad Pola, Co-Founder and CEO of Diligen, said: ‘This win represents a fundamental shift in how legal firms can modernise the manual, painstaking contract review process. We are proud to partner with Aird & Berlis.’