The Nordic legal world is proving to be highly receptive to legal AI doc review technology as another leading firm, this time Setterwalls, announces it has selected Luminance for due diligence review.
The announcement marks the 18th Nordic law firm to adopt Luminance’s AI review tech, according to the company. Other Nordic firms making use of legal AI tech include: BA-HR, Gernandt & Danielsson, and Bech-Bruun.
The UK-based AI company said that Setterwalls particularly liked Luminance’s ‘Visualise’ screen, which gave the deal team insight into the activity of the data room, including clause, document types, anomalies, and regional activities.
This suggests that the UI/UX aspects of AI systems are highly significant when it comes to user buy-in, which makes sense, as at the end of the day lawyers are not just paying for NLP precision, but usability and added value from enhanced data visibility.
Marc Tullgren, a partner at Setterwalls, said of the announcement: ‘When trialling Luminance, we identified a clear opportunity within the firm to significantly reduce the amount of time spent manually reviewing documentation for M&A transactions. The power of the machine learning meant that Luminance was able to learn new Swedish concepts from day one of the pilot, whilst simultaneously exposing potential risks and anomalies within the data room.’
‘Ultimately, Luminance means we can get to the higher-value work faster and deliver a better service to our clients,’ he added.
Philippa von Seth, Head of Knowledge Management at Setterwalls, also said: ‘Luminance’s AI platform is incredibly easy-to-use and intuitive.’
Emily Foges, CEO of Luminance, concluded: ‘Our huge success across the Nordic region is further testament to the power of Luminance’s machine learning technology and its transformational approach to legal contract review.’
As to why the Nordic law firms are so focused on legal AI doc review, or why they like Luminance in particular, is not clear yet. One reason perhaps is that the Nordic region often sees M&A deals where multiple countries, e.g. Sweden, Norway and Finland will all be involved. Having a situation where all the firms involved are operating off the same AI review system may perhaps make life easier for all parties.
That in turn may drive a degree of ‘platformisation’, i.e. because A and B use platform X, then those who do deals with A and B have a strong incentive to also use the same system. As the trend grows it reinforces itself until not using platform X becomes seen as unusual in that market.
But, we’ll see. It’s still early days. However, getting through the door with so many firms in a highly connected regional market has got to help with further uptake.
Also, in other Nordic news, US-based legal AI pioneer, Seal Software, has opened a sales office in Sweden. Seal, unlike some its rivals, has tended to work with corporates directly.
—
[ Picture Credit: (c) R Tromans, Stockholm, Sweden, 2018. ]