Lawyers on Demand (LOD) has announced the launch of a new partnership with AI company Eigen Technologies that will see the flexible resourcing group offer its over 500 clients NLP review services.
Eigen’s technology will now be used by LOD’s teams of lawyers working for clients where doc review and NLP analysis is required for the matter. The move is part of a broader strategic push by LOD to build up its tech capabilities so that it can combine the right mix of people, process and technology for its clients.
This strategy involves the earlier launch of Designed Solutions at LOD, which provides teams of lawyers augmented by technology, data, analytics and project management, aimed at helping to support in-house counsel and legal operations teams.
Partnering with Eigen is an important move for LOD and comes at a time of great change in the non-traditional legal services market. It also shows that NLP-based review and analysis is a growing need among what is a very broad and diverse client base at LOD, that includes companies such as: American Express, Barclays, Google and Adidas.
Adam Eastell, Chief Legal and Strategy Officer at Eigen Technologies, said: ‘Eigen’s technology is all about putting the power of machine learning directly into the hands of our clients. I am excited to see our technology now being used by LOD’s lawyers. It is by combining cutting-edge technology with legal expertise that we will change the legal industry for the better.’
Eastell also told Artificial Lawyer that it wasn’t always easy for in-house legal teams to run major NLP-driven review projects on their own, and that businesses were sitting on a huge amount of institutional knowledge that could be revealed with NLP technology, in addition to that technology being used on event-driven matters.
‘We are seeing growing interest from ALSPs, and it is perhaps easier for them to use this type of tech as they already have a disrupted business model,’ he added.
Nigel Rea, Service Development Director at LOD, said of the partnership: ‘In Eigen we’ve found a partner that encourages experimentation around client needs, and we look forward to bringing a perfect blend of legal teams, process gurus, and machine learning to our clients.’
Rea told Artificial Lawyer: ‘We did an RFI in October and we chose Eigen. They had the right fit.’
He added that Designed Solutions would see more tech of other types in the future, but with Eigen they had now added the important element of machine learning and NLP.
LOD is generally considered to be first significant ‘lawyers on demand’ service, launching back in 2007 – 12 years ago – with just eight on demand lawyers back then. Today they have over 650 lawyers and consultants and operate globally after merging in 2016 with AdventBalance.
It’s also fair to say that LOD’s success went on to inspire many other independent businesses and law firm affiliated groups to offer similar services.
To conclude, to see LOD seek out AI technology, and as part of a broader strategy to provide more tech solutions, is perhaps the sign of a new chapter in LOD’s successful history. It may also signal a broader uptake of NLP technology across the market.
What is NLP ?
Hi Joseph, NLP in this sector refers to ‘Natural Language Processing’, i.e. using a special type of software to ‘read’ normal text at a usually much deeper level than word search. It’s a bit of an umbrella term and so also covers voice systems that ‘understand’ normal human speech.
This is an essential part of ‘legal AI’ systems as text and understanding it is central to the legal profession.
Hope that helps.