Epiq has added legal AI company Diligen to its growing list of tech partners to help with review and doc analysis tasks. Two weeks ago, Epiq announced it was also rolling out the latest versions of NexLP, Brainspace, and Relativity Analytics globally to support its process work for clients.
Although Epiq is probably most closely associated with eDiscovery, Diligen said the kind of matters that clients will be able to work with the combined offering on includes reviews related to: transactional due diligence, NDAs, employment contracts, leases, and financial services contracts – at least in Canada.
The move is part of a wider trend among ALSPs* to embrace the use of automated review tools, such as NLP doc review systems. For example, we have seen UnitedLex and also Integreon both partner with Seal Software recently – see story.
[ * Should we call Epiq an ALSP? To Artificial Lawyer it certainly looks to be one. Lots of companies are out there that have hundreds of staff doing legal process work, and use a mix of tech and process specialisation, primarily for eDiscovery, and they don’t always get called ALSPs, perhaps because they’re not doing so much transactional/corporate operational work. But…..is there really any difference in the business structure? If you’re primarily providing a type of legal service with a process level focus aren’t you an ALSP…or Law Company.…by any other name? Artificial Lawyer has asked if Epiq would like to say which category name they prefer and will update when we hear back.]
[Update: yep, apparently Epiq is very happy to be called an ALSP. So, there you go.]
With Diligen, which is based in Toronto, Epiq’s Canadian clients will now be able to leverage its contract review technology ‘without the need for any technology implementation, resulting in a significant reduction of overall contract review spend‘ they said.
And note the last bit – – – – ‘a significant reduction of overall contract review spend’ – – – – yep, that’s what it largely is all about.
The battle to compete on price (and maintain quality) when it comes to process work is clearly heating up.
As part of its expanded AI tool partnering initiative, Epiq is also certifying over 300 of its document review, client service, solution architect, and operations team members, through ‘detailed and proprietary training programmes’ they added.
Carla Swansburg, vice president and general manager, Epiq Canada, said: ‘The Diligen platform and its review capabilities align very nicely with our contract review services, enhancing the overall output and results for our clients.’
Laura van Wyngaarden, Diligen co-founder and COO, added: ‘Epiq’s global, scalable review and project management capabilities and experience, combined with the Diligen machine learning contract review platform enables clients to experience the power of AI tools without significant internal technology investment or required domain expertise.’