Clifford Chance has launched an AI-enabled KM platform, developed in partnership with Microsoft and Epiq Advisory. It continues a deep relationship with the tech giant. The platform already contains more than 400,000 documents, they said.
The new Knowledge Bank ‘curates decades of the firm’s expertise within a secure, AI-ready repository’. It was built using Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Azure, and Azure AI Studio.
The platform delivers ‘knowledge in context – aligned to a lawyer’s work, role, location, and specific requirements – while drawing from a broader set of sources and formats’, they added.
Some of its key aspects include:
- ‘The platform is modular, scalable, and fully Microsoft-native, designed to evolve with the firm’s needs and support custom, lawyer-centric capabilities
- AI-ready knowledge base: 400,000+ documents reclassified and summarised, creating a curated content set optimised for AI and ensuring generative tools use only trusted internal materials.
- Embedded AI capabilities: Natural language search, summarisation, smart tagging, and generative answers are integrated into daily workflows
- Permissioned Search: An exclusive feature developed by Epiq Advisory for Law Firms that enables lawyers to discover knowledge while maintaining strict access controls governed by metadata-driven permissions aligned with client confidentiality.
- Microsoft-native architecture: Built entirely within Microsoft 365 and Azure, including SharePoint, Power Platform, Graph API, and Azure AI Studio, ensuring seamless integration, enterprise-grade security, and alignment with IT strategy.
- Modular and extensible design: Architected for continuous innovation, allowing new capabilities to be added and tailored to specific practices and knowledge use cases.’
Matt Taylor, Partner, Global Head of Knowledge & Training at Clifford Chance, commented: ‘The creation of our new Knowledge Bank is central to our strategy of delivering value to our clients. Our work with Epiq Advisory for Law Firms and Microsoft allows us to curate decades of firm knowledge in a repository that enables the deployment of AI while respecting client confidentiality.
‘Clients will benefit from efficiencies and insights made possible by AI and other new technologies, underpinned by our specialist expertise and not just off-the-shelf solutions.’
Kieron Champion, Managing Director & Advisory Practice Lead, Epiq Advisory for Law Firms, added: ‘Partnering with Clifford Chance and Microsoft, we have helped build a Microsoft-native platform that redefines how legal knowledge can be curated, governed, and activated through AI – embedded directly in the lawyer workflow. Moreover, this solution creates a foundation that liberates Clifford Chance to innovate on its own terms.’
And Paul Barlow, Technology Strategist – Legal Services, Microsoft, concluded: ‘Clifford Chance and Microsoft have a long-standing relationship rooted in a shared focus on innovation and delivering technologies that create meaningful impact for the firm and its clients.
‘From being one of the first global law firms to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot, to now exploring the use of AI to reimagine how the firm harnesses its valuable knowledge assets, the firm’s work with Epiq Advisory for Law Firms reflects Clifford Chance’s commitment to leveraging advanced technologies to deliver client value and enhance lawyer productivity.’
Is this a big deal?
Well, it’s a sign of how much Microsoft wants to do more than just provide basic infrastructure to the legal sector – and clearly this project needed a lot of customisation and engineering, which Epiq provided a big part of.
Major KM and DMS players will no doubt be watching this very closely…!
Should we expect more of this? Well, AL is sure that in the current ‘Big Tech Does Legal Tech’ era that we are in, they’d be delighted to get more calls for similar major projects.
P.S. although not connected, Microsoft is also still working away on its LLM-driven Legal Agent, developed with the former Robin AI team.
—
Two Major Legal Innovators Conferences this November
Come and join us in New York and London this November at Legal Innovators!
Legal Innovators UK – London, Nov 4 and 5
And, then Legal Innovators New York – Nov 17 and 18.
After another fantastic Legal Innovators California, where we had speakers from OpenAI, Y Combinator, Google, Meta, and many more pioneering organisations; and our stellar inaugural event in Paris this June, we are now looking forward to the landmark conferences in London and New York, both in November, and both across two days: Law Firm Day, and Inhouse Day.
Discover more from Artificial Lawyer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.