Use of legal analytics now essential to litigation law practice
Among the realities of practicing law today is client expectations, which now see the use of legal analytics as essential. What was at one time exception has now become essential where lawyers are making evidence-based decisions and competing in the business and practice of law.
Lawyers are meeting this challenge by creating a competitive advantage in courts and with clients by combining sophisticated analysis, AI and natural language processing.
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Client expectations drive adoption of legal analytics
A 2020 study of legal analytics conducted by ALM Intelligence in collaboration with LexisNexis found that the tipping point for the adoption of legal analytics by large law firm legal professionals has now been reached. Conducted in December of 2019, the study polled 163 professionals from large law firms to understand more about the adoption, application and value of legal analytics.
The study found that competitive pressures and expectations from clients are driving the adoption of legal analytics by law firms and legal professionals, who increasingly see it as instrumental for increasing knowledge and competitiveness while improving overall efficiency.
The study also found that legal analytics is primarily used for gaining competitive insights, followed by strategic case assessment and pricing, and pursuing new business.
In particular, the study found that:
- 98% say legal analytics have improved their law firm’s performance
- 92% plan to increase their use of legal analytics in the next 12 months
- 90% say legal analytics make them a better, more informed, more efficient, and effective lawyer
- 75% say legal analytics increases their organization’s knowledge
- 73% are gaining competitive insights on opposing counsel, parties, judges and more
- 56% say legal analytics increases competitiveness
The results reflect that as more legal professionals become aware of and use legal analytics, the more it’s value for improving law practice is understood.
Malaysian litigators see the value of technology for their law practice
In Malaysia, litigators see the need for more technology solutions to assist them advance their practice. In particular:
Donovan Cheah from Donovan & Ho said: “Lawyers’ work has always been data driven because you are relying on precedents and documents. Your ability and competency at being a good lawyer and a good advocate depends on your ability to extract and analyse information quickly. Whatever system you use is beside the point, if you can use technology to speed it up of course it will be a benefit to you.”
“There are fears, whether unfounded or not, that these tools are going to replace lawyers but to me I don’t have that fear. I think it is an issue of whether we as lawyers can use these existing tools to our advantage so that we can provide faster services to our clients without compromising quality. If we spend less time doing it then perhaps, we can be more competitive in terms of the rates that we charge.”
Lee Shih from Lim Chee Wee Partnership, responded to a question on the future of legal landscape in Malaysia, particularly litigation: “We have to be prepared to work in a paperless and digital environment, especially one which is a cloud-based environment. The electronic filing system (EFS) is already almost implemented throughout Malaysia. The next phase of the EFS will allow electronic service of court papers through the EFS itself. All these changes are here to stay. We will have to adapt.”
LexisNexis is launching a new legal analytics product in Malaysia
LexisNexis launched a new legal analytics product in Malaysia, called Lexis Analytics Malaysia, powered by AI and data technology. This new product will be the first of its kind in Southeast Asia in general, and Malaysia in particular.
Lexis Analytics Malaysia helps legal practitioners look beyond traditional legal research to more effectively strategize and plan tactical moves in their practice of litigation with competitive AI intelligence.” This powerful new tool possesses advanced knowledge extraction capabilities facilitated by Deep Learning, Knowledge Graphs and Natural Language Understanding technologies.
AI powered technology produces better case results
AI is deeply embedded in Lexis Analytics Malaysia, helping it to deploy across thousands of case law documents and pinpoint related and relevant legal issues, intelligibly visualize and analyze case outcomes, quickly identify winning strategies, and plan informed tactical moves in contentious legal matters.
How lawyers are reacting to it
Since its launch in January 2021, Lexis Analytics Malaysia has received positive responses from the legal market in Malaysia, this breakthrough is nothing without credits given to the careful considerations they put in the product based on findings made with customers and practitioners during the discovery phase. Idza Hajar Ahmad Idzam from Zul Rafique & Partners said: “I found that Lexis Analytics Malaysia is quite useful in my research, it seems to be able to catch on and find accurate cases.” And Audrey Lim from Zaid Ibrahim & Co said: “The AI was able to extract the relevant facts and legal issues that I want, which makes it especially useful. Truly a time saver.”
Litigators in Malaysia are now working with this tailored solution to help augment their practices, making them more effective, “data driven lawyers” that are achieving better outcomes for their clients, and their law firm competitiveness.
Be the first to experience an AI-enabled solution for litigators, get a free trial today: http://info.lexisnexis.com.my/my21lexisanalyticsmalaysiaalp
