=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2309/13
|storemode=property
|title=Artificial Intelligence initiatives in Cuatrecasas
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2309/13.pdf
|volume=Vol-2309
|authors=Pascual Boil Ballesteros
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/jurix/Ballesteros18
}}
==Artificial Intelligence initiatives in Cuatrecasas==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2309/13.pdf
Artificial Intelligence initiatives in a Spanish
International Law Firm: Cuatrecasas
Pascual Boil Ballesteros
Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira, SL.
Abstract. This position paper describes how Cuatrecasas, as a leader
and innovative Law Firm in Spain, understands Artificial Intelligence,
and how it will impact on and disrupt its current business. In this
workshop, Cuatrecasas will share the strategy, their vision and some
of the most relevant projects and IT initiatives related to Artificial In-
telligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing from a
generic abroad spectrum solution to much more specific ad-hoc solutions.
Keywords: Natural Language Processing · Contract and Document Re-
view · Contract Automation · Due Diligence · Compliance
1 Introduction
Cuatrecasas is a law firm present in 12 countries with a strong focus on Spain,
Portugal and Latin America. It represents companies that are leaders in their
sectors, advising them on their investments in the major markets. Some relevant
information about Cuatrecasas is:
– Multidisciplinary team with 1,000 lawyers, organized by business and
industry-specific practice areas, who provide the knowledge and experience
of the business law specialities applicable in each case.
– Clients and experience. Cuatrecasas maintains close, long-standing rela-
tionships with leading companies in every sector. We are honoured to have
gained their trust and in-depth knowledge of their businesses. Thanks to
these companies, we have acquired invaluable experience advising on the
most complex aspects of every specialty area, both in recurring matters as
well as in transactions.
– Value. Cuatrecasas works with a new approach to client service, combin-
ing collective knowledge with innovation and the latest technologies to offer
contemporary, efficient advice and to provide solutions to the most complex
situations, creating value for the client, the team and the wider community.
– Geographical capacity. We connect regions through our client-tailored
model that offers the best team for each particular case, depending on the
jurisdiction, specialty area and complexity required.
– Our network consists of 16 offices on the Iberian Peninsula that are coor-
dinated with our teams in Beijing, Bogotá, Brussels, Casablanca, London,
Luanda, Maputo, Mexico City, New York, Sa̋o Paulo and Shanghai, thus
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optimizing efficiency of resources and client proximity, and benefiting from
the different time zones. Our international desks (covering Latin America,
Asia, France, Germanic countries and the Middle East) and over 20 country-
specific groups guarantee the comprehensive approach of our legal advice
from Spain and Portugal.
– Services and specialty areas. Cuatrecasas advises on all areas of business
law, applying a sectoral approach and covering all types of business. Our
law firm also combines maximum technical expertise with business vision
to provide responsible and innovative legal advice for practical solutions.
Figure 1 shows the main specialty areas in Cuatrecasas.
– Awards. Figure 2 depicts some of the most relevant awards that Cuatrecasas
has won regarding innovation and leadership in the main areas of Law.
Fig. 1. Some of the most relevant awards that Cuatrecasas has won
2 Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Sector
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking the legal world by storm and lawyers are em-
bracing the change, despite their traditional resistance to technology. In today’s
world, data is growing explosively. While that massive store of data contains
correspondingly voluminous and useful information–especially for the practice
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Fig. 2. Some of the most relevant awards that Cuatrecasas has won
of law–it also takes massive time to analyse. Thankfully, computers are evolving
just as quickly as the data boom, and theyre here to save us from ourselves.
These programs can quickly learn to complete data-intensive tasks that were
previously relegated to bored and weary humans. By recognizing patterns in
the relationships between words or data points, computers learn how to identify
relevant information, recognize mistakes, and spot inconsistencies–all faster, and
usually better, than humans do.
The primary areas where AI is being applied in the law, so far, include the
following broad categories:
– review of documents for discoverable or otherwise relevant information, gen-
erally referred to as technology-assisted review (TAR)
– legal research through automated searches of a universe of case law and
statutes
– contract and legal document analysis
– proofreading, error correction, and document organization
The benefits provided by the application of AI in the law firms field are:
– AI Saves Time
– AI Allows Earlier (and more accurate) Risk Assessment
– AI Produces Higher-Quality Work
– AI Improves Organizational and Logical Structure
– AI Enhances Creative Analysis and Identification of Persuasive Precedents
– AI Reduces Attorney Stress and Frustration
– AI Improves Client Relations
All these benefits are interrelated, with each type of benefit leading to and
fostering additional benefits. That interrelationship also harnesses the power of
momentum. Just as an early mistake can rapidly spiral into more (and more
serious) later mistakes, high-quality work also builds on itself and supports the
production of more good quality work.
In short, deploying an AI solution can create a positive momentum through-
out a law firm. As attorneys come to trust AI software, they can relax and
let the computers attend to the monotonous details. As a consequence, the AI
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adoption is increasing, CBRE1 published a summary from a survey carried out
in London among 100 law firms [1]. This survey reveals that 48% are already
using AI and a further 41% will start to do so in the near future. The most com-
mon uses of AI apparently include legal documentation generation and review
(mentioned by 63% of firms), e-discovery (63%), due diligence (47%), research
(42%), compliance and administrative support (both 32%).
A frequently expressed concern is that increased reliance on AI will lead to
job cuts in the sector, particularly amongst junior lawyers and support roles. Ac-
cording to CBRE’s research, 45% of firms surveyed expect to see headcount fall
at these levels. However, only 7% expect AI to lead to a reduction in headcount
at a senior level.
3 Artificial Intelligence in Cuatrecasas
Cuatrecasas has been actively following for many years, piloting and searching
for applications of AI and Machine Learning (ML) within the firm. Currently
our lines of work revolve around two large blocks / lines of generic work: the
first focuses on the Automating Low Value Tasks and the second aimed at
complementing and supporting the lawyer in the Resolution of Simple Legal
Issues. All this plus a third line of Advanced Business Analytics incorporating
predictive analytics into our production, commercial and compliance processes.
This current situation is part of a long history around AI and ML. It all
started after the appearance in the press of IBM Watson in the Jeopardy contest
in 2011 and materialized (after many efforts) in a workshop and a POC of
possible IBM Watson applications in Cuatrecasas at the end of 2015. In this
period, Cuatrecasas focused on analysing technology and the state of the art.
After ruling out the approach proposed by IBM with Watson as expensive and
slow, Cuatrecasas decided to evaluate and finally bet on other more affordable
solutions. It was at the end of 2015 that SEMANTI-K was acquired, a solution
from a small Spanish company named ISOCO specialized in technology based
on Semantics and the recognition of natural language (NLP). ISOCO was lately
acquired by Expert System and Cuatrecasas technologically decided to migrate
to the Expert System’s product Cogito Discover 2 .
In parallel and during the following years the IA and the ML has been con-
solidating within the legal sector and nice solutions have appeared, especially
oriented to the Anglo-Saxon market (trained in English), focusing initially on
the analysis and automatic classification of documents in the field of Due Dili-
gence. In Cuatrecasas we decided to bet on Kira 3 (after evaluating many similar
1
CBRE Group, Inc. is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and invest-
ment firm. Home Page available at: https://www.cbre.co.uk/about-cbre/corporate-
information
2
https://www.expertsystem.com/products/text-analytics-software-cogito-discover/
3
https://kirasystems.com/
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solutions like eBrevia 4 , RAVN 5 and later Luminance 6 ) to pilot and start train-
ing with documents in Spanish.
This line of solutions aimed at support in operations and document / contract
review was complemented in 2017 with the Doxray 7 collaboration, a Dutch
start-up that championed a general solution based on Deep Learning and that
wanted to enter the legal sector for non-English speaking. Doxray, unlike the
previous solutions, allows to customize and adapt the solution to specific use
cases and on them we are continuously working creating ”specific products” for
operations and recurring problems of our lawyers. On this platform we have
created a solution for real estate transactions (massive analysis of real estate
assets in transactions of purchase and sale of companies and / or assets, starting
from the simple notes of the property registry but integrating with commercial
register, cadastre, ...).
And also integrating the advances in training in the analysis of frequent
contracts in due diligence of M & A, such as Lease Agreements and Distribution
Contracts, where the simple notes associated with the properties usually appear
or are also provided.
And many more things, we analyze and test the different cognitive service
providers to integrate them in our projects / solutions, from the Cognitive Ser-
vices of Azure, IBM Bluemix through the Google Cloud Platform or the SAP
Hana Cloud Platform.
Currently, Cuatrecases has several initiatives and projects around these tech-
nologies in the office, which we will explain and show in the workshop:
– Analysis of Simple Notes with Doxray (solution and case of success)
– Experiences and advances in Contract Review with KIRA and Luminance
– Automatic document classification
– Cuatrecasas WORD INTELLIGENCE as an integrating front-end tool and
facilitator of the lawyer’s work in the process of creating legal documents
– Use case of Cuatrecasas Labour Law within the LYNX H2020 project [2]
– and other pilot experiences related to BOTS and the concept of the VIR-
TUAL ATTORNEY
References
1. London Law Firms Embrace Artificial Intelligence, https://news.cbre.co.uk/london-
law-firms-embrace-artificial-intelligence/. Last accessed 4 January 2019
2. Legal Knowledge Graph for Multilingual Compliance Services (LYNX), http://lynx-
project.eu/. Last accessed 4 January 2019
4
https://ebrevia.com/
5
https://imanage.com/product/ravn/
6
https://www.luminance.com/
7
https://doxray.com/
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