A report in The Memo .com reveals that CC are the latest to join the AI revolution
Magic circle’ law firm Clifford Chance embraces AI wizardry
Artificial intelligence spells a new age of flux for lawyers.
Clifford Chance, one of the big five “magic circle” law firms in the United Kingdom, has made a bold move into AI wizardry.
The legal practice has just announced a new partnership with software provider Kira Systems to step up the “speed, efficiency and quality” of its services.
The firm will use Kira to search and analyse contracts to ensure that there are no legal loopholes or errors, allowing more contracts to be reviewed and freeing up staff.
“Our clients are under substantial pressure to reduce legal spend,” said Bas Boris Visser, Clifford Chance’s global head of innovation and business.
“At the same time, they need more support to manage the increasing risks and complex issues that their companies are facing.”
A legal revolution is underway
Clifford Chance is by no means the first legal firm to adopt AI (it’s already being used by the likes of Berwin Leighton Paisner and Thomson Reuters ), but this week’s announcement adds meaningful momentum to an industry already in flux.
We’ve seen free robot lawyers who can overturn your parking ticket (with a 64% success rate), and AI leaders IBM Watson have told us personally how their software is shaping the profession.
“IBM Watson and cognitive technology is capable of helping everything and everyone,” Christoph Auer-Welsbach, IBM Watson’s Strategic Partnership Lead for Europe, told The Memo.
“Lawyers can be much more creative in actually working on the case.”
Do or die
It’s perhaps not surprising that Britain’s legal leaders are taking action.
Earlier this year, a report from The Law Society, rallied the industry stating: “Firms must adapt or die.”
The thing is while technology can empower lawyers to do their jobs better, it does this by making certain jobs redundant.
Smaller businesses may find that they can be easily replaced by new automated systems.
In fact 24% of law firms surveyed said they were losing client work to new technology solutions and another 42% said they view these new services as a potential threat.
Whatever the impact on your business, we know you can’t stand in the way of progress.
For some this will mean an enchanted future, but for others it will spell a death sentence.
