Digital transformation is a reality that has been developing over the course of this century, starting with disciplines such as engineering, economics, and finance; and although it may not seem so, the field of law is not alien to this transformation; on the contrary, it experiences it firsthand, as this discipline can encompass realities and create or strengthen terms long before legislators regulate them, whether by custom or by the creation of a rule.
Legaltech is an English term that comes from joining the words "legal" and "technology." Under this term, the doctrine has designated various phenomena such as: specific technology for the legal sector; the legal branch that focuses on the law of technology; companies dedicated to developing specific technology for the legal sector; start-ups that develop technology for the legal sector; the scientific discipline dedicated to the relationships between technology and law; and the sum of all the above.
Legaltech is also known, among many other names, in Latin America as Legal Technology, LawTech, technologies for law, and ICT law. However, the doctrine is clear in establishing that this concept represents the integration of the provision of legal services with new technologies.
This concept seems very new, and it is for the legal sector, but not so much for the technology sector, in which a technology from last year can be considered old and obsolete. There are records from 2009 that could indicate the beginnings of Legaltech with the creation of 15 startups in legal services that were part of the AngelList list, a US website dedicated to finding investors for new companies. Currently, we have more than 1,000 startups, and according to the statistics firm Thomson Reuters, in recent years there has been a 484% increase in global patent applications - mainly the United States, China, and South Korea - for new legal technologies.[1]
Organizations that provide innovative products or services that improve the provision of legal services have focused on making these services faster, more profitable, and with a more appropriate approach according to the desired object, directing technologies to support the work of all or some professional groups and/or to improve or transform the legal system and justice. The most common categories in which LegalTech ventures have been grouped are enabling technologies, process improvement, and substantive law.
Enabling technologies are those that facilitate processes, especially within law firms, such as document review technologies that automate common discovery steps like data ingestion, file indexing, optical character recognition, and virus analysis, among others, preparing documents for review and production; these technologies allow the handling of large volumes of data for legal research with advanced tools, such as machine learning and natural language processing, to clean, structure, and analyze raw data from millions of cases and documents; and to build legal strategies with technologies that support Artificial Intelligence (AI), reasoning systems, expert systems, and databases, among others.
Process improvement consists of the implementation of new technologies that allow automating the management function within law firms in the fields of case management, record keeping, information storage, and improved decision-making by providing the right information in context; even permeating client relationships and pricing management, which with artificial intelligence helps establish and track values from quotation to invoice, thus helping firms manage their resources more efficiently.
Substantive law technologies are those that provide tools to facilitate the execution of legal tasks through the contributions of AI, automating the execution of repetitive legal tasks such as contract drafting and analysis, indicating which documents deserve more detailed study; as well as drafting analysis to reduce the margin of error when preparing any legal document.
It is important to emphasize that Legaltech does not seek to replace lawyers, but rather to make the provision of legal services more efficient and effective with the tools it provides; therefore, it is said that legal technology is a means and not an end to facilitate access to advice and defense for clients, so current lawyers should not worry about being replaced by a computer; quite the opposite, we must strive to understand and use technologies since they will be essential to adequately provide legal services in the not-too-distant future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rincón Cárdenas, E. and Martínez Molano, V., 2020. LEGALTECH ABC de los servicios legales en la era digital. Cartillas Cámara 3/2020, [online] Available at: <https://www.camaramedellin.com.co/biblioteca/abc-de-los-servicios-legales-en-la-era-digital> [Accessed 24 February 2021].
Torres Varela, J., 2021. ABOGADOS DIGITALES. [ebook] pp.31-39. Available at: <https://www.abogadodigital.tfdc.co> [Accessed 24 February 2021].
González, M., 2020. ¿Qué es y qué no es legaltech?. De la crisis a la transformación, pp.53-58.
[1] Torres Varela, J., 2021. ABOGADOS DIGITALES. [Ebook] pp.31-39. Available at: <https://www.abogadodigital.tfdc.co> [Accessed 24 February 2021].
Author: Ana Maria Silva Z. – Consulting Lawyer AZC
Author: Juan Pablo Rodriguez L. – Consulting Lawyer AZC