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30 A P R I L 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m machine learning will introduce automation at the task level, which will allow people to focus on more complex tasks." But perceptions run deep, counters Furlong. "When lawyers turn their minds to AI, one of the first questions they are essen- tially asking is will it replace me," says Furlong. "That is the wrong question. It's not about the lawyer. It's about the client. The ques- tion a client will ask is whether using AI will help me get what I need faster, more affordably or more effectively, with a better outcome." All of this does not bode well for traditional law firms. A recent global research study by Deloitte concluded that conven- tional law firms are no longer meeting today's business needs. The majority (55 per cent) of participants in the study — legal counsel, CEOs and CFOs — have taken or are considering a sig- nificant review of their legal suppliers. The study also points out that purchasers of legal services want better and more relevant technologies, to be used and shared on integrated platforms. Some law firms have seen the writing on the wall. "Our busi- ness is actually to make it as easy as possible for clients to solve things in the most practical, efficient way for them, and that's why I get excited about the role that law firms can play because we should be best positioned to be the problem solver, this re- aggregator of all these different pieces and solutions so that what the client sees at the end of the day is this simple, integrated solution to the different problems that they have," says Matthew Peters, national innovation leader at McCarthy Tétrault. The risk that some law firms may run into is that they will be seduced by the hype surrounding AI, erroneously believing that it will solve "all sorts of problems," without examining all of their options, adds Peters. Before an AI system is considered, attention should be turned toward legal process improvements, labour arbitrage and employing more efficient work tools, he suggests. A case in point is a new document automation service, complete with e-signatures and a contract management tool, that McCarthys developed in partnership with Exigent that will be rolled out in the near future for its clients. "Let's make sure that we are addressing what the client needs and not make this more complicated than it needs to be," says Peters. That doesn't mean that Peters is not interested in AI offerings. In fact, he is now testing a series of AI products before settling on one that he intends to launch in a couple of months. A push to meet the needs of clients also drove Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP to examine, try and ultimately implement new technologies, including a couple of AI offerings. Clients were demanding that the law firm provide legal services more effi- ciently at a lower cost, explains Mara Nickerson, Osler's chief knowledge officer. While exploring different options to meet growing client demands, the focal point throughout the exercise was centred on legal process management. "The focus needs to be on where you can gain efficiencies in your process and what technology can help you," notes Nickerson. "If it's AI, great; but not AI for the sake of AI." Osler eventually settled on using an AI e-discovery tool called Relativity, it has been using Kira Systems, a machine learning con- tract analysis system, since August 2016 and has tested Tax Fore- sight — all of which have yielded positive results. But even then, Osler determined that in order to get the "maximum value" out of these AI offerings, they would have to be placed in the hands of a dedicated team that spent time to "really" learn how it works so that it could "train" the system. "The exciting thing about AI is that it is bringing additional functionality and capabilities to technologies that we didn't have before and so bringing exponential efficiencies to our processes in a way that we haven't said," says Natalie Munroe, head of Osler Works – Transactional, a new technology-based platform based in Ottawa to support coverage of corporate deals. But, adds Nickerson, all of these new technologies need oversight by lawyers to review and When lawyers turn their minds to AI, one of the first questions they are essentially asking is will it replace me. That is the wrong question. It's not about the lawyer. It's about the client. JORDAN FURLONG, LAW21 REACH ONE OF THE LARGEST LEGAL AND BUSINESS MARKETS IN CANADA! AVAILABLE ONLINE AND IN PRINT With more than 300,500 page views and 100,000 unique visitors monthly canadianlawlist.com captures your market. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT Colleen Austin: T: 416.649.9327 E: colleen.austin@thomsonreuters.com www.canadianlawlist.com ntitled-1 1 2017-03-16 11:14 AM

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