Canadian Lawyer InHouse

7 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE NOVEMBER 2017 A roundup of legal department news and trends bot to help with visa process and intake of in- formation. There is also a bot focused on re- sources for the sales force on compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Fernando Garcia, general counsel with Nissan Canada, said the important thing to consider when looking to adopt technology is where your needs are and where you can make the most use of a technology investment. "Right now, a contract management sys - tem for us is that for disaster recovery, etc., is great, but looking a few years down the road, AI that helps read contracts and signals it is a high-risk clause may be critical," he said. "The question is when do you jump in and buy to get the biggest bang for your buck?" Lenon said he is seeing a lot of technol - ogy being deployed around immigration issues, primarily because the issues are changing rapidly right now. An example he referenced is the change in the "Dreamer" status in the United States — an initiative introduced by the Obama administration to protect from deportation immigrants brought illegally into the U.S. as children. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a five-year-old program that was scrapped by President Donald Trump. Kristen Sonday, co-founder and COO of Paladin PBC Inc., which is building a global pro bono platform to increase access to justice, said she sees an opportunity for a human/bot hybrid. "I think there is a lot of opportunity to use bots and chatbot forms to get infor - mation up front and ask a lot of questions on the intake side to ask a lot of questions of clients to determine eligibility, specific needs and where we can match them with lawyers for a positive outcome," she said. "I think there is a human element that is very important to the pro bono process and don't want it to be overshadowed." Lenon said many lawyers are using chatbots to handle intake information and screen clients. "It's been really good for eliminating questions or tire kickers — people who ba - sically have a question on direction but not on services. "If they are able to guide those people on the direction they need to go and not waste their time on a non-paying client, it frees them up to focus on clients who have a legitimate legal need or can pay for it and that enables their business goals," he said. Microsoft's Garcia emphasized the need to manage expectations with business clients. "They want to be able to contact me in a nanosecond to do anything and get my personal touch, so we've been saying if you work with these chatbots and other resources, it allows myself and my team to look at higher-value work for you — such as helping Microsoft close more cloud com - puting deals. So there is work to do on the front end from the customer satisfaction perspective," he said. Security and data privacy must also be kept top of mind, said Microsoft's Garcia. "Ask how providers are protecting your vitally important data." IH Montreal Los Angeles Paris Enterprise Legal Technology™ LEADING SOFTWARE FOR IN-HOUSE COUNSEL Discover our scalable, secured, and modular software suite at legal-suite.com LS Canada Inc. www.legal-suite.com 1,000+ projects 600+ clients 50,000+ users Untitled-3 1 2017-10-04 2:02 PM

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