Spanish law firm Garrigues develops legal transcription AI
Spanish law firm Garrigues has been working with the Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento (IIC) to develop a Spanish-law legal transcription artificial intelligence tool. Called Proces@, the technology is able to transcribe and catalogue Spanish-language legal texts, videos and audio with a very low error rate. Proces@ uses legal dictionaries and a variety of advanced search options to give it the legal context necessary to carry out semiotic analysis. Álvaro Barbero, director of algorithm engineering at IIC, said "artificial intelligence systems will generate valuable recommendations that will improve lawyer decision-making”.

The Spanish law firm, which is hosting the first legal tech competition in the country, has created a robot to streamline its processes for its lawyers.

The law firm has pioneered its own AI tools, giving lawyers the ability to improve response times, César Mejías, chief information officer at Garrigues, said at an event discussing how AI was changing law firms. He said that his firm had developed a robot with the Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento (IIC), making the firm at the forefront of the use of artificial intelligence and robotics in the sector. It was 'the first tool in Spanish that allows scanned legal texts, videos and audio to be transcribed and indexed quickly and easily, with minimal errors, a functionality that facilitates the work of our lawyers while at the same time improving our client response times. Proces@ includes advanced search options, legal dictionaries etc, meaning that it has sufficient context to make sense of any text it is given. We are the first law firm in the world to have a robot of these characteristics in Spanish.' He added that AI enabled the law firm 'to automate work of lesser value and increase our professionals’ productivity, giving them more time to provide added value to clients.

South Summit

The impact of artificial intelligence on the legal services industry was one of the main subjects at an event entitled 'How artificial intelligence is changing law firms', held today as part of South Summit, the summit for entrepreneurs in Southern Europe, which runs this week in Madrid. 'Artificial intelligence will take our sector into a new dimension, although not in the short term. With the ultimate aim of providing value to clients, inspiring trust and offering better quality service, at Garrigues we are harnessing the multitude of options offered by technology to provide our lawyers with the tools necessary to be more productive and reduce response times,' Mr Mejías said.

Prescriptive analytics

Álvaro Barbero, director of Algorithm Engineering at Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento (IIC), said that 'the main revolution will not only be in terms of automation but also in terms of prescriptive analytics, since artificial intelligence systems will generate valuable recommendations that will improve lawyer decision-making.” In his opinion, machine learning solutions aimed, for example, at reducing the length of lawsuits “will help clients to make decisions.'

Automation

José Ángel Sandín, CEO of publishing house Lefebvre - El Derecho, added: 'Artificial intelligence and, above all, automation, are already transforming the legal services industry. We must adapt our roles to this new reality and, in our case, we do so directly with our clients in mind, who demand quick, affordable and tailor-made solutions that we can only offer if we combine technology and quality content.'

Tasks of little value

According to the three experts, within a law firm there are an infinite number of tasks that professionals spend a long time on but that provide little value: transcriptions from the courts, review of contracts on a major scale, extracting data from different documents, review of uncertified extracts, identification of potential fraud, etc.

Employment

As regards employment, Mr Sandín believes that artificial intelligence will lead to a major transformation of legal and paralegal services, while Mr Mejías says it will modify lawyer profiles. It is increasingly important for lawyers to have technological skills, meaning that one of the challenges is to have more professionals with the necessary training in this field”. He added that Garrigues is one of the first law firms in Spain to have engineers on its workforce, putting together multidisciplinary, technology-oriented teams and we have a specific area dedicated to information and communication technology.

Legal Tech Competiton

The 1st Legal Tech Competition, organised by Garrigues and Spain Startup, will take place at South Summit on 5 October. The four finalists will have the opportunity to present their projects and the judges will choose a winner, who will receive free advisory services from Garrigues professionals.