For almost 20 years, Legitech has been publishing books, codes, journals and digital platforms for professionals seeking high-quality legal information. The company is also active in legal training.
"At the outset, you have the raw material, made up of legislative texts, case law (which is already an interpretation of the law) and other sources such as parliamentary files and administrative circulars. Our job as legal editors is to transform this complex body of data to make it understandable, accessible and usable. This is what we call legal doctrine. We distribute it in a variety of physical formats, such as books, codes and journals, as well as digital and audiovisual formats, which we use in our training courses and seminars," explains Marc-Olivier Lifrange, CEO of Legitech.
From plain text to doctrine
Since 2018, the publisher has been offering its customers (lawyers, HRDs, accountants, etc.) a library and a high-performance, intuitive search engine. The aim is to provide rapid and comprehensive access to this body of legal doctrine, which is constantly updated by legal experts. This platform, known as LexNow, has now been enhanced by a third function: LexGAIN, which is based on generative AI.
"We believe that artificial intelligence will revolutionise the way legal information is accessed. Until now, this access was based on key words, which made it possible to identify documents that were sometimes very complex. From now on, users will be able to put a question directly to the AI and engage in a dialogue with it, in the form of a chat. To assist the user, the solution generates an answer based on all the data available on the platform," explains Legitech's CEO.
In our view, artificial intelligence will revolutionise the way we access legal information.
The aim is obviously not to replace the lawyer, but to simplify his or her life by offering rapid access to a range of reliable resources. "To use this tool, you need to be a legal professional, know how to ask the right questions, challenge the AI to refine the answers and, if necessary, go on to analyse legislative texts and other available sources in greater depth", he adds.
Establishing a dialogue with AI
Launched in October 2024, LexGAIN required more than a year of training, adaptations and tests in real conditions to guarantee the reliability of the tool.
"Our solution, which we make available to our customers at no extra cost, is based on Gemini, the generative AI developed by Google. This algorithm has been trained on billions of texts around the world. However, the tool we offer only draws information from our own sources: legislation, case law and legal doctrine. Finally, as with all generative AI, the more precise the instructions formulated - what we call prompts - the more relevant the response," explains Marc-Olivier Lifrange.
An essential translation module
The AI solution implemented by Legitech also includes a high-performance translation module.
"In Luxembourg, apart from a few specific texts, most legislation is written in French. But it is essential for all professionals in the marketplace to have access to texts in their own language. In Belgium, where we also operate, it is just as important for professionals to understand the laws in force at federal or regional level. The same case heard in Liège, Brussels or Antwerp can give rise to very different interpretations. Our customers have access to this case law and can, for example, ask the AI to summarise any decision in their language and, why not, in the form of a simplified table", explains Marc-Olivier Lifrange.
AI accessible to all legal publishers
Thanks to the generative AI solutions developed by the major players in the tech sector, all publishing houses now have access to proven, high-performance tools.
"No legal publisher, even the largest in the world, can afford to finance the development of dedicated AI. So we have to use off-the-shelf solutions and configure them to meet our needs. The advantage of this system is that it enables all the players in the legal publishing industry to offer their customers high-quality solutions, thereby avoiding the creation of monopolies", stresses the publisher.
The publisher's business remains unchanged
While the arrival of generative AI is shaking up the daily lives of lawyers and other professionals, the fundamentals of the legal publishing business remain unchanged.
"The best AI in the world remains very weak without the doctrine produced by humans, who interpret the texts and give them meaning. AI is, of course, a formidable calculator, capable of performing complex analyses based on existing data. However, it has no creativity", explains Marc-Olivier Lifrange.
The best AI in the world remains very weak without the doctrine produced by humans, who interpret texts and give them meaning.
In the future, Legitech will continue to develop its tools and work on their ergonomics. "Feedback from users has been very encouraging. Our aim is not to arrive like an elephant in a china shop, but to take account of our customers' needs and expectations. LexGAIN is a third gateway for conducting searches on our LexNow platform, which has continued to evolve since its launch in Luxembourg in 2018. New features are being added regularly and we will continue to do so in the future."