“It helps the lawyer draft the contract.” The last real working day for the majority of the Luxembourg economy, on Friday 22 December, the head of Allen & Overy Luxembourg, , presented the new artificial intelligence-powered tool that 1,000 of the firm's lawyers are already using. “When you negotiate a contract, there are decisions that your client has to make, strategic decisions, and human judgement will always be essential, but the document has to be drafted. That’s where ContractMatrix comes in.”
“It allows you to be much more efficient, because it allows you to draft, amend or adjust clauses, thanks to AI,” he explained. “This is based both on Harvey but also on Microsoft Azure OpenAI. It’s not perfect, but each contract is reviewed and qualified by a lawyer who will validate the advice. The tool is not on autopilot. There can be hallucinations, answers that are not correct.”
“A year on, we’re still ahead of the game,” he continued. “The work of the lawyer remains essential. It's a tool that he uses and that will increase his efficiency in the medium term. The essential advantage is that the lawyer can concentrate on the most important strategic issues for his client.”
“We have ‘benchs’ databases of precedents for different types of contracts. We had them before and we used them. Now they’re in the system. AI will help you identify market trends that we can use in negotiations. For example, you’re working on a financing transaction and you’re acting for the lender. You have a clause and you ask your tool to make it a little more ‘lender friendly,’ more protective of the lender. It will write you a text proposal to strengthen a certain number of conditions required for the clause to be triggered in the lender’s interest. Even on the drafting part, this can be a source of inspiration for the lawyer.”
Licensed to clients
“Today, a contract is already subject to the law. Whatever the applicable law, you can always use the tool. It will make text proposals from databases subject to UK or Luxembourg law. The starting point is always the applicable law. It won’t change anything that happens today. On the other hand, what you perhaps need to understand is that in certain areas of the law, especially in the area of finance, all major international transactions, wherever they take place, are governed by English law. London has developed as a financial centre but also as a legal hub.”
“The environment is completely secured in terms of our data and possibly any customer data that might be inside. We always carry out tests to check that the data is preserved. Confidentiality of information is very important for any law firm. We are subject to data confidentiality. The product has undergone third-party assessments to check that its standards match ours. Microsoft is also one of the top players in the market, and they have the full range of solutions to ensure that our products are secured.”
Allen & Overy’s solution has already been sold, under licence, to external customers. “It’s a software. The customer will be able to use the software in the context of their own databases, based on their own precedents or templates,” explained Patrick Mischo. “There will be advice, training and response to customer needs. Like us, they have to deal with legal issues. Like us, they have to draw up contracts.
Originally published in French by and translated and edited for Delano.