Baker McKenzie’s latest legal robot has landed in Asia. It doesn’t shoot lasers out of its eyes or tower over skylines, but it does use machine learning to help clients cope with their information governance and litigation technology needs.
“Relativity” is an eDiscovery technology that operates in conjunction with Nuix, an Australian software platform for indexing, searching, analysing and extracting knowledge from unstructured data. It is now online in Asia through a datacentre in Hong Kong and is supported by dedicated staff in the city.
“The global legal sector is ripe for change and clients increasingly ask that their law firms see through a business lens and act as solution providers as well as legal advice providers,” said Paul Rawlinson, the late global chair of Baker McKenzie. “With this enhanced machine-learning offering combined with the AI tools we are starting to roll out, we can offer clients a bespoke, globally relevant solution to their data privacy needs.”
This latest expansion of Baker’s eDiscovery services means the platform is now available in every region where the firm has a presence.
The firm boasts that its adoption of Relativity is “unmatched by any other law firm in its scope of direct global deployment”. In addition to this in-house technology platform, the firm adds that it has expansive data-hosting capabilities.
“Being innovative in our client service delivery is critical,” says Bryant Isbell, director of the firm’s global practice support. “We are leading the legal industry in the use of new technology for e-discovery, providing clients a common worldwide platform and support infrastructure. Innovation and the ability to be nimble are vital here.”
The roll-out of Relativity builds on the firm’s recently opened “legal lab” in Toronto, dubbed the Whitespace Legal Collab, which is part of Baker’s global innovation programme and aims to take a multidisciplinary approach to solving challenges at the intersection of business, law and technology.