The analysis of extensive documents currently ties up a lot of capacity in law firms.
(Photo: IMAGO/MASKOT)
Dusseldorf Harvey is stirring up the market for lawyers and tax consultants: A few weeks ago, the consulting and auditing company PwC and the associated law firm PwC Legal and the major law firm Allen & Overy gained global access to one of the most exciting start-ups for so-called legal tech applications secured from the USA. Why is?
The initial situation: Large quantities of complex texts
One of the routine tasks of lawyers and tax consultants is to analyze large amounts of complex texts and data. It can be about contracts, compliance with legal regulations, receivables management or the so-called due diligence in transactions. The documents are extensive and mostly written in legal terminology.
Furthermore, one of the core tasks of lawyers is to work with legal texts, administrative instructions and judgements. There are always innovations, especially in the regulatory environment. It is a great challenge for lawyers and tax experts to acquire this knowledge and make it usable for the client.
The solution: AI helps to increase efficiency
The San Francisco start-up Harvey AI has developed software based on OpenAI and ChatGPT technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) understands the language of lawyers and can analyze and evaluate data relevant to them.
“By combining human expertise with the power of AI technology, we can develop innovative solutions and offer our customers significant added value,” says Björn Viebrock, Member of the Management Board and Head of Tax & Legal at PwC Germany.
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With Allen & Overy, a major global law firm also relies on Harvey. “We saw early on that tech solutions are not just marketing measures, but could also contribute to the law firm’s turnover because they have created real added value for the clients,” says Alexander Behrens, who is responsible for the topic in Germany.
That is why the law firm formed a team of lawyers and IT experts at an early stage to drive the development forward. Behrens sees Allen & Overy as a pioneer. So it is only logical that the cooperation was concluded and that other AI solutions are also being worked on.
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Harvey is already working on clients at Allen & Overy and primarily helps with research on legal topics. The efficiency gains are already measurable, says Behrens. On average, each attorney at the firm saves several hours of work per week.
But according to Behrens, this is just the beginning. Harvey and other AI solutions are evolving. It is to be expected that the AI will soon be able to be used in practice when preparing the first draft contracts and evaluating documents for investigations. “We are working on the AI making our own knowledge usable when creating contracts,” says Behrens.
The outlook: Harvey should have competition
PwC wants to spend a lot of money to advance the topic of artificial intelligence. Harvey is just one building block. Shortly after the deal, the company announced that it would be partnering with tech giant Microsoft. In the next three years, PwC wants to invest one billion euros in AI.
“We are at a turning point in the economy and society. AI will revolutionize the way we work, live and interact on a large scale,” said PwC Vice President Mohamed Kande.
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Whether that means fewer lawyers will be needed in the future is still an open question, says Alexander Behrens from Allen & Overy. “AI will certainly change the way we work. Certain tasks will be eliminated, others will change, but new ones will certainly be added if you have the appropriate skills.”
There is still the problem that many legally relevant documents are not freely available. But some legal publishers have already announced that they are working on a chatbot. Harvey, that’s for sure, will have a lot of competition before long.
More: How legal tech is changing the legal industry