BCLP reinvents early dispute evaluation with new service leveraging machine learning

Global News

06
Nov
2018

Editor

International law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has today launched Clear/Cut, an innovative dispute evaluation service developed by professional litigators and technologists to efficiently evaluate legal risks in the early stages of disputes and investigations.

Clear/Cut harnesses the firm’s award-winning in-house forensic technology capability. The team developed a methodology optimised for early case assessment work by bringing together a range of data interrogation tools including machine learning and predictive coding. These tools identify the key information for a legal analysis by BCLP’s litigation team.

The service allows for a more extensive review across datasets that would be prohibitively large and costly to evaluate with human-led document review. The issues raised in the process are explained using visualisation within a succinct report produced by senior BCLP litigators, with proactive recommendations given to clients, including on whether to fight or settle the dispute. 

Clear/Cut has been developed by BCLP’s Litigation and Corporate Risk team in conjunction with the firm’s newly launched Global Innovation Group, led by Katie DeBord. Nick Pryor, Regional Innovation Solutions Director for EMEA within the Innovation Team, led on the development of the platform alongside Edward Coulson, a Commercial Disputes Partner. 

Nick Pryor, said: “Innovation at BCLP is about more than just technology.  It’s about bringing together tech, people, and process to solve client problems in new and better ways.  Clear/Cut embodies that “design thinking” approach, and we are delighted with the early client feedback we have received.  Early trials of the service, including with a FTSE100 client, validated the strengths of our approach, and the results surpassed our expectations. We strongly believe that Clear/Cut will help in-house counsel make more confident decisions on how to respond to disputes and investigations.”

Nathan Willmott, Deputy Head of Litigation & Corporate Risk, said “As a firm we have a strong track record of innovating successfully to find new ways to deliver greater value to clients. Within the Litigation and Corporate Risk team, we see huge opportunities to build on this track record and develop new and imaginative approaches that change the way in which we deliver legal services to our clients. Clear/Cut is a great example of this approach and we expect it will be the first of many.”