We’re thrilled to announce that Everlaw is a Gold Sponsor at Future Lawyer UK 8.0, bringing its industry-leading expertise in litigation technology to the event this April.
Everlaw is set to bring an immersive discussion to Future Lawyer Week’s Litigation Day, challenging attendees to think like elite litigators in a race to uncover the truth. Led by Nicole Hazaz and Gregory Campbell, alongside client facilitator Mared Jones (Macfarlanes/XBundle), this interactive experience will place participants at the heart of a high-stakes dispute, where they must leverage cutting-edge ediscovery technology to analyse data, identify key players, and build a winning case strategy. With live demonstrations of Everlaw’s AI-powered analytics and visualisation tools, delegates will witness firsthand how modern legal teams can separate fact from fiction.
Enjoy Everlaw’s exclusive blog and get ready to dive into the conversation this April!
How Orrick Is Transforming Litigation with EverlawAI Assistant
Global firm’s innovative approach increases speed, accuracy and value for clients
The advent of generative AI in edisclosure has been hailed as a fundamental and transformative change.
Like many legal professionals, Orrick attorney Cal Yeaman needed to see it in action to understand how this new technology fit into existing work.
What level of nuanced analysis was the algorithm capable of? How did it compare to human review? Could it be as consistent as a predictive coding tool?
Orrick, a tech-forward firm whose footprint spans from San Francisco to London to Shanghai, tested and then deployed EverlawAI Assistant’s Coding Suggestions on a real-world IP matter. The new Everlaw GenAI feature leverages the reasoning capabilities of large language models to expedite the review determinations process.
Coding Suggestions classifies documents for relevance through human prompts and performs at accuracy levels that matched or exceeded humans in an earlier series of Everlaw customer tests.
Finessing a New Hybrid Workflow
The Orrick team tested and deployed this new technology on approximately 10,000 documents in an IP case. They started with a small sample subset to test and refine the prompts for Coding Suggestions before applying the prompts to the bigger document set.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the AI, Orrick created a hybrid workflow using both Coding Suggestions and Predictive Coding. The idea, Yeaman said, was to use the generative AI tool to speed up the sampling process for predictive coding, and predictive coding would help validate the accuracy of the generative AI output.
Combining Predictive Coding with Coding Suggestions
Whilst both Predictive Coding and Coding Suggestions are used to classify documents, they are based on different technologies:
Predictive Coding learns from human reviewers as they code documents to continuously evaluate patterns and generate predictions about the likelihood of relevance for a given document.
Coding Suggestions, on the other hand, relies on individual prompts from humans, which provide the necessary context of the case and goals of the review.
While Predictive Coding models evolve with a review, refining Coding Suggestion prompts involves testing and iteration as instructions are improved and results validated.
AI Performance Results: A Very Powerful Tool
As the review process unfolded, Yeaman’s initial scepticism turned into enthusiasm. It became clear that Coding Suggestions scored high on both accuracy and consistency.
The Predictive Coding tool was used to help validate the accuracy of the generative AI via statistical sampling. It also helped prioritise documents that would most likely require a human quality control review.
The results impressed him, Yeaman said during a keynote presentation at Everlaw Summit ’24.
Coding Suggestions showed a level of accuracy and consistency that would help reduce attorney time on document review, free up more time to develop case strategy and reduce client costs.
‘I was surprised to find that the generative AI coding suggestions were more accurate than human review by a statistically significant margin’, Yeaman said. Of the documents identified by GenAI as not-relevant, the human reviewers only reversed the decision on a single document.
That may not always be the case, he noted. AI performance will vary from matter to matter, he said, depending on the criteria of a particular review, the nature of the case, the types of data and the underlying subject matter.
Running the numbers, Yeaman estimated that the new AI-powered review process reduced cost of document review by more than 50%.
The new tool features also accelerated Orrick’s ability to identify key documents quickly, empowering the team to know the evidence and their case faster than ever before, Yeaman said.
‘It’s a very powerful tool.’
Orrick’s Tips and Takeaways for Success
‘I highly encourage people using these tools to do so in a small sample set first’, Yeaman said. ‘If you get into the documents a little bit early, look around and identify specific documents to iterate on so that you know what you’re working with.’
He also cautioned to recognise that the value of a tool is in its application.
‘Coding Suggestions cannot be used on many of the same types of documents that the Predictive Coding struggles to process. You need the right kind of case for the right kind of tool – the more linear the analysis, the more the LLM is favoured over a human team. The more complex the subject matter, the more the LLM is favoured over the human team.’
Yeaman saw testing Coding Suggestions on a document-rich and complex IP case as the next natural step in Orrick’s efforts to deliver better client service at greater value through innovation.
‘What’s critical is knowing the market and testing tools that can add value and speed to our services – and to work with trusted technology partners.’
About Everlaw
Everlaw helps legal teams navigate the increasingly complex ediscovery landscape to chart a straighter path to the truth. Everlaw uniquely combines speed, security and ease of use into a unified, comprehensive solution that unlocks the collaborative power of cross-functional teams to investigate issues more thoroughly, uncover truth more quickly and present their findings more clearly.
Trusted by Fortune 100 corporate counsel, FTSE 250 corporations, 100% of Silver Circle firms, Everlaw’s combination of intuitive experience, advanced technology, and partnership with customers empowers organisations to tackle the most pressing technological challenges—and transform their approach to discovery and litigation in the process.
Founded in 2010 and based in Oakland, California, with offices in London, Washington, D.C., and New York City, Everlaw is funded by top-tier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG, HIG Growth Partners, K9 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and TPG Growth.
Meet the Everlaw team at Future Lawyer UK this April and explore their advanced legal technology solution.
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