MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL Minn., July
12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters today
introduced Westlaw Edge, the latest advancement in legal research,
providing legal professionals with the next generation of AI-driven
legal search, exclusive new warnings for law that is no longer
valid, unrivaled litigation analytics, and sophisticated new
research tools that help legal professionals deliver results to
clients faster and more accurately.
![Thomson Reuters Westlaw Edge Thomson Reuters Westlaw Edge](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/717533/ReutersWestlawLogo3.jpg)
Law firms today are competing with each other to provide
high-quality results at a lower cost to meet client expectations
for efficiency. In Thomson Reuters ongoing research with customers,
its analysis shows that complex legal research tasks take an
average of six hours, with some taking much longer. Lawyers also
report that with deadline-driven work, they often worry they may
have missed something important. "We've been working with hundreds
of attorneys to deeply understand how some research tasks can still
take many hours to complete, as well as how mistakes are made, even
by experienced lawyers," said Mike
Dahn, senior vice president, Westlaw Product Management.
"We brought together a team of Thomson Reuters research
scientists with expertise in AI and legal data with our attorneys
who best understand our exclusive collection of law summaries,
legal classifications and legal citation relationships, and had
them work with our most talented product designers to address the
areas where both new lawyers and experienced practitioners want
better tools," added Dahn. "The result is Westlaw Edge."
Introducing Westlaw Edge
Westlaw Edge, the new version
of Westlaw, enables lawyers to move through routine work much
faster and helps even experienced practitioners avoid mistakes when
working on something complex, while offering attorneys new insights
they've never had access to before. Westlaw Edge represents Thomson
Reuters largest investment in AI since 2010 and was developed with
attorneys and technologists at the Thomson Reuters Center for
Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing in Toronto working side by side. In this way,
state-of-the-art AI technologies could be specifically tuned to
attorney-authored content and powerful legal research tools,
including the West Key Number System and KeyCite.
The new research capabilities of Westlaw Edge include:
- Exclusive Warnings for Invalid or Questionable Law.
Modern citators that put warnings on overturned or invalidated
cases are essential for research, since checking the validity of
cases can take hours longer without them. But a major limitation of
these citators is that they have almost exclusively addressed
explicit citing relationships only, where one court
overrules or invalidates the law in a prior case.
Based on sophisticated machine learning and natural language
processing techniques, the new KeyCite Overruling Risk symbols in
Westlaw Edge warn researchers of cases that have been invalidated
implicitly, and the new symbols link researchers to the
up-to-date law that contains the invalidating language.
- WestSearch Plus is a next-generation legal search engine
that uses state-of-the-art AI to guide lawyers to answers to legal
questions much faster. The first of its kind, WestSearch Plus uses
machine learning, natural language processing, citation networks,
and Thomson Reuters proprietary taxonomy of the law – the West Key
Number System – to bring back the relevant documents researchers
are seeking, and it also provides answers to thousands of types of
legal questions in seconds.
- Integrated Litigation Analytics enable legal
professionals to quickly view relevant insights on judges, courts,
attorneys and law firms to help guide the best trial strategy;
inform litigation timelines, resource needs and budgets; and allow
for faster, more sophisticated legal research. No other legal
analytics tool has as much data or as many practice areas across
both state and federal courts. Litigation Analytics covers dockets
for every federal case type, except bankruptcy, and it includes
almost 8 million federal cases and motion analytics for 13 types of
federal motions, as well as expert challenge reports.
- Statutes Compare enables researchers to see all
statutory language changes with just a click of a button, and it is
available for both federal and state statutes. The tool can be used
to understand legislative intent for litigation or to advise
clients how their business operations might need to change based on
revisions in the statutes.
Multiple Am Law 100 firms, including Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Shearman
& Sterling and Locke Lord, have
already started using Westlaw Edge. According to Wendy Butler Curtis, Orrick's chief innovation
officer, "As part of our innovation strategy, we are continually
looking at new ways to streamline processes, adopt technologies and
empower our teams. Westlaw Edge is an important part of our
innovation toolkit."
Artificial Intelligence
Thomson Reuters has used AI
and machine learning-based tools in products for more than 25 years
to solve specific problems for lawyers. According to Khalid Al-Kofahi, vice president of Research
& Development and head of its Center for Artificial
Intelligence and Cognitive Computing, Thomson Reuters AI relies on
three key ingredients: content, subject matter expertise and
technology expertise. "Content is key. It is what customers come to
us for in the first place, and it is what we use to train our
algorithms. In the case of our attorney-authored editorial
enhancements, it's the most valuable metadata to help us design
algorithms that mimic legal researchers," said Al-Kofahi. "Our
subject matter experts – both attorneys and scientists – ensure
that we design optimal solutions to the right set of problems."
On top of the natural patterns that appear in the law, Thomson
Reuters attorney editors have integrated advanced editorial
analysis and other enhancements. "By tuning our AI to the West Key
Number System, citation networks and other attorney-authored
content, our legal and technology experts have created something
that no other legal research provider relying on AI and raw data
alone could ever make, allowing machines to connect related
information and documents to find answers even when search terms
don't match the language used in the original court document,"
added Al-Kofahi.
"Westlaw Edge is full of breathtaking science, and the AI and
machine learning components build perfectly upon our previous
innovations and exclusive legal expertise," added Dahn. "With
Westlaw Edge, legal professionals can conduct legal research more
quickly than ever before and uncover valuable new insights, giving
them greater confidence when filing court documents or advising
clients."
For more information about Westlaw Edge, visit WestlawEdge.com.
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world's leading
source of news and information for professional markets. Our
customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and
expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has
operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years.
Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges (symbol:
TRI). For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.
CONTACTS
|
Jeff McCoy
+1.651.687.4091
jeffrey.mccoy@thomsonreuters.com
|
Gretchen
DeSutter
+1.612.226.5087
gretchen.desutter@thomsonreuters.com
|
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