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14 ¦ DECEMBER 9, 2019 NEWS

¦ From HOW LEGAL on PAGE 13 whose work they seek, or they will
Liberty Mutual’s legal operations risk being shut out of panels.
department uses Westlaw Edge from “For me, a meeting with a firm
Thomson Reuters; Lex Machina, not using any tools is kind of a
a LexisNexis company for data on disqualifier. No matter how great
judges, lawyers and litigants; and a firm is, they are working with a
Gavelytics, a company in California small data set and if they are not us-
that reports information on judges ing the tools it is unlikely I would
and motion rulings in some courts add them,” Hart said.
in California, Nevada and Florida, as Similarly, corporate legal depart-
well as information from other pro- ments that aren’t using data tools in
viders. disputes with other organizations
Matthew Kennedy, corporate may find themselves overmatched.
counsel, litigation at Liberty Mutual, Nathan Cemenska, director of le-
said the legal operations depart- gal operations and industry insights
ment uses these tools at the outset at Wolters Kluwer, who is a lawyer
of litigation, “the most critical point Robert Taylor, with an MBA, said in the past legal
of the case for us. We can use them of Liberty Mutual Insurance. departments often deferred to out-

to instantaneously gather critical information that side counsel to manage big cases, saying “the lawyers
shapes the case. Is this a case to settle? What is the are gods, so the decisions they make, I am going to
judge like? What is the venue like?” go ahead and trust them on that.”
Kennedy said they also research opposing coun- But he added, “We are moving further and fur-
sel, for instance, if the attorney is a top expert ther away from that, and you have to be able to show
and has written extensively on a topic, he or she you have a sound decision-making process on huge
might be a formidable opponent. “For the litiga- cases. They are not going to let you just ‘go with your
tion group and litigation attorneys, it is a critical gut on this,’ they are going to want a damn good ex-
tool,” he said. planation and it has to be backed up with data on
Damon Hart, Liberty Mutual senior vice presi- why you did what you did.”
dent and deputy general counsel for litigation, added
that, “You can drill down to that judge and find out Some Tools Used In-House
how many cases like this has the judge had, which Cemenska’s company, Wolters Kluwer ELM So-
can influence the motion when you draft in front of lutions Inc., for instance, announced a product in
that judge, and is he an expert? early November called Passport 19.2 with a new Le-
“It is not that we are eschewing traditional galVIEW Predictive Insights module.
methods of getting information, we are using it to Like a computer dating service for law depart-
enhance what we hear from outside counsel and the ments and outside counsel, the company says it uses
judgment and experience of the lawyers. For me, the data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine
data is extremely helpful to augment, supplement learning based on the company’s vast proprietary
or sometimes confirm or deny what you are told by database of law firm invoices to help clients choose
outside counsel. It is another point as you are con- the best law firm for each litigation matter. The pro-
sidering what action to take,” Hart said. gram also estimates budgets, and how long a matter
One takeaway for law firms: As more and more should take in each phase.
corporate law departments adopt this numbers- Vincent Venturella, product director at Wolters
driven approach, law firms will have to adapt by Kluwer’s ELM Solutions, said it uses the invoice
matching the metrics they provide in their pitches to database to train the artificial intelligence. When a
the key performance indicators valued by the clients legal department opens a matter, the model extracts

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