such as India;<\/a> at home in Ontario, competition is growing with start-ups such as\u00a0Diligen, Beagle.ai, and Blue J Legal, all thriving.<\/p>\nLegal Geek caught up with Diligen’s COO and co-founder\u00a0Laura Van Wyngaarden to hear the story behind Diligen –\u00a0a contract assistant powered by AI that cuts contract review time in half – and its rapid rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of the legal industry is still conducting contract review the old way,\u201d Van Wyngaarden explains to Legal Geek. \u201cIt differs per practice area, jurisdiction and law firm of course but right now, tonight, associates will be doing contract review manually, perhaps using digital files rather than stacks of boxes in the basement, but still with a highlighter in hand.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is changing fast which is exciting. For the people doing the work that process gets less painful and for the client they are getting better quality due diligence, much faster and possibly at a lower price point. Law firms can take on much larger contract review projects and turn that work around far faster for the client than they could without the technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diligen\u2019s own trajectory of growth supports this notion.<\/b><\/p>\n
Founded in 2015 by Van Wyngaarden and CEO Konrad Pola, Diligen can point to a 600% revenue growth rate over the past year.<\/b><\/p>\n
As Van Wyngaarden says: \u201cit\u2019s been phenomenal. The legal community is embracing technology and understanding the need for it whether you are a small law firm, reviewing a few contracts a month, or a big firm reviewing thousands. If you are reviewing contracts full stop, this is something that can help regardless of your size.\u201d<\/p>\n
#TBT Laura’s presentation about leveraging human effort through AI from 2016<\/em><\/p>\n