KnowTec Forum

Virtual Junior Assistant
This tool is a unified natural language based frontend to all of a firm’s knowledge management resources.  In doing so, it seeks to address a problem increasingly faced by lawyers, which is that they have access to a multitude of internal and external databases with different user interfaces and username/password combinations.  The vendor will demonstrate the benefits of a natural language based frontend using a precedent management system and a document automation engine as examples. The vendor invites comment on the tool’s proposed functionality and seeks firms interested in partnering in the further development of the system.  Partner firms would be asked to share in the development costs and in return receive a free five-year firm-wide license.

Due Diligence Report Generator
This tool builds on previous attempts by other vendors to facilitate the creation of due diligence reports for M&A and similar transactions. Junior lawyers fill in a web-based form for every document in a data room.  Upon request, the system generates (1) a “red flag” report listing the high-level issues identified in the course of the review or (2) a full report covering all documents reviewed, including an annex summarizing the content of each document.  The system comes with a database for disclaimers, etc., which can be administered centrally.  In addition, it keeps track of which lawyers have reviewed which documents and ensures the reports being created have a consistent format. The vendor invites comment on the tool’s proposed functionality and seeks a firm to test the system in a live setting.

Collaborative Clause Library
This tool is a VBA-based add in for Microsoft Word that allows lawyers to easily share clauses across documents.  A lawyer drafting a document can highlight a clause that he or she believes is a good precedent for other transactions and upload it to a central repository via the add in.  In doing so, the lawyer has the option to assign the clause to a folder and/or attach labels to it.  The system automatically anonymises all clauses and strips them of formatting.  Other lawyers can incorporate the clause into their documents.  The system allows sharing of clauses within a firm or between firms. The vendor invites comment on the tool’s proposed functionality and seeks one or more firms to help with the creation of a clause library. The vendor is particularly interested to discuss: ·         whether firms (1) would expect to use the tool to build their own clause libraries, (2) would expect the vendor to offer the tool along with a set of predefined clauses for different types of documents or (3) would prefer a combination of both, and whether the functionality that would make it possible to share clauses not just within a firm but between different firms is useful, either generally or for particular areas of the law (e.g., M&A transactions).