Pablo Viedma, Tech & Privacy manager at Aktion Legal We have heard countless times about what blockchain technology is, what it can do and the uses we can put it to, but have we ever wondered in which fields of legal business this technology could be most interesting? Approach and introduction to Blockchain. First of all, let's define blockchain in a simple way, it is a technology that consists in its less developed or complex state, in a sort of digital ledger, decentralized and immutable ledger in which facts and transactions can be noted and recorded, ordered in blocks chained to each other by means of algorithmic and cryptographic techniques based on mathematical problems. Blockchain technology must be conceived as a base on which infinite applications for countless sectors can be built. Thus, we should not think of blockchain as the definitive technology, but as the base and channeling technology for many other solutions such as, for example, traceability applications, purchase and sale of currency tokens (cryptocurrencies), decentralized networks for the consumption of works protected by copyright, and a long etcetera. Blockchain and legaltech. Blockchain technology, as far as the legal and legaltech sector is concerned, can bring many benefits and constitute a good basis for the creation of very interesting applications, of which we have already seen more than one example, especially in the line of confidentiality protection and certification of the authorship or invention of a certain work or development. In this sense, and taking into account the main elements and characteristics of this technology: decentralization, immutability, consensus, protocols, P2P communication, and what can be considered one of its most relevant characteristics, versatility, we can imagine (and see) for example networks for the distribution of audiovisual content -like the old Ares, eMule, and similar, but without the purpose of pirating- in which authors are remunerated according to their exploitation rights and equitable remuneration for each use -regardless of the purpose- of the content created by them. Also very interesting for companies and their in-house lawyers is the possibility of automating the execution of contracts and also being able to monitor their evolution and compliance through smart contracts, which are not in themselves contracts -although one may have certain reservations- but rather tools for the execution of agreements between parties. Imagine, in the field of contract law, a platform for traceability and monitoring of contracts that allows us to monitor, for example, the status and modifications of a given agreement between parties. Now, let's talk about tokenization and NFTs. Lately they could not be more in fashion, and it is almost impossible not to talk about them, especially, if we talk about Blockchain technology. Tokens, have become the #TT to talk about due to the hype around non-fungible tokens or NFTs. But before talking about NFTs, let's define what a token is from a cryptoeconomics point of view. Tokens are digital representations of goods and rights, digital or not, easily exchangeable between third parties, without the need to trust a third party outside the relationship, and whose evolution can be easily tracked. Through tokenization we can represent in any Blockchain network (that allows it and is programmed for it) practically any asset, digital or not; so much so that in metaverses unique digital assets can be represented by tokens that can be acquired through cryptocurrencies or other types of tokens used for the exchange of value. Now, an NFT, as the term itself says -non-fungible token- refers to non-fungible tokens, that is, those that cannot be spent, nor can they be substituted by others of the same nature because they have unique qualities and characteristics. The utility that can most easily be attributed to this type of token is the representation of goods, digital or physical, that are unique. In short, this type of tokens are perfect for collecting any type of unique good, such as works of art if we are talking about physical objects, or unique items in digital environments, such as online games. In reference to this last point, one of the first and most popular uses of NFTs has been the representation of unique and collectible items for online games such as weapons in GTA V, and the representation of unique digital goods in metaverses such as Decentraland -as we pointed out before-. Currently, and as mentioned before, the NFT sector is very fashionable, especially since one of the co-founders of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, tokenized and put up for auction his first tweet and the first tweet in history - dating back to 2006 - whose price has reached over 2.5M euros. Blockchain and tokenization in the legaltech industry Having done the introduction to the technology and having talked a little about tokenization, now it is time to present some possible applications of these technologies in the legaltech sector. In this sense, we can find applications of blockchain technology such as those mentioned above, on the one hand we can talk about blockchain designed for the traceability of contracts, both through smart contacts with the intention of controlling the evolution and execution of an agreement, and to be able to determine the origin and evolution of the different operations associated with an agreement without the need to execute the contract through a smart contract. On the other hand, we can find applications of blockchain technology for compliance, thus, in the form of recording events and/or operations, we can record as events the different phases of a compliance program from the creation and first version of each policy to the different versions or replacements of the same; thus compliance tasks in entities such as insurance companies will be easier to demonstrate and to monitor by regulators. Also, we can think of blockchain technology, and on this idea different projects have arisen, especially endorsed by law firms, which apply blockchain technology to create as a registrable event "the creation" of elements or works protectable by intellectual and industrial property rights to prove the authorship of the same. Last but not least, and on the tokenization side, we can find very interesting projects, especially applicable in the field of industrial and intellectual property. With tokenization we cannot only represent the works as such, but also, together with smart contracts, we can automate the licensing agreements or assignment of exploitation rights, total or partial, mainly those that are non-exclusive. In this way we can represent the work and its rights through tokens and automate the remuneration of equitable remuneration rights, and eliminating intermediaries, one of the main reasons why blockchain technology came to light through the launch in 2007 of Bitcoin, to get authors to regain their ability to control their remuneration. With the same configuration, the creation of networks for the distribution of exploitation or commercial rights over elements protectable by industrial property, such as formulas, protected raw materials, or similar, can be achieved. Finally, we cannot fail to mention that also by combining smart contract technology and tokenization, applying the theories of self sovereign identity, we can ensure that users and therefore companies comply with and enjoy the right to privacy in a more transparent and user-centered way as the true owner of their data. In conclusion, as we can see, Blockchain technology not only has a place in the financial, banking, insurance or currency-related sectors, but goes much further and thanks to its incredible versatility it can be adapted to practically any environment and be useful in almost any project -not to say that this technology is a panacea for all the problems and deficiencies that we can find-. - The Aktion Legal Team #blockchain #tokenization #LegalTech #DigitalTransformation

The PymeLegal Team, Consultancy of private and intellectual property The e-Privacy Regulation will be the European regulation that will replace the Directive (EU) 2002/58 on Privacy and Electronic Communications in force in Europe, which in Spain was transposed by the Law on Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce 34/2002 (the LSSI). Together with the RGPD, it will be one of the basic European regulations that will regulate privacy and the protection of personal data in the electronic communications sector, reinforcing the privacy of citizens and companies on the Internet and other digital communication channels. This Regulation will be directly applicable in all Member States (as the RGPD) and will have the character of "lex especialis" (special law) as opposed to the character of "lex generalis" (general law) that the RGPD has, that is, if there is a conflict of application between this Regulation and the RGPD, the e-Privacy Regulation will be applied preferentially, since the special law takes precedence over the general law. Who will the e-Privacy Regulation protect? Unlike the RGPD, which only protects individuals, this Regulation will protect both private users and companies; electronic communications may contain very private information (such as health information, for example), but they may also contain confidential information of high economic value or reveal trade secrets, and that is why companies deserve protection through this regulation. These activities will be protected independently for all users located in the EU or whose information belongs to European users. What will this Regulation regulate? The e-Privacy Regulation is closely linked to the GDPR, as both regulate the same element: privacy. On the one hand, one regulates it in its broadest sense (the GDPR); on the other, it regulates communications through the Internet and other digital communication channels. This Regulation will also regulate the use of the information obtained on the equipment or terminals of the users of these services and the metadata referring to the end-users in the EU. It will also regulate the restriction of caller identification, blocking of unwanted incoming calls by the users, etc. And the possibility for consent to be obtained through the browser, requesting the user a specific configuration at the time of installation and modifiable at any time. What are the new features of this new Regulation? This Regulation will bring several new features, among them, those related to the consent given so far in electronic communications, cookies and control over electronic communications and commercial calls. Regarding consent, the provisions of the RGPD will apply, and this time also to companies, i.e., the collection of consent must be express, free, informed and unambiguous. Consent expressed directly by the user will prevail over consent given using browser settings. We must also bear in mind that users who have consented to the processing of electronic communications data (newsletter, for example) must be periodically reminded of the possibility of withdrawing the consent given, and must do so at least once every twelve months. It should be borne in mind that the data must be processed for the period of time required for the fulfillment of the purpose, and if they are to be processed for a longer period of time, they must be anonymized. For the time being, it is left to the Member States to decide how long a user is considered a "customer" to send commercial communications. As regards metadata, the processing of metadata in electronic communications will be permitted in the following cases: Because they are necessary for the management or optimization of the network or to meet the technical requirements of quality of service; For the execution of a contract for electronic communications services (in case of being necessary for billing, calculating interconnection payments, detecting or ceasing for fraudulent or abusive use of electronic communications services or subscription to the same); If consent has been given for such purpose: For the protection of vital interests Or if certain requirements are met, with respect to location metadata necessary for scientific, historical research purposes or statistical purposes. Metadata that are processed and are compatible in electronic communications, when their processing is for a purpose other than that for which they were initially collected, and their processing has not been based on the user's consent, the provider will be required to analyze whether the processing of the data for this new purpose is compatible with the initial one. (even, in certain cases, it will be necessary to carry out an Impact Assessment) and if so, it can only be carried out with anonymized data. And about cookies, the prohibition on processing such information is maintained, with the following exceptions: That the user has consented to the processing (the most common assumption). That the processing is carried out to provide the electronic communications service. That it is strictly necessary to provide a service required by the user. That is necessary for audience measurement. That it is necessary for security purposes, fraud prevention or to detect technical failures. If it is required for a software update. To locate the end user's terminal in an emergency call. As we have seen with consent or metadata, if the information collected is to be used for a purpose other than that initially intended, the provider must analyze the compatibility of these purposes. And the processing will only be consistent if the information is erased or anonymized when it is no longer needed. Another of the most important new features is that relating to user control over electronic communications and unsolicited commercial calls. About unsolicited commercial calls, the regulation will leave it up to the Member States to develop rules on the obligations of operators (such as identification). An important point concerns unsolicited commercial and unsolicited communications. As a general rule, they may only be sent if the recipient has given his or her consent. However, the legitimate interest in sending them will continue to be taken into account as long as the possibility of opposing their sending is given. In addition, it is also established that communications must identify the sender, and use an address to which it can be answered, so that addresses beginning with "noreply@..." will no longer be valid. What are the penalties? As for the sanctions set by this Regulation, they are similar to those of the GDPR: the user whose rights have been violated will be entitled to receive financial compensation. And, in addition, the amounts of the penalties may reach up to 10 million euros or 20 million euros or 2% or 4% of the profits obtained by the company. And when does it come into force and when will it be applicable? There has been talking of the e-Privacy Regulation since 2016, having a first draft as early as 2017 and the idea of the European Union was to approve it at the same time as the General Data Protection Regulation, but this objective was not achieved and, as of today, there is still no binding decision on its approval. The EU Member States are unable to reach an agreement. What there does seem to be a quorum on is that, once it is published, a 2-year moratorium will be given to companies so that they can adapt to the new regulation and make it fully effective. Conclusion From what we have seen, this will be a Regulation that will pivot based on privacy by default, as advocated by the GDPR, protecting both individual and corporate users. However, it will add a few headaches for marketing departments and website managers as it will regulate a series of obligations that will be much more restrictive than those known up to now. Some sectors even fear that the changes made to business models for the GDPR will have to be modified due to the arrival of this regulation. We will keep a close eye on all developments regarding this regulation and will keep you informed. If you have any clarification or query, do not hesitate to contact us; we are at your disposal! - The PymeLegal Team #eprivacy #LegalTech #DigitalTransformation

Rocío Ramirez, Independent Legal Tech Consultant After 20 years of legal practicing as a lawyer, mainly processing court files, I can clearly state that the management of court notifications is one of the main workloads of a lawyer's day-to-day work. While it is true that the procedure the court notification requires, in many cases, will need the expertise of a legal technician, such as drafting an answer to the claim, or the preparation of an appeal, the management of the notification itself, in most cases, is a repetitive task of little value and with a predictable and controllable result. It also happens that judicial proceedings are completely standardized by the procedural laws themselves. The stages of the process are fully determined, one part of them being manifested through judicial notifications and the other from our own writings. So the possible solutions, actions or responses to each of these stages are perfectly defined. By knowing the possible actions or decisions to be taken after receiving a certain notification, we can state that they are fully automated tasks. Basically, the management exercise that a judicial notice requires is always the same: - Reading the notification and categorization of it (determine whether it is a judgment, declaration of firmness, hearing date, approval of cost appraisal, etc.). - Extraction of the hearing date or expiry that the notification includes where appropriate. - Schedule of the hearing date or expiry. - File the notification. Law firms invest a lot of time and resources in this item, but machine learning technology means a before and after in the management of this task. Processing in bulk all the notifications received, and that through this technology replicates the above-mentioned process, will significantly lighten the document management of the files. And this implementation is also extensible to the offices of prosecutors, whose majority of work is the daily management of the court notifications received. Imagine that in the day a law firm receives an average of 50-100 notifications, at the stroke of a single click they are uploaded in bulk to the machine learning system, which also returns in bulk the results obtained once the documents are processed, and at the stroke of another click, they are turned into the management software. On the contrary, the manual management of each of them, requires opening the court notification one by one, reading and categorizing it, extracting the expiration and scheduling it, and filing the notification in its file. And imagine that the average management time for each of them is between 1-2minutes. We could be saving 2 to 4 hours of a person's effective work on this task daily. Automated management through machine learning allows you to manage the same task in a much faster and more efficient way. The same can be done in much less time, without the quality being diminished. This means a considerable optimization of management processes and the use of resources. In appearance, these types of technologies and implementations seem to be exclusive only to large firms and legal operators, in which these types of tools become a real necessity given by the massive document management involved in the processing of its large volumes. But nothing further from reality. Any user can access these services. And the results obtained after processing the documents will be load into the client's own ERP. Impressive are the results that Matilda (EMC Legal Software) offers. They also provide this technology Atomian or Taiger. While there are many more that we can find such as Luminance, Big ML or Kira System, their systems focus more on contracts rather than court notifications. There is also legal software that allows the use of this technology in an integrated way, which is a plus. From my point of view, these types of technologies promise an unprecedented revolution in the management of court files. Digital tools and artificial intelligence will significantly lighten the workload of lawyers and attorneys, allowing professionals to spend more time on tasks that require the most value. The technology will automate repetitive and routine tasks, and artificial intelligence will add great value to document management processes, making them more efficient and agile in terms of information and documentation exchange between parties, with significant optimization of the times and resources used in the documentary processing of files, and the consequent impact on profit margins. Task automation will completely transform the way legal services are understood and delivered. Obviously, there will always be such particular and specific issues that will require a legal exercise according to the nature of the matter in question, but digital tools will also play their role in the management of items of work in this type of matter. Rocío Ramirez, Independent Legal Tech Consultant #MachineLearning #LegalTech #DigitalTransformation

Brais Méndez, CEO and Co-Founder of DOCUTEN If one thing has become clear, it is that most business strategies were not prepared to withstand a situation like the one we experienced over the last year. Countless companies have had to face unexpected obstacles and stresses as a result of the coronavirus, including mobility restrictions, being forced to work remotely, and economic uncertainty. Teams have had to prove their resourcefulness and resilience in the face of unfamiliar terrain and undue pressures. The objective became to find solutions as quickly as possible in an effort to offset the impact of the pandemic on daily operations, results, and stakeholders. The rate of digital acceleration is proof of this. As the CEO of Telefónica, José María Álvarez Pallete, stated in an article for Expansión, “the pandemic has accelerated digitalisation between 3 to 5 years". Recent trends in digitalisation include strategies and solutions to better handle administrative management and the necessary, recurring, day-to-day operations of companies. It has proven to be one of the areas where companies tend to be less digitalised, and we have verified as much at Docuten from the exponential growth in demand. The need to work remotely and improve efficiency led many companies to secure our digital signature and electronic invoicing services. While there was a clear increase in digitalisation, the legality of digital solutions remained of primary concern for many businesses. At Docuten, our clients not only have the assurance that all our solutions are covered by the law, but digital transformation makes legal compliance that much easier. How does administrative digitalisation help comply with current legislation? We are aware that companies need to comply with current legislation and that is why our solutions are designed to help companies do just that. Is digital signature legal? This is one of the most frequently asked questions and unfortunately, misinformation leads companies to distrust digital solutions. That said, all our signature solutions are covered under Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions (eIDAS Regulation), as well as with other international regulations. In addition, we are a European Trust Services Provider, so we can ensure that all our solutions are fully legal and secure. In addition to being legally valid, relying on digital signature for labor and commercial documentation enables you to meet deadlines established by the law, drastically lowers human error, establishes a single storage point to avoid misplacing documents and helps companies comply with the legal obligations that affect the signature process. Lorena Suárez, HR Director at Kimak (Grupo Caamaño) explains how, “all too frequently, due the geographic dispersion of our workers, the amount of time it took to process documentation wasn’t allowing us to comply with current legislation and generated a lot of distrust on the part of the worker. Now, all documentation is sent through the platform to the worker directly and, aside from receiving the information much sooner, we eliminated any costs associated with printing high volumes of documents. ...Regarding our stakeholders and clients, we have greatly increased their confidence in us thanks to the presence of a Trusted Third Party [Trust Services Provider] who validates our signatures". Is electronic invoicing legal? For an electronic invoice to be valid, the Regulation on Invoicing in Spain (Royal Decree 1619/2012, of November 30 _ BOE of the 1st of December) requires the issuer to guarantee, from the date of issue and throughout the entire retention period, the integrity of its content and its legibility. How do we guarantee this part? From the point of view of the invoice recipient: 1. Authenticity of origin, which in our case will depend on the reception channel: - For FACeB2B, a public record remains. - Via our vendor portal, through the audit records generated by Docuten itself. - Via email, through the mail sent by the provider. 2. Content integrity - In the case of invoices via OCR, this is achieved by the time stamp when an invoice is received. For the other two channels (FACeB2B and the vendor portal), it is achieved through the electronic signature contained in the invoice. The requirement of article 7 of Order EHA/962/2007 is fulfilled by points 1 and 2, which leads us to article 18.1. b) of the Regulation that regulates invoicing obligations. It indicates that said conditions will be accredited by means of an advanced electronic signature. Docuten complies with this by being protected under the eIDAS Regulation and other legal provisions, and by being an Electronic Trust Services Provider. 3. Invoice legibility - This applies to invoices in a structured format like Facturae or UBL where it must be guaranteed that a human-readable version is available. We offer this, for example, with the PDF view that we compose from a Facturae. This doesn’t apply to invoices directly received in PDF version since they are already legible. Docuten is one of the electronic invoicing services providers verified by the General State Administration in Spain: ● https://face.gob.es/en/proveedores-servicios ● List of invoicing services companies What are the challenges companies face when embarking on administrative digitalisation? Thanks to our expertise, at Docuten, we are deeply aware of the challenges that companies face when it comes to administratively managing relationships with vendors, employees and clients. Our solutions aim to improve these relationships, overcome obstacles and elevate the overall efficiency of the company through a legally compliant, secure and easy-to-use platform. Vendor management Within the framework of Docuten’s services, vendor relationships involve both the continuous signing of commercial contracts and the management of invoices. At Docuten, we aim to address both issues. Digital signature enables our clients to sign contracts quickly and securely, using the type of signature that best suits their needs, from an advanced electronic signature to a qualified electronic signature. For clients with multiple vendors, Docuten makes administrative management easier through electronic invoice reception. Companies can use different methods depending on their particular circumstances. With Docuten, you can receive invoices through the FACeB2B channel, through our vendor portal, or as an email with one or more PDFs attached. Having several different channels reduces complications with vendors and guarantees the success of transforming the billing process into an automatic, digital one. Offering multiple possibilities to providers improves harmony and streamlines interactions. Employee management Resolving the uncertainty and undue stress on workers caused by the pandemic has been one of the main focuses of companies during this time. However, businesses shouldn’t only think about the short term. Providing workers with the necessary tools to more easily carry out their job duties (especially remotely)is imperative so that they can dedicate their time to activities that provide greater value to the company and eliminate monotonous or unnecessary tasks. Have you ever stopped to think about how much time your HR department spends managing all the documentation that must be sent out for signature? And what about the finance department? Have you ever taken stock of the hours involved in handling each individual invoice received? It is evident that many company administrative management processes cut across several different departments. Sergio Campillo, Head of People & Process Management at Monbake, indicates that, “intrinsic to choosing company digitalisation as a way of working is reliance on the people who are part of that transformation, improving their day-to-day operations and creating an attractive place to work.” Additionally, there are important legal implications to managing labor documentation that must be signed by workers when they are geographically dispersed since deadlines are not usually met, adds Lorena Suarez, HR Director at KIMAK. Digitalisation can once again be the solution. The signing of contracts, 145 forms, leaves of absence or medical leave, job safety documents as well as other paperwork can all be done digitally with any of Docuten’s solutions. These include, but are not limited to, signing with a biometric signature using a touch device (especially practical for companies with physical stores or offices), or signing with an OTP, which allows you to sign securely with a single-use code. Sergio Campillo, Head of People & Process Management at Monbake, told us how relying on Docuten has meant “reducing the deadlines to formalise any document that requires legal backing and thus achieving greater efficiency for processes that used to take much longer since documents no longer have to be taken in person to be signed.” Client management In addition to managing vendors and workers, it is essential to offer an efficient service to customers. Many of our clients manage the signing of commercial contracts through electronic signature, which enables better organisation and greater control over documents. It also helps promote an innovative vision for clients. Services such as the qualified signature with a digital certificate, the biometric signature, or the signature with OTP can provide this. Alternatively, Docuten offers companies the ability to issue electronic invoices to both public and private clients, which many companies are required to do to fulfill legal obligations. What Docuten offers companies At Docuten, we help companies overcome administrative challenges and invest in a paperless culture through services like digital signature and electronic invoicing (issued and received). These solutions are all easily managed through a single platform that complies with current legislation and allows businesses to improve processing times and deadlines by streamlining the legal compliance of internal operations. We seamlessly integrate with companies’ systems and work with connectors that enable integration with the leading ERP solutions on the market (like SAP, Microsoft, and SAGE 2000) so that companies can use our services with the applications they already trust. From multinationals to smaller companies, we have already helped hundreds of clients eliminate paper from their processes and become more efficient. Clients like Lantania have relied on Docuten to be able to continue working as normal over the last year. Systems Director Emilio Casal said it best: “Thanks to Docuten and the implementation of its services, our processes have not been affected by the pandemic and remote working. Additionally, it has been possible to eliminate paper, decentralise work on the different projects, reduce costs and improve efficiency. Signing contracts and receiving invoices has been made that much more agile.” We want our clients to benefit from digitalisation, we want them to save up to 80% of costs, to improve their organisational management (thanks to easy document accessibility), to reduce human error, to eliminate paper and improve their carbon footprint and, above all, to trust in the legality of an established and proven technology. #Digitalisation #LegalTech #DigitalTransformation

Iván Jiménez, Innovation and transformation manager at MUTUALIDAD DE LA ABOGACÍA I propose to take a trip in time, just for a few moments, before dissecting the world of algorithms. Take a moment to think about what the legal sector was like before the disruptive new technologies came along. As one of the oldest professions, dating back to ancient Greek civilization, it has inherently maintained its artisan, intellectual essence. Now freeze this image and look into the future in a non-linear way. At different times, new market rules, politics, and social factors have shaped the legal industry. Today it is technology rules and patterns that, together with social and cultural trends among clients, are changing the shape and outlines of our field. We are talking about a new value and how we interpret technology in a new role for us, mixing the "artisan" with the digital. In common with other industries, the legal sector is affected by incipient changes and accelerators, but essentially there is one technology that stands out from the rest. A "technological disruptor" that will predominate in the coming years, transforming the value chain to introduce algorithmic changes into key activities. We are talking about boosting our business model by exploiting data (the oil of the 21st century). And the motivation to seek technological solutions to help broaden the process of using data has to do with their complexity in this field. According to IBM, 2.5 trillion bytes of data are generated in the world every day, a quantity of information that cannot be assimilated even in a structured form by human beings unless we refine and connect the data to a complementary intelligence. The legal sector switching from zeroes to ones The objective of these organizations in the legal sphere will center on taking better decisions (calibrating risks, better opportunities with clients, assessing the value of contracts more accurately and so on) using data, to which end they will use a data-driven culture as a strategic lever. The focus will be placed on apparently unstructured, patternless information in whatever form (contracts, litigation, cases, etc.), and, using algorithmic functions, we will be able to multiply their value and offer competitive advantages. Seeking value intersections and perspectives to enable us to see what others cannot interpret. As Peter Thiel proposes in his book "Zero to One", we will seek exponential technologies and algorithms to quantify our business model, wherever our value chain is "hackable" or wherever we can exponentially multiply the value we add for our clients. Artificial Intelligence in all its disciplines (Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Neural Networks, etc.) is, without doubt, a differentiator in the legal sector and, like any "superpower", we must be ready and trained to use it in the digital era. New skills call for new abilities and roles to implement. In this new legal world, being digital forces us to think about how to develop and hybridize exponential abilities and fit them into the company's key activities. The keys to hybridization are our own data skills and the skills in the innovative ecosystem; choosing the right accelerators, startups, or enabling technologies can be a competitive advantage in adopting exponential knowledge. Establishing a balanced strategy for internal and external technology-related skills is a differential value that makes it possible to achieve differentiation earlier and further. Key activities, algorithmic roles and data In this joining of new abilities and roles it will be important to add new internal skills for the implementation phase of a new legal organization, based on a series of key activities that must be prominent in the transformation towards an algorithmic, data-driven organization: Legal Tech Ecosystem to identify what the tech industry is doing with data in the legal sphere and what tools are helping with the implementation process. The market is feeding on quick-wins that do not require technological efforts or specialist knowledge of AI, Machine Learning and the like, and that offer significant results in terms of efficiency and new added value. Legal Data Analytics to decipher data from many different standpoints, using the results of trials, testimony, court decisions, official documents, contracts, news, and so on in order to detect value, risks and opportunities by connecting data that are not immediately obvious. Legal AI Training; to implement AI technologies in organizations often calls for teams trained for this purpose to then refine the results. Custom AI tools for your organization require your teams to be trained in resilience and "artificial" knowledge in order to give them a competitive advantage in your process. Legal Hybrid Performance; to get the best results from new key activities, "machine vs. human" profiles will need to be redefined. Maximizing value from both points of view, not just for the sake of efficiency but to boost the value we deliver to clients. The process and human resources areas are vital to this new reality. Legal and AI Ethics Advice; to protect the core pillars of legal work, it is essential to reinforce and supervise the automation of decisions with AI. To this end, establishing the basis for supervision, training, design principles, decision-making models, the technologies used and transparency will be one of the foundations on which to construct an algorithmic strategy. Legal Algorithm Culture to define the what, how and why of algorithms and data use in the company's legal sphere. Placing at the center of the business the creation of a mindset to build synergies, in order to work together to achieve more in managing people in the organization and its clients by using the technology that can differentiate the legal business. If one thing makes the legaltech sector attractive in the coming years it will be the challenge facing the industry in transforming and exploiting data algorithms. We are probably talking about one of the industries that generate the largest quantity of unstructured information and at the same time spends the most time searching for, refining and analyzing it in order to draw key conclusions. This fact is a disruptive opportunity and a major challenge for the community of startups that are working to create synergies with the legal industry in the search to generate new competitive advantages. The key activities listed in relation to algorithms and data, together with the technological muscle of startups, should usher the sector into a new future characterized by knowledge about clients and a better value proposition to set us apart. The future of legal algorithms is coming. #LegalAlgorithms #LegalTechBusiness

Pau Mestre, Legal Manager of SIGNATURIT In recent years, the proper handling of contracts and trust services, such as electronic signature and certified electronic communications, has emerged as a determining factor for the positive development of a company. But not all organisations understand its importance. Businesses often negotiate, oversee and modify the terms and conditions of their agreements with third parties over long periods of time, only to realise the agreement was not concluded as they intended. This can give rise to various issues, not only of a litigious nature but also in terms of renegotiating the agreement, the payment of fees or even internal and external audits. That’s why contract management affects everyone involved, from workers and clients to partners and third parties. The protection and monitoring of contracts minimises risk, reduces the time invested and maximises the benefits for the company. Those responsible for contract management within companies (HR, sales and legal departments, among others) are not only in charge of negotiating the terms and conditions of the agreements and their due compliance; they are also responsible for the documentation and acceptance of any changes or amendments that may be necessary during a contract’s implementation and execution. Contract management therefore requires the continuous protection of a company’s contractual relationships, tackling and resolving any difficulties that may arise throughout the life cycle of the contract. The most common contracts that we can find within a company are employment contracts, sales invoices, orders and service agreements. On the other hand, depending on the business itself, we can find more complex contracts relating to construction, goods or services projects governed by strict regulations or specific technical specifications, as well as intellectual property agreements, outsourcing contracts or international trade contracts. Most of the latter involve the management of deadlines for a contract’s execution or overseeing a relationship with multiple parties responsible for different aspects of a project. In these situations, there is a need to swiftly and effectively manage the conclusion of a contract or set of contracts in order to be able to commence the activity in question, thus avoiding delays or unwanted additional costs. The relationship between the parties relies on the success of this coordination, because through the systematic management of potential claims and conflict resolution, it is possible to avoid complex litigation between the parties. This maximises the project’s economic benefit while limiting any associated risks. It is not uncommon for a company to lose large sums of money because a contract is poorly formulated or because unidentified technicalities arise due to lack of resources. Effective contract management is key in creating a strong commercial relationship, which establishes a roadmap that ultimately reduces and mitigates incidents. This in turn generates greater long-term profitability. This task requires an investment of time and resources; but when handled effectively, it ensures stability in a business context where companies need to reduce costs and increase their performance. On the other hand, there are regulatory compliance issues that require the generation and conservation of evidence, such as: consent regarding the protection of personal data, pre-contractual information in the financial field, or the conclusion of a contract concerning the protection of consumer rights. For example, in both employments contracts and consumer or supplier contracts, data protection must be handled meticulously, and it is typically necessary to obtain and maintain customer consent. Not complying with regulations surrounding legitimacy and data, among other issues, can lead to substantial financial penalties. Likewise, when it comes to pre-contractual negotiations, non-disclosure agreements, and project development, certified electronic communications and electronic signatures become key elements in the protection of the company’s know-how, in that they allow for the management and registration of communications provided to third parties that contain sensitive information. To ensure that businesses meet all regulatory requirements, Signaturit offers the ideal solution for formalising the processing of contracts quickly and efficiently through electronic signatures. With the advantage of offering automated, paperless, secure and accessible transactions, Signaturit’s digital signature solutions guarantee greater efficiency and scrupulous compliance with all legal and technical regulations. In addition, after being recognised as a Qualified Trust Service Provider of the European Union, Signaturit has also obtained the ISO 27001 certification, which endorses it as an Information Security Management System based on the international security standard. In summary, the use of trust services in a company’s contracting processes guarantees an improvement in the contract’s management, avoiding incidents of any kind (delays, accreditation, non-compliance with deadlines, etc.) and implies greater regulatory compliance, thus protecting the company and its day-to-day activity. In short, trust services not only streamline contracting processes, but are also a key element for the protection of the company. #ElectronicCommunications #ElectronicSignature

in the DLT & Crypto-Assets Framework Simona Ramos EU Horizon 2020 MSCA BAnDIT Project: (advanced Blockchain Attacks and Defense Techniques): Grant Agreement 814284* A blockchain is a peer to peer distributed ledger that records transactions between two or more parties in a verifiable and permanent way by storing them into a sequence of blocks. The blocks are linked together into a chain which is secured using cryptographic primitives and a randomized lottery mechanism. Each block contains a secure digest (or hash) of the previous block, an unforgeable proof from the lottery, a timestamp, and a list of transactions. One of the main advances that blockchain technology brings is the idea that once recorded the transaction in the block, it cannot be (easily) altered without alteration of the previously recorded blocks (Vujicic et al, 2018). Blockchain technology came to be known with the development of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency developed in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous name given to the unknown creator (or creators) that gave birth to this decentralized cryptocurrency (Nakamoto, 2009). After the creation of Bitcoin, the so-called “crypto market” saw a rapid take-off with the introduction of a vast number of new cryptocurrencies. Today, there are more than 2,000 crypto-assets outstanding (ESMA, 2019). The definition of “crypto asset” varies among countries. Also, crypto assets may have different features and/or functions, hence many regulations have come up with additional sub-categories. In one of the latest EU regulatory proposals on the crypto-asset ecosystem (MiCA), crypto assets are referred as “digital representations of value or rights which may be transferred and stored electronically, using distributed ledger”. Nevertheless, in spite of their transparency, decentralization and suitability for further applications, crypto assets are still considered a novelty and are characterized as a risky asset class (Borri, 2019). While the distributed nature of blockchain technology reduces the cyber risks that centralized market infrastructures have (such as the single point of failure) it is still subject to other types of cyber risks (Saad et al, 2019), (Apostolaki et al, 2017). On these grounds, many countries worldwide have issued warning notices for their citizens advising them of the potential dangers of investing in crypto assets. In general, governmental measures span from restrictive, permissive to encouraging. Although in reality, given the decentralized nature of this system, is extremely hard to enforce a severe restrictive measure such as a ban (Ellul et al, 2020). The ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) identified the most significant risks regarding crypto assets as fraud, cyber-attacks, money laundering, and market manipulation. In particular, ESMA emphasized that technology-specific risks are still under addressed while certain existing requirements may not be easily applied or may not be entirely relevant in a DLT framework (ex. GDPR). Recently, the EU Commission and the Council jointly declared their commitment to establish a legal framework that will harness the potential opportunities that crypto assets may offer while in the same time mitigate the associated risks they may pose to European users and businesses. Most recently, in an effort to determine the legal status of crypto-assets, as part of the “Digital Finance Package” initiative, the EU issued two regulatory proposals. One proposal on “Markets in Crypto-Assets”, which if applied would amend the already existing Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a “pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology”. The main objectives of these proposals are to a) provide legal certainty, b) to support innovation & remove the regulatory obstacles which may be constraining fintech development, c) to protect European users, investors and business by enabling trust and confidence in the market integrity and d) to maintain financial stability on European grounds. The new proposed regulation on DLT market infrastructure (under Article 6) is aimed to introduce new requirements in order to tackle the novel risks pertaining to DLT. In other words, it sets a norm for DLT infrastructure holders to provide market participants, clients, users and investors with clear and honest information on how to carry out their functions and activities when applying DLT, to ensure that overall IT and cyber arrangements related to the use of DLT are adequate and to safeguard users’ funds and assets (ex. DLT transferable securities) if needed. Also, under Article 9 of the same proposed regulation, it is maintained the need for cooperation between the DLT market infrastructure, competent authorities and ESMA. As mentioned, DLT market infrastructures must inform competent authorities and ESMA of any evidence of hacking, fraud or other serious malpractice, technical or operational difficulties which may pose risks to investor protection, market integrity or financial stability. As seen in (Ramos et al, 2020), markets react to information regarding cyber-attacks and timely notification may make difference in safeguarding users funds and restoring network security. Introducing needed cyber security requirements is set to be proportionate to the nature, scale and complexity of the DLT market infrastructure. Likewise, in order to ensure integrity and security, competent authority of a DLT market infrastructure should be allowed to request an audit in order to ensure that the overall IT and cyber arrangements are fit for purpose (paragraph 30). It is important that the overall cyber arrangements of the two proposed regulations, aim to protect user funds from hacking, degradation, illegal access, loss, cyber-attack or theft, however not much further explanation of the required technical measures is given. The proposed regulation imposes a safekeeping mechanism for client funds in form of cash or cash equivalent, DLT transferable securities, or the means of access to such DLT transferable securities, including in the form of cryptographic keys, but it recognizes the existence of a regulatory gap regarding reliability and safety requirements: “At the same time, regulatory gaps exist due to legal, technological and operational specificities related to the use of DLT and crypto-assets that qualify as financial instruments. For instance, there are no transparency, reliability and safety requirements imposed on the protocols and smart contracts underpinning crypto-assets that qualify as financial instruments. The underlying technology could also pose some novel forms of cyber risks that are not appropriately addressed by existing rules.” In other words, although certain jurisdictions have proposed or introduced regulatory frameworks which provide assurances regarding the financial market and operations surrounding cryptocurrencies, there is still a lack of assurances in terms of the core technology & cyber security measures associated with it (Ellul et al, 2020). It should be noted that high cybersecurity resilience is a precondition to sustainable innovation in an increasingly digitalized financial sector, where protecting users, businesses and investors is a priority. In the recent years there has been an exponential increase in number and severity of cyberattacks related to DLT and crypto-assets, which has left many dubious in regard to the validity and trustworthiness of the DLT systems. While, recent regulatory efforts in the European Union have been a step forward, further research is needed in this domain. Besides identifying control points which can be used to apply regulation (ex. crypto exchanges, wallet providers) a more relevant “use-case” analysis is needed. Certain experts have argued for regulating technology via the agents who form the de facto governance of public blockchain, e.g., by the imposition of certain fiduciary duties to core developers and dominant miners (Walch, 2016). Nevertheless, having in mind that most public blockchains are built on an open source software code, certain problems arise from this approach. In other words, treating core developers and dominant miners as fiduciaries could deter them from participating in what may be considered a socially beneficial projects, due to a fear of potential liability - and without them contributing code and processing power (under PoW) the system risks disappearing. Moreover, core developers and dominant miners are usually not compensated highly enough to bare the accountability standard of a fiduciary, and in a different case of elevated compensation fees there could be a significant increase in the cost associated with running and using this technology (Walch, 2016). Also, due to the way PoW system works, honest but rational miners can have the incentive to eventually join pools and the colluding group will increase in size until it becomes a majority, thus having the possibility to perform a majority attack and “double spend”(Eyal and Sirer, 2018). While cyber related challenges may be an opportunity for further regulation, a contradictory unregulated perspective rooted in the paradigm of free-market approach could also be considered as an alternative. In other words, considering cyber related problems as a “diminisher of user trust” could incentivize market players (ex. crypto exchanges) to improve their cyber resilience and compete better with alternatives. For example, instead of regulating a central point such as a crypto exchange in order to ensure safety of user fund/assets, an alternative would be to leave the establishment of cyber resilience for the crypto exchanges itself, which could invest in cyber resilience as a way to strengthen user trust and attract more new members. Also, instead of applying a fiduciary duty to dominant miners, an alternative measure could be for public blockchains to improve the incentive design of the system, thus deterring miners from acting dishonestly and improving the resilience towards majority and other similar attacks. Acknowledgements This work was funded by H2020 ITN Marie Skłodowska Curie Action grant n. 814284 ”BAnDIT” as part of the EU Horizon 2020 program. The work was partially carried out at LINCS (Laboratory of Information, Networking and Communication Sciences) and Nokia Bell Labs in Paris during the CoViD-19 pandemic. The BAnDIT project (advanced Blockchain Attacks and Defense Techniques) is an Innovation Training Network (ITN) for European Industrial Doctorates (EID) funded under the European Commission’s H2020 Marie Skłodowska - Curie Programme. The project is led by Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the other main participant is Nokia Bell Labs France. More information about the project can be found at: www.upf.edu/web/bandit References M. Apostolaki, A. Zohar, and L. Vanbever. Hijacking bitcoin: Routing attacks on cryptocurrencies. In 2017 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pages 375–392, 2017 D. Vujicic, D. Jagodic, and S. Randjic. Blockchain technology, bitcoin, and ethereum: A brief overview. In 2018 17th International Symposium INFOTEH-JAHORINA (INFOTEH), pages 1–6, 2018. S. Nakamoto. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. White Paper. 2008. N. Borri. Conditional tail-risk in cryptocurrency markets. Journal of Empirical Finance, 50(C):1–19, 2019. I. Eyal and E. Gun Sirer. Majority is not enough: Bitcoin mining is vulnerable. Commun. ACM, 61(7):95–102, June 2018. ISSN 0001-0782. doi: 10.1145/3212998. URL https://doi.org/10.1145/3212998. M. Saad, J. Spaulding, L. Njilla, C. Kamhoua, S. Shetty, D. Nyang, and A. Mohaisen. Exploring the attack surface of blockchain: A systematic overview. ArXiv, abs/1904.03487, 2019. J. Ellul, J. Galea and M. Ganado. Regulating Blockchain, DLT and Smart Contracts: a technology regulator’s perspective. ERA Forum 21, 209–220 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12027-020-00617-7 A. Walch. Code(rs) We Trust: Software Developers as Fiduciaries in Public Blockchains’ 2018. S. Ramos, F. Pianese, and E.Oliveiras. A Great Disturbance in the Crypto: Understanding Cryptocurrency Returns under Attacks (Working Paper) September, 2020. European Securities and Market Authority. Advice - initial coin offerings and crypto-assets, 2019. URL https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/library/ esma50-157-1391 crypto advice.pdf. Proposal for a Regulation Of The European Parliament And Of The Council on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology COM/2020/594 final. October, 2020.url: https://eurlex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0594 Proposal for a Regulation Of The European Parliament And Of The Council On Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA), and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937 COM/2020/593 final October, 2020. url: https://eurlex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0593 #fosteringfintech #cryptoassetsframework

The legal industry is embracing a new era comprised by best practices driven by technological innovation which is defining new ways of understanding and adapting to current socioeconomic conditions. From teleworking to meetings via virtual platforms, from online payments to remote contract signing, technology has become an essential ally for the legal sector in conducting their activities. Although not all firms have needed to make a total digital transformation at this point, there is a common agreement that digital transformation is defining legal practice and new business models in a way that allows them to be more efficient and able to offer new services to clients. One of the fundamental aspects in the digitalization process of a law firm is the implementation of an electronic signature service, which facilitates the signing of documents both in internal processes and in the provision of services to clients, in a fast and secure manner. allowing professionals to carry out tasks that provide greater added value, saving time, and resources. The endless possibilities offered by these advances becomes more evident. Imagine, for example, signing a contract with a client. The traditional signature process requires scheduling a meeting, the customer's commute, printing the contract, signing, file... while with the e-signature process, we can send, sign and file the document in a matter of minutes, with the maximum legal guarantee and technical security. Even in face-to-face environments, signing a paper document requires a significant amount of time and resources in its management: printing, indexing, archiving, ... At Validated ID, through our VIDsigner electronic signature services, we work globally with pioneering firms in their daily use scenarios, such as Boards of Directors and Shareholders' Meetings Data Collection Consents Banking authorizations and SEPA documents Responsible Statements Exchange of documentation between professionals Signing of contracts with: - Clients (signing and presentation of legal documents, corporate acts, signing of contracts between the participating parties) - Suppliers (contracts, NDAs, data protection documents) - Workers (employment contracts, confidentiality agreements) One of the leading firms in its digitization processes is Cuatrecasas. Cuatrecasas is gradually integrating VIDsigner's electronic signature into its business processes and is currently capable of solving some of its internal processes, such as signing documents with suppliers, contracts in different fields (GDPR, NDAs, etc.), and facilitating its clients' electronic management by signing and submitting legal documents, corporate acts in which they act as secretaries, and facilitating the signing of contracts between the participating parties, etc., which they draft for their clients. In an innovative scenario, e-signature allows providing answers with legal security to frequent situations. The technology allows establishing modern and serious relationships, with which clients feel comfortable, and facilitates the exchange of information and documents in an agile and secure manner between the firms and their clients. And at this essential point, especially for the LegalTech industry, incorporating services that provide great legal security is the key factor when deciding which technological solution to start working with. Ramón Bernabéu - Legal Manager at Validated ID After collaborating in the development of commercial relations between Asia and LATAM, he currently advises on digital transformation through electronic signature and Sovereign Digital Identity (SSI) systems at Validated ID. #ElectronicSignatures #LegalTechSector

By Carlos García-Egocheaga, CEO, Lexsoft Given the current economic uncertainties and increased competition, coupled with a dispersed workforce, the need for knowledge management (KM) in law firms is amplified and so, it is no surprise that the function is making a resurgence. Long considered a luxury that only large law could afford, today thanks to technology, KM is supremely affordable. More importantly, the traditional remit of KM – i.e. document retrieval and reuse – has matured to embody the capture of ‘collective experience’ of the firm for competitive advantage. So how can firms embarking on the adoption of KM as a business-critical function, ensure programme success? Here are five tips: Clear KM strategy At a fundamental level, the goal of any KM project is often the same, regardless of the type firm looking to adopt this capability – i.e. to provide lawyers with valuable information that they can reuse rather than reinventing the wheel. This can take the form of the best examples of previous documents for specific types of matters, the efficient processes followed and most importantly the innate expertise and experience that resides in the firm, as they help clients solve their problems. However, the strategy to achieve this end goal differs firm to firm as organisations function differently, both operationally and culturally. The KM strategy therefore must be attuned to the ways in which the lawyers as well as the larger organisation works, so that the process of modelling is appropriate and efficient. A key component of the KM strategy must be to determine how to secure document contributions from the lawyers. Typically, lawyers are aware of the documents that reside in the firm’s document management or other enterprise-wide content management system, but the professionals in the KM department driving the project do not have visibility of that data. So commonly there is a situation where the lawyers are reluctant to share that information, while the professionals in the KM department do not have a mechanism or sometimes the appetite to painstakingly secure those best examples of ‘work’ materials from fee earners for their KM models. Tactical execution of the KM strategy There must be a good understanding of the scope of work that the KM department needs to undertake, including who will execute the activities and how they will be conducted. For instance, who in the department will say, be responsible for redacting the documents? What kind of classification strategy will be adopted to ensure efficient searchability? Will these tasks be undertaken manually, will AI or any other technology be used to assist? If the latter, does investment need to be made to acquire the technology? Well-defined taxonomy Most KM departments are influenced or inspired by the external legal content services providers in the taxonomies that they create for their organisations. It is logical, after all these content providers have spent many years assimilating and honing their taxonomies and content classifications. However, the final taxonomy for classification must be tailored to the specific requirements of individual firms, accurately representing the type of documents that are created in the organisation. It impacts searchability and findability of documents and can be the cause of difference between success and failure of a KM project. Realistic project resourcing A resourcing plan is essential. KM departments must have the right mix of team size, expertise, experience and indeed technology. Think about what other expertise you need to bring into the department to assess the quality of the data, given that the variety of document types that need reviewing will be varied. For example, if you are a large firm, your KM departments may be well resourced with specialist lawyers who would be knowledgeable about the nature and quality of documents that need to be included in the knowledge database. On the other hand, if you are a smaller firm, you may need to involve a senior lawyer to make sure that the correct/final documents are being included in the data models. For some types of documents, perhaps a junior lawyer or even a support executive in the team might suffice. Also, is there a requirement for other technologies to be part of the modelling process? Clear migration path for documents Most law firms have a knowledge repository of some sort. The problem usually is that despite best efforts to accurately and appropriately classify, overtime the repository turns into an unmanageable beast. When developing a KM solution, finding the correct documents to include in the knowledge database and models becomes problematic, even though in all probability, they are stored within the original repository. It is potentially akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. Thereafter, a fair amount of effort to clean, redact and anonymise the documents, enter them into the right taxonomy and so on, is needed. Consultants, as experts in this process, can play an instrumental role in helping you to identify, clean, and appropriately classify the data. They bring with them insight – from having undertaken this exercise across numerous scenarios – as well as best practice. This approach is also a more cost and time effective option. Over the years, many firms have embarked on KM programmes and experienced varying degrees of success. A well-considered and well-resourced approach supported by suitable technology can ensure that firms get KM ‘first time right’. This in turn will them on a KM journey that intuitively evolves and scales over-time. About the author With over 25 years of experience in the technology sector, as Managing Director of Lexsoft, Carlos García-Egocheaga is responsible for driving the strategic direction and expansion of the overall business globally. He oversees all aspects of Lexsoft including the P&L, HR, legal and business development. #knowledgemanagement

Data exists everywhere and anything that we do results in more data. Law Firms collect large amounts of data every day. However, few firms have realized the need for analyzing this data in order to improve their business. Data analytics is becoming more important in many industries, and the legal sector is no exception. Simply put, data analytics is the science of examining data in order to make a conclusion about some information. Legal data analytics applies specifically to the business and practice of law. Legal analytics harnesses technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and searching, to clean up, structure, and analyze raw data from case files, court documents, and other legal documents. While still in its infancy, legal analytics will play a crucial role for the law firm of the future. A law firm’s business insights are the backbone of its success. Knowing which lawyers are contributing the most to your law firm’s profits, the law firm’s client growth rate, revenue growth rate, debt-to-equity ratios etc., are just some of the critical questions that law firm data analytics can help demystify. By monitoring the right success metrics for your law firm, you can make a major impact on your firm’s revenue and growth. You can look at key performance indicators (KPIs) related to number of new clients every year, number of new cases every year, number of new paying clients in the current year as compared to past years, the number of new clients by category, and the estimated average value of each new case. Legal analytics can also help you better understand productivity KPIs like the number of billable hours, the utilization rate (which is the number of billable hours worked divided by the number of hours in the workday), and realization rate (the number of billable hours invoiced divided by the number of billable hours worked) for your firm and for each lawyer. Armed with insights into your law firm’s performance trends, you can start being proactive instead of reactive. For example, if you’re monitoring billable hours and find that certain months of the year tend to be slower for your firm, as those slow months are approaching, you can dedicate more time to bringing in more business to prepare for the anticipated decrease in cash flow. Some of the major benefits of Data Analytics to law firms include; 1. Improved Efficiency With increased ability to gather large amounts of data at a quicker rate and visually representing it, law firms can make informed decisions to help achieve specific goals. Based on data, a firm can build a culture of efficiency and teamwork in which employees are able to share in the decision-making process. 2. Smart Decision Making The relevance of a business is solely based on decisions. Effective decisions help in ensuring and fostering growth as opposed to ineffective decisions. Therefore, providing properly analyzed data, appropriated conclusions can be made from it. With correct analysis, law firms can eliminate errors that arise as a result of decisions made with no support. 3. Predict Future Trends By using predictive analytics technologies, law firms can analyze historical data to predict future outcomes and the likelihood of various outcomes occurring. These technologies typically use statistical algorithms among other technologies, and allows firms to predict future trends and stay ahead of the competition. Such decisions might include knowing when to diversify into other geographical regions, when to hire more attorneys or support staff, or what expenses to reduce to increase the firm’s bottom line. Enfinite Solutions recognizes the importance of data analytics in law firms. With our custom-made cloud-based application LawAnalytix, law firms now have the opportunity to use their data as a decision-making tool. Integrated with our law firm management system WakiliCMS, law firms use LawAnalytix to view statistics and trends such as client growth rates, revenue growth rates, realizations rates, utilization rates, debt-to-equity rations, partner performance, employee turn-over just to mention a few. The added advantage being that the data does not have to be captured and organized again in LawAnalytix as it was already captured in WakiliCMS. Overall, this data-driven approach can help you gain insights to help you make better business decisions and improve the productivity and efficiency of your law firm. #legalanalytics

It is in times of uncertainty that fraud makes the most progress. It is now more common for users to click on links that they believe are beneficial to them, either on the supposed recommendation of their bank or the company they work for. Data theft is spreading dangerously, and a training exercise is needed by all parties involved to reverse this, with the crucial support of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Many people are now working remotely, and this has led companies to make an effort to ensure their employees' security outside the office. It is important that companies clearly define the devices and applications that are considered corporate standards, with full support from the IT department. In that sense, communication and training must be keystones of this newly developed distance working strategy. Clarity must also exist so that no worker puts at risk the safety of their company or their own. For example, making it clear to employees that they will not be sent COVID-19-related emails urging them to submit personal data is a simple way to prevent phishing internally. But the risks are not mitigated by simple messages. Education and, of course, digital solutions applied by experts are needed. AI training to improve security This is where artificial intelligence, whose role in identifying people and objects is increasing, takes hold. Through machine learning, AI can be trained to detect very specific elements after a thorough analysis of thousands of images. These advances in technology allow us to establish filters to verify whether a user is who they claim to be, increasing security in the registration process and even contracting services, and limiting the ability of fraudsters to steal money using digital fraud techniques. When we talk about the end customer, it is essential to ensure that the onboarding processes are well balanced in terms of security and user experience. Too many layers mean that users almost always leave a registration or the purchase of a service half done. The aim would be to make everything possible with just one click, but the current reality presents us with barriers that we must overcome step by step. Establishing this balance is absolutely key. This is why artificial intelligence is a useful tool for speeding up processes, improving the user experience and, of course, increasing security. Having AI-based technology to eliminate friction will help companies to take advantage of the increased demand for digital services in the short term and beyond. It is worth working on this now and allying with strategic partners who can help analyse and detect fraudsters through identity verification. A hybrid approach to identity verification Identity fraud is not a new problem, but certainly innovation has taken it to a new level. The good news is that the ability to identify it is improving every day, as researchers are experimenting with AI capable of detecting even the most elaborate counterfeits through facial recognition and behavioural biometrics. The later is particularly important. We often talk about how artificial intelligence is a fantastic barrier capable of stopping an immense amount of fraud attempts; and it is, but let's not forget the role played by those who control it. At Mitek we have a hybrid model where our agents rely on artificial intelligence to detect fraud attempts and reduce the margin of error of detection to zero. According to the latest study by IDC Research Spain and Mitek, 35.7% of financial institutions use biometric recognition, while 31% have applied digital identity validation systems in the delivery and validation of information. We are going through a context in which the number of online users is increasingly growing, to the point that customers who prefer to interact digitally with their bank are already 14% more than those who opt for traditional means. It is therefore clear that the commitment to a hybrid model to identify the identity of artificial intelligence is fundamental. Companies, workers and customers must be protected from the new threats lurking on the net. Fraud results in the loss of millions of euros, but also of reputation. Both of these things are a major setback for any company, and it is very difficult to overcome them. #ArtificialIntelligence #IdentityVerification

Fortunately, we are facing a strong growth trend in the Legaltech sector in all areas that cover the legal life of organizations. What began timidly as specific solutions to certain problems, progresses –although with ups and downs- towards a harmonious and more consolidated treatment, which tends to cover needs that so far imply risks and high costs for any company. Thus, solutions began to emerge for the management of court cases, contracts, law libraries, education, and the list goes on. Does Artificial Intelligence Replace Man? A very important contribution is made by Artificial Intelligence; understood as the way to provide, in an area of relative security, quick solutions facilitating the daily work of legal operators. At Smart Legal we are convinced that Artificial Intelligence is a fundamental tool, but in no way can it supplant human intelligence in decision-making, especially in aspects as delicate as the legal field. There is no glimpse, at least until now, that Artificial Intelligence can acquire ‘legal criteria’, since this is a matter, precisely, of ‘criteria’, typical of the human. And although there are many developments and experiments around ‘automatic judges’, we consider it improbable that Artificial Intelligence - no matter how trained it may be - allows us to dispense with the threshold of the legal criterion, proper and exclusive to human intelligence. We believe that this is a very difficult hurdle to overcome. However, this does not imply that Artificial Intelligence cannot be of use; quite the contrary, we understand that it can and should be used in any legal field. Not as a way of dispensing with the human, but as underpinning for correct, effective and timely decision-making. Regulatory Compliance Among the entire universe that legal problems present to any human activity, we consider that the aspect of regulatory compliance is fundamental. The legal structures of any organization are a central pillar for the control and monitoring of regulatory processes. Currently, companies do not have people in charge of assembling, updating and global control of the structure, causing this deficiency great economic losses due to non-compliance with the regulations and deadlines imposed by the legislation. Currently, the market only addresses a part of the solution, dealing with specific aspects of a certain activity. But they do not address compliance as a whole. The possibility of integrating Artificial Intelligence into the management systems of any organization allows: Identify, build a legal matrix and keep it updated, addressing each and every one of the activities of a given company. Monitor and control the entire command pyramid of the companies. Use it in all the branches that a company has in any country in the world. At Smart Legal we develop a tool that addresses regulatory compliance with a comprehensive perspective, for any sector or vertical of a given organization. From the Complex to the Possible The biggest challenge in terms of Artificial Intelligence developments lies in the correct analysis and treatment that must be done with natural language. Indeed, Artificial Intelligence developments tend to be less complicated when it handles images. The fact of having to analyze regulations with their characteristic language is more complex, but obviously not impossible. Our work focuses primarily on this analysis of standards. And we have Artificial Intelligence as a tool to make regulatory compliance more efficient, faster and more complete. We do not know for sure what may happen tomorrow. The well-known pandemic is a clear example of this. What we are sure of is that regulation, as a State activity, will not cease its trend of growth. And there must be Artificial Intelligence to support human activities. By Cristian Rússovich, CEO & Co-founder, Smart Legal #ArtificialInteligence #LegalCompliance