Software: The Attorney Who Is Always on the Job
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In the legal arena’s contest of man versus machine, the U.S. Justice Department has given a big boost to the machines.
Department officials reviewing the proposed merger of Anheuser-Busch InBev NVBUD -1.56% and Mexico’s Grupo Modelo GMODELO.MX -0.26% SAB recently approved a request to use software—rather than a horde of lawyers—to determine which documents needed to be turned over to the government.
Cases involving large companies often require legal counsel to sift through millions of electronic documents. In the past decade, that task has typically fallen on armies of contract, or temporary, lawyers who earn $25 to $40 an hour. Industry experts peg the cost for clients at more than $1 per document.
Only a handful of judges have approved the use of such data-review software in litigation, and law firms have been cautious about deploying the technology, which can be trained to hunt for concepts and unleashed across millions of documents at once.
But the Justice Department go-ahead is likely to spark more interest among companies looking to whittle down legal tabs.
Tags: Department officials, Justice Department, legal arena, U.S. Justice Department
