Baker McKenzie has launched AI personal assistant Lancelaw, providing its lawyers with a weekly selection of both relevant and personalised news on the transformation of the law profession as well as innovation. Based on machine learning techniques and “neuronal circuits”, it has been trained by two lawyers from the Paris office to learn to prioritise its sources. With a capability to learn by itself, the firm says it continues to develop and fine-tune even further the selections it makes.

Collaborative media project

Magalie Dansac Le Clerc, partner in Information Technologies and Communications, and Thomas Defaux, senior associate in Intellectual Property revealed that ‘as Lancelaw’s tutors, we have devoted several months to the education of the robot, with the support of different lawyers from the firm involved in this project. Our ‘made in Baker McKenzie’ robot has turned out to be a very precious source, right from the first weeks of its use.’ The AI technology underlying this robot was developed by the innovator Benoît Raphaël, founder of Flint, a collaborative media project between humans and robots.

Fruitful collaboration

Arnaud Cabanes, managing partner of Baker McKenzie in Paris, said ‘the result of a fruitful collaboration between Benoît Raphaël’s teams and our lawyers, Lancelaw constitutes a concrete example of our command of new technologies and our innovation strategy.’ Lancelaw is part of an internal innovation programme, aiming to experiment with new innovative working methods in order to continue to improve the customer experience. The programme began in 2017 through a partnership with 42, the first entirely free computer programming school in France.