How GenAI Can Be Leveraged by Legal

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Legal research has come a long way. It used to be that an associate conducted keyword searches in one language to generate results that match the keywords in that same language. This is fine when legal issues are mainly local, but as our world has become more global and interconnected, this approach does not always meet the need.

Fortunately, developments in the artificial intelligence (AI) field are advancing legal research; they create the potential for legal professionals to prepare cases with comprehensive research into specific provisions and rules—even across international borders, languages, and cultures.

Large language models (LLMs) create the opportunity to empower legal professionals to effectively break language barriers and promote a more accessible and interconnected legal landscape.

With the right tools and design, legal research platforms effectively leveraging the generative capabilities of LLMs can translate any language and conduct multilingual searches, translations, and interpretations.

As a result, legal professionals can overcome historical limitations and enhance efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness. In international law, it’s imperative to understand the laws and nuances of the country in which the case is filed to determine if the case should be arbitrated. Breaking down language barriers is critical.

How GenAI Can Break Language Barriers in International Law

Multilingual legal research platforms leveraging generative AI (GenAI) perform searches that go beyond the users’ input language. They retrieve the most relevant information and generate useful responses in any interaction language by leveraging high-quality data, thanks to architecture and algorithms that are adapted to a multilingual context.

To achieve a high-quality multilingual interaction, these types of platforms use fine-tuned LLMs (enhancing LLMs for specialized tasks), multilingual embeddings (numerical representations that capture the meanings and relationships of words across languages), and other techniques to create an interface for lawyers to interact with a legal database in their native language and retrieve answers that aggregate the most relevant sources, regardless of their original language. The challenge is in matching legal concepts from one language to another and capturing the distinct meaning within different legal traditions. Tools, algorithms, and workflows embedded into the products’ capabilities can overcome these limitations.

Unlike traditional human translation, these specialized GenAI products offer efficient translation services with speed and accuracy. They can translate large volumes of materials in seconds and significantly reduce costs. Legal documents and exhibits can be translated into any language, facilitating cross-border collaboration.

GenAI also offers real-time interpretation. Precise and reliable interpretation is crucial for legal proceedings, and AI helps to consistently achieve it. Therefore, there are no variations that may occur with human interpreters. This approach is not only cost-effective but also ensures smooth communication across language barriers and streamlined proceedings.

Challenges with “The Old Way” of Conducting Research

Prior to the introduction of specialized GenAI products, legal research tools were usually limited to a single language. For example, if an associate sought Spanish language insights, they would have had to use Spanish search terms. However, GenAI-powered legal research platforms enable searches of documents in myriad languages with results generated in English. This ensures that all relevant information is captured in the GenAI’s response, ensuring better accuracy and completeness of the output generated.

In addition, translating complex legal issues is time-consuming. Translations provided by a translation service provider or interpreter can be cost-prohibitive with rates given per the number of pages to be translated. In high volume cases, translation expenses can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thanks to GenAI, however, large volumes of documents or GenAI’s answers can be translated into any language in seconds.

Benefits of GenAI for Multilingual Search, Translation, and Interpretation

Because of the design surrounding GenAI-powered legal research platforms, these tools become multilingual and key in breaking down language barriers in international law.

While a prompt is made in English, these platforms can not only search through the English documents in the database but also incorporate relevant documents in other languages in the database within the English answer. This allows for more complete legal answers across language barriers to ensure an international rule of law.

GenAI can translate three things: the output (the answer generated by the AI in the same language as the prompt), legal documents, and exhibits into other languages.

Legal professionals can also leverage these tools to interpret in real time. In arbitration hearings, for example, the process is streamlined and allows for more conductive sessions.

By leveraging AI, legal professionals can overcome historical limitations, enhance efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness, and they can promote a more accessible and interconnected legal landscape.