MS Word-integrated plug-in to assist lawyers

Innowise has developed a web application integrated with MS Office that contains a knowledge base to help law companies cope with work tasks.

Customer

Industry

Legal

Region

Client since

2022

Our client is a large legal company that redefines the way documents are reviewed and understood. Detailed information about the client cannot be disclosed under the provisions of the NDA.

Challenge

The sphere of law is considered to be super complicated since it deals with issues concerning personal, work, and property relations. Moreover, the competence of a lawyer is often crucial when it comes to the challenges of freedom, well-being, and even life.

Acknowledging the problem, our customer came up with the idea of software for law firms that can become an assistant facilitating the execution of lawyers’ work duties. In fact, every lawyer will get access to a large knowledge base in their field that is implemented as a system of built-in search engines, pop-up tips, and databases with judicial laws, rules, regulations, and other useful documents.

Solution

Based on the customer’s requirements, Innowise suggested legal software for law firms that links data, clients, and users, serving as a knowledge base.

Our development team came up with the idea of “smart editing” through implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and NLP technologies. So, eventually, the solution represented a plug-in integrated with MS Word, allowing the creation of the following document types:

Personal

Personal files are generated by users who define the level of security applied to the documents. They can protect them from unauthorized access or make them public, sharing information with colleagues or clients. For instance, when lawyers handle a case, they deal with confidential documents, which must be out of the reach of third parties. Therefore, these files are protected by user-admin roles to prevent the slightest risk of leakage.

Company

These documents are available to the company’s employees with an admin status that provides access based on the user’s roles and responsibilities.

Global

These documents are accessible to all users without any restrictions and limitations. In addition to creating personal, company, and client documents, users can leave comments and suggestions and tag other members to delegate or reassign tasks.

Furthermore, the core point of the solution is AI which analyzes all the uploaded documents and searches for the required information that is collected in the service databases. Empowered by OCR, it detects, recognizes, and segments such data as

meta information;
info about counterparts that signed an agreement;
document’s titles;
countries/regions where the documents are legit;
information that documents contain (rules, terms, laws, definitions, etc.)

By detecting context from a lawyer’s writing in MS Word, the Artificial Intelligence mechanism can suggest meta-relevant information to the user. While creating a new document, a user can confirm or reject the recommendations and correct mistakes, filling the forms with appropriate data on their own. Additionally, the knowledge base now includes filtering, searching, and comparing options for the documents.

By allowing the upload of documents through the local data knowledge system, we have already integrated the application with such Document Management Systems (DMS) as Sharepoint and iManage, with plans to plug the platform into NetDocuments and Google Drive. After integration with DMS, the user’s documents are synchronized based on a specified period of time (networked in the admin panel) and automatically parsed into articles and definitions.

The solution we compiled is available both on-cloud and on-premise. If chosen on-premise, all the documents and software equipment is stored on the client’s side, who takes full responsibility for the safety of sensitive information. In either case, documents are placed on a separate SFTP server for quick access.

Technologies

Back-end

Python, Django, Django Rest Framework, Sqlalchemy, FastAPI, Pydantic, Alembic, ElasticSearch, PgAsync, Postgres, Rabbit, Redis, Celery

Front-end

JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML5, CSS3, React, Redux, React router, React charts, Material UI

Machine learning

Python, C++, Cmake, Docker, Opencv, PyTorch, Keras, Tesseract, Scipy, Numpy, Pandas, Openmp, Poppler

DevOps

Docker, K8s

Process

Innowise began partnering with the customer in July 2022. The main objective was to develop the plug-in together with the admin panel to manage the company’s content, enforced by AI/ML, with integration into DMS.

Our vetted team decided to choose Python as the main programming language to build the app. Its framework Django served as the perfect template for backend and API development, providing smooth deployment and seamless maintenance.

The project is still in progress, with the next release scheduled for October, with two subsequent releases in the coming months.

Our team managed the scope of work using the Kanban methodology for the back-end and the Scrum for the client side with 2-4 week sprints and intermediate results. The project was managed, tracked, and executed using Jira while all communication took place via Slack.

Team

ML/DS Developers

Back-End Developers

Front-End Developers

Business Analyst

Project Manager

Results

Finally, our top-notch team is about to launch software for legal firms that streamline the work of lawyers. Additionally, the developed web app serves as an extensive database of law-related materials for law companies. Furthermore, AI helps users to search, modify, or improve the information that they use during their daily routines. As a result, the solution we developed becomes an indispensable assistant in lawyers’ day-to-day lives. In terms of functionality, the best document management software for law firms is about to be released.

Project duration

July 2022 - in progress

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