India’s date with LegalTech has been a much aspiring one. While exploring how state of the art global firms providing tech driven legal solutions are operating in India, Lex Witness elaborates on its conversation with Rakesh Satpathy, Account Director – India, Epiq. A legaltech afficionado, Rakesh unveils how powerful the India story is, when it comes to real time application of technology to drive the legal ecosystem across corporate houses, law firms and even the judiciary
In his journey of more than a decade, Rakesh stresses upon the consistent evolution of legal technology in the country. His passion remains to drive it from the roots with a dream to take this to the epitome of the judicial system, making India a role model for the world. A computer engineering graduate with a post graduate degree in project management is on a mission to make India a legaltech hub.
Ever since 1988, Epiq has been a worldwide provider of legal and business services, serving law firms, corporations, financial institutions, and government agencies. It is a strategic partner for its clients committed to easing their burden, navigating the complexity of their matters, and achieving success. Epiq is globally spearheading the legaltech evolution and related services, including Digital Forensics and Analysis Technology assistance in cross-border litigations, antitrust and competition services, etc. In addition, it broadens up to Investigations CUTTING EDGE April 2023 | Lex WITNESS | 9 India’s date with LegalTech has been a much aspiring one. While exploring how state of the art global firms providing tech driven legal solutions are operating in India, Lex Witness elaborates on its conversation with Rakesh Satpathy, Account Director – India, Epiq. A legaltech afficionado, Rakesh unveils how powerful the India story is, when it comes to real time application of technology to drive the legal ecosystem across corporate houses, law firms and even the judiciary. In his journey of more than a decade, Rakesh stresses upon the consistent evolution of legal technology in the country. His passion remains to drive it from the roots with a dream to take this to the epitome of the judicial system, making India a role model for the world. A computer engineering graduate with a post graduate degree in project management is on a mission to make India a legaltech hub. – Regulatory, Compliance, and Cyber AI-driven – contract review and analysis, Leading court-reporting services, Legal Operations: Asset management, legal spend control, etc.
It has been an incredible journey since I started with Epiq in Jan 2022. The best thing about the Indian market is once it tries something innovative and becomes successful, it takes the lead by setting examples at a global level. India has been very observant in adopting legal technology and related services; however, since covid accelerated, a floodgate of opportunities has opened up, and it can now be seen as an emerging market and opportunity too. In particular, the legal sector’s adoption of AI and machine learning technology can transform how laws are practiced in India.
Both of them can benefit equally. Especially when you consider that a few years ago, there was a lot of hue and cry about the disruption that AI may create in the legal industry, and now things have been shaping for an AI-driven reformed legal sector.
Globally, including India, in-house and external counsel customers see increased pressure, especially in five key areas. These are costs; cyber-attacks; data proliferation; regulations, compliance, and litigation. These all create increased volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. As a result, in-house counsel need to change their operating model to reduce silos, better measure and manage outcomes, and data and Intelligence must be unified and centralized. Based on the above, law firms must constantly adapt to clients’ needs, pressures, structure, and limitations.
Therefore, Epiq is the perfect partner for both law firms and inhouse counsel for this. At Epiq, we’ve designed our Legal Service Management (LSM) approach to enable corporate legal teams to operate more effectively. This future-thinking approach includes making all legal data accessible using a data warehouse for analysis and the creation of legal Intelligence, layering in the exceptional legal services that Epiq offers. It makes it all available to our clients’ legal functions via an easy-to-use, secure, and unified platform. This approach can help legal teams deliver the services, metrics, and outcomes that their businesses expect while allowing their teams to focus on high-value work. But please remember that changes do not happen overnight, and we help focus on immediate needs, enabling a holistic transformation over time.
When it comes to India, there are three issues I would like to highlight;
We offer the best court hearing services and sophisticated technologies to fast-track matters across India. As mentioned earlier, a fundamental philosophy of Epiq has been to get the best combination of People, Processes, and Technology. These help the legal fraternity by empowering for different scenarios – our unmatched global presence with global leadership in execution with the help of legaltech and services brings a global perspective and experience, making our clients in India succeed.
The existing solutions have been recognized for some time as the best practices and are ready to accommodate the jurisdictional requirements in India. Furthermore, as a technology-driven organization, we have also excelled in customizing solutions as needed. Epiq has a team of experts who profoundly understand the subject and dedicated practice groups are there for different sectors. Additionally team of lawyers spanning the global geographical locations who understand the local jurisdictional laws
Speedy redressal of significant cases is undoubtedly the most challenging. Secondly, data in digital form is crucial in curbing all the unnecessary time spent in legal proceedings. Finally, the entire court system should be on digital records; data interpretation would help interpret the matter. The other challenge is bringing awareness to the legal community to use the best technology– enabled services. The Indian judiciary evolved by modifying laws, especially where decisions could be drawn more based on electronic discovery wherever applicable, similar to the US and Europe
Minimizing time and minimizing cost with speedy redressal is my motivation for helping the entire legal process, and that is only possible through the adoption of technology. Covid has given us the best teachings we can ever get. How technology helped virtually carry out the entire legal system, including hearings, executions, and judgments.
Data Digitization for speedy Retrieval is the mantra. LegalTech is the most awaited area in India, how in seconds you can get the data out of a million records is an essence. We keep regulatory and compliance current, understanding how to comply with ever-evolving regulatory requirements. Also, we have a robust strategic partnership with Microsoft and other organizations to provide comprehensive enterprise data solutions.
But more than futuristic additives, a key strength is our people, as we have over 8000 people in 19 countries. Our experts are focused on one thing: helping our clients succeed. An excellent example is legal operation solutions we can provide to in-house counsel through law department transformation and optimization, reporting and dashboards (Metrics that Matter), technology enablement, and legal spend management.
Instead of the most preferred solutions, I would emphasize what our legal industry and judiciary need. The first thing to be considered is what can help expedite things accurately, for instance, smart court hearing solutions, digital data processing removing the noise, AI-driven document review, or technologyassisted review, etc. Internationally they all have been embraced by the legal systems; now the time is for India to embrace them, maximizing their benefits. However, the most preferred services Epiq is getting in India are digital forensics and analysis, cyber incident response, e-Discovery, and court hearing.
But please remember that recognizing needs that lead to changes do not occur overnight, especially with the complexity of the issues being faced. We can provide solutions to meet your immediate needs and expand them over time to integrate additional offerings.
Artificial Intelligence(AI) is already playing a role in legal. According to the 2021 ELM MarketView report by Hyperion Research, which is an Epiq company, of those organizations looked at in this report, over 42% of law departments plan to invest in AI and machine learning in the next two years, with 34% investing in this technology for the first time. This can be projected for India as well. In addition, corporate law departments and law firms are increasingly adopting advanced technologies to transform their work digitally.
Artificial Intelligence will take a giant leap across industries, and legal will not be an exception. The recent Punjab and Haryana High Court hearing that used ChatGPT is a perfect litmus test. However, AI will always be a facilitator as a legaltech for the lawyers instead of any threat. Humans would handle the fate of any judgment as always, and the lawyers of this era will use it in their favour for positive outcomes.
Legal processes in India are going thru a massive transformation in terms of adaptability and making the processes efficient and faster. AI will play an enormous role in helping the industry navigate thru work much quicker and easier than earlier.
Globally, including India, inhouse and external counsel customers see increased pressure, especially in five key areas. These are costs; cyberattacks; data proliferation; regulations, compliance, and litigation. These all create increased volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. As a result, in-house counsel need to change their operating model to reduce silos, better measure and manage outcomes, and data and Intelligence must be unified and centralized. Based on the above, law firms must constantly adapt to clients’ needs, pressures, structure, and limitations.
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