Using AI to reduce legal costs

With a funding increase of €10.5 million and a perceived lack of competition from Ireland, Johnson Hana CEO Dan Fox said the company’s current focus was “growth, growth, growth “.

Dublin-based Johnson Hana is on a mission to deliver a “better way” to run legal services in Ireland.

The company is an Alternative Legal Services Provider (ALSP), which focuses on the heavy side of legal work rather than legal advice.

Using a combination of lawyers, its platform and artificial intelligence, Johnson Hana says it can help accurately predict costs and timelines while reducing its clients’ legal expenses by up to 50%.

Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com, co-founder and CEO Dan Fox said ALSPs started gaining traction after the crash of 2008, when companies sought to reduce legal expenses and increase efficiency.

“You can see that in the US and the UK in particular, many companies and even law firms are starting to adopt the ALSP model and partner with companies like this,” said Fox.

The global ALSP market reached an estimated $13.9 billion for legal services at the end of 2019, according to a report last year by Thomson Reuters. This report also suggests that 79% of law firms and 71% of corporations now use ALSPs.

Despite the growth of this sector, Johnson Hana claims to be the only ALSP operating in Ireland. It has taken on major clients since its inception in 2017, including Airbnb, Wayflyer, Twitter, Ryanair and Ervia.

The company is also set to expand further, having recently raised €10.5m in a funding round led by AIB. This round saw the bank take a minority stake in Johnson Hana.

Transparency through technology

Besides the legal experts working for the company, Fox said its success also stems from its technology, which includes a platform to “inject transparency back into legal workflows.”

“One of the biggest challenges corporate legal departments have faced in decades is that they don’t know what work is being done and how much it’s ultimately going to cost,” Fox said. “For us, it’s always about telling people in real time, through the platform we’ve developed, how many hours are being put in, forecasting the hours we think are needed to complete the project.

“Something as small as this makes a really significant difference to legal services. It’s not about reinventing the wheel, but about doing something very different in terms of people’s experience. »

Fox said Johnson Hana is also using AI to help reduce the amount of human labor involved in legal processes. While it doesn’t eliminate the need for human talent and review, Fox said it works to “decrease the magnitude of input required.”

Fox said Johnson Hana is working with a number of companies to provide AI technology to its customers, including software company Kira Systems and Reveal Data.

Expansion plans

Asked about the company’s plans for the future, Fox summed up the overall goal as “growth, growth, growth.”

Johnson Hana currently has approximately 200 employees, which includes its core team and a large group of contract attorneys who work multiple hours each week. Fox said he plans to grow the team to 500 by the end of 2023.

The company already operates in several countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa, and plans to open offices in the United States and the United Kingdom.

“The Johnson Hana model is working very well and what we are doing now doubles what has worked,” Fox said. “I have people internally who say it’s potentially too ambitious. But we have never been accused of lacking ambition.

“I think it’s going to be a stretch, but I still believe we can do it.”

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