The information and analytics provider, which publishes Law360 Canada, says Lexis+ AI “combines the power of generative AI with proprietary LexisNexis search technology that seamlessly navigates both English and French legal content.” The technology features conversational search, summarization, legal drafting and document upload capabilities, all supported by state-of-the-art encryption and privacy technology to keep sensitive data secure, the company said.
LexisNexis Legal & Professional Canada CEO Eric Wright
According to LexisNexis, conversational search simplifies the complex and time-consuming legal research process, offering a user-friendly search experience for various legal inquiries complete with citations, which empowers lawyers to conduct research effectively and efficiently. Enhanced summarization provides a custom summary of legal documents, expediting and guiding insightful analysis. Generative document drafting guides customers throughout the legal drafting process, automatically generating an initial draft based on user prompts. This feature allows users to easily modify the language and tone to suit their needs. Document upload capabilities allow for rapid analysis, summarization and extraction of key insights from legal documents, the company said.
Tailored to Canadian legal professionals, the Lexis+ AI offering will support interactions in both English and French, which allows users across the country access to Halsbury’s Laws of Canada and Juris Classeur, the only French civil law encyclopedia in Canada, on top of English and French commentary, pleadings, motions and facta court documents and practical guidance.
Alan Votary, LexisNexis Canada’s head of product, said the product’s bilingual capacity is one of the things he is most excited about.
“The ability to serve in both of Canada’s official languages is something that we’ve always felt strongly about,” he said. “And this is something that I think really makes us stand apart as we come forward with this product designed to meet the needs of both English- and French-speaking Canadians.”
There has been a lot of excitement over the past few years about AI technology, but concerns have also been raised about its potential to replace human jobs. But Votary said the idea behind Lexis+ AI is not that it is going to replace lawyers “but rather make them more efficient.”
“Lawyers may have multiple people doing research for them, but ultimately, the lawyer has to take that output, review it and make sure it’s suitable for their client,” he said. “This tool helps along those same lines — the idea is that you get that information quicker, that you can then review and ensure that it’s good for your client or good for the court.”
And Wright said he doesn’t see Lexis+ AI replacing lawyers any more than Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet program replaced accountants.
“[Lexis+ AI] will help lawyers really be able to spend more of their time doing the high value, highly differentiated work that can only be done by them and that their customers want them to do,” he said. “We’ve done some research in this space and talked to corporate counsel, and their expectation is that it will make what they are doing more efficient and more effective.”
A commercial preview of the Lexis+ AI solution launched in the United States in 2023, and the product is now widely available there.
Votary said there is a “rather large” contingent of humans overseeing the Lexis+ AI who are “making sure it is achieving what we need for our customers,” including preventing the creation or reinforcement of unfair bias — a charge that has been levelled against many AI products in the past.
“There’s a global group which is making sure that the model makes use of our content and generates output that will make sense for lawyers in that market in the language that they’re interacting with,” he said. “And with that additional human oversight layer, we can watch for and make sure that we’re addressing any issues that could come up.”
LexisNexis follows the RELX Responsible AI Principles. To download a copy of the LexisNexis Canada Generative AI & the Legal Profession report, visit LexisNexis.ca/Legal-AI-Report.
If you have any information, story ideas or news tips for Law360 Canada please contact Ian Burns at Ian.Burns@lexisnexis.ca or call 905-415-5906.