Peer to Peer Magazine

Spring 2019

The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association

Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/1097368

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 12 of 67

14 less configurable and would not meet our needs. We consulted search experts MC+A and identified a number of key benefits of Elasticsearch that support the interactive and subjective nature of collective intelligence, including: • Advanced tuning options for multi- faceted algorithms, like ranking experience and relationships. • Native support for graphing knowledge and relationships, the key assets of a professional services organization. • The ability to show lawyers the context of answers (e.g., relationship heat maps, criteria for relevancy ranking), which they can adjust on the fly to meet their needs and better understand the results. • The ability to embed the experience into our browser and mobile-based intranet. • The capacity to address the needed scale and speed for large quantities of both structured and unstructured data. We undertook some proof of concept work and ultimately decided to pilot the Elastic Stack with BA Insight as our new firmwide "one authoritative source" search. Having this core allows us to build other capabilities from the same tuned index rather than recreating the wheel with every product. Now, whether a person is chatting with a bot, analyzing documents, pricing a matter, finding an expert, or seeking competitive intelligence, they benefit from the data and algorithms of the firm's core intellect. Personal Insights You Didn't Know to Ask For This effort, however, isn't about moving from one software system to another; it's about rethinking how information can be discovered and applied. Traditional search works like the biggest sale of the year that's never advertised – great information is available but only if you know to come ask about it. In a firm with thousands of clients, hundreds of lateral lawyers and alumni, dozens of key geographies and industries, and constantly changing laws and precedents, we can't sit back and hope lawyers ask for just the right information at the right time. Our collective intelligence mission is about revealing useful insights, the proactive nuggets of information that can make all the difference. In the legal market, we have the luxury of personalizing these insights, not merely by guessing one's interests based on past behavior and cookies deposited on a computer, but through the detailed employee information recorded in our internal systems. We know basic profile information (such as practice, active matters, jurisdictions, top clients); business, marketing, and client service plans for the year; recent meetings and correspondence; the phase of a matter recently completed; budget status with key clients; recent research; and so much more. Assessing changes in the firm's data collection and serving up personalized, useful insights to the right people at the right time - that's potential for a secret sauce that becomes a competitive edge. While not a full replacement for traditional just-in- time search, surfaced insights are a great complement. We incorporate insights in a few ways: • Opportunities: Machine learning to identify new ways we can serve our clients. • Personalized and leader activity logs: An automated Twitter-like feed for lawyers to stay current on clients, people, industries, and the firm. • "No search" landing pages: Serving up personalized insights that are likely beneficial, even if the lawyer didn't know to ask for them. A N A N O N Y M I Z E D E X A M P L E O F S E A R C H R E S U L T S

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Peer to Peer Magazine - Spring 2019