Radiant Law has opened up its proprietary contract review toolkit to any company that wants to check its contract terms in light of Britain’s impending exit from the European Union.
The technology and outsourcing boutique has long been using Remarkable, which extends Word to include a toolbar of over 50 features in order to help legal teams speed up review turnaround times, view issues and improve the value of contracts. One of those features is Remarkable Uno, which helps users to quickly search across multiple complex contracts for multiple terms and which Radiant is now sharing for free.
Radiant has pre-populated the software with some terms to help users search for the impact of Brexit on their contracts or any other search terms that are relevant.
It has extended the code so that Remarkable Uno now includes the ability to save search terms and results.
Radiant’s co-founder and CEO Alex Hamilton (pictured on the home page) told Legal IT Insider: “The impact of Brexit is very context specific and we thought it would be more useful to give people a tool to help them figure out what’s going on in their own contracts.”
Radiant will be licensing the full Remarkable toolkit later this year.
See below for its useful and typically tongue in cheek FAQ. We particularly like: “Is this AI?” Answer – “No, we haven’t let our marketing team pretend it’s AI.”
About Remarkable Uno – FAQ
What does Remarkable Uno do?
Remarkable Uno adds a feature to Word to let you search (or chercher, suche, ricerca, buscar or søke) across multiple documents at the same time for a list of terms. It presents the results in a nice view that lets you jump to the relevant part of the document, check off points that you’ve found and generate a report. We’ve included a list that might be helpful as you figure out the impact of Brexit on your business – add or delete terms as relevant to your contracts.
How do I use Remarkable Uno?
– Add files or folders to be searched on the left (click here to open a screenshot)
– Add terms you want to search for on the right. You can use “term” to limit to whole words and term_ as a wildcard so that it doesn’t just search the whole word. For more complex search terms using the wildcard option see here
– Click “start search” to, well, search
– On the search results, you can choose whether to group by search terms or documents
– Expand the list on the right to see the results for the particular term or document (click here to open a screenshot)
– If you double click on a result or click on the arrow it will take you to the relevant part of the document
– You can save and load lists of search terms and the results of a search
– You can generate a report of all the terms that you’ve found
– You can get more information at remarkablesupport.zendesk.com.
How do I install Remarkable Uno?
Download it, close Word, run the .exe and follow the instructions. It will add a feature to Word under a new tab called Remarkable Uno.
What version of Word will it run on?
It should work on a locally installed version of Word 2010, 2013 or 2016. You will need to be running Windows (the Mac version of Word isn’t extensible in the same way).
What kinds of documents can it search?
Currently just Word documents. We are looking at whether we can add pdfs too.
Can I search other terms?
Yes, it’s fully functional and you can search for any terms you like. You can also create your own lists of search terms.
How long does a search take?
It depends on the number and length of documents and the number of terms. It could take a long time, but you can run it in the background. While it’s running, we think everyone could benefit from a cup of tea. You can save a search so you don’t have to run it again.
Are there other tools that we could use?
Yes, there are lots of tools out there, but in-house legal teams don’t tend to have access to them (and being able to jump into the document is a really nice feature when you’re trying to make sense of agreements). We can help talk you through your options on other tools.
How much does it cost?
It’s free.
Are there any restrictions on use?
Anyone can install and use it. We may open source the underlying code if there is demand. Anyone can change the list of search terms or distribute their own list.
Why are you giving it away?
Because whatever we think about the Brexit results, we are firmly in the let’s-roll-up-our-sleeves-and-get-on-with-making-the-best-of-it camp. This seems like an easy way to help in-house teams as they figure out which way is up.
Is this the best tool for large reviews?
This tool is great at scanning complex deals. However, if you have a large number of contracts, there may be better tools to use. Talk to us and we can help steer you in the right direction.
How long has this been under development?
The basic feature has been part of our Remarkable toolkit for years. We had the idea a few days before we released it and added some more features. We tend to develop quite fast
I’ve got a better list of terms to search for
Good work. You can create your own list and feel free to share it.
Have you got any other useful tools?
Yes, lots! We are expecting to start licensing them out shortly (but that won’t affect your use of this feature).
Is this AI?
No, we haven’t let our marketing department pretend it’s AI. It’s a bulk search tool. There are other tools available (that use natural language processing/machine learning) that will do a better job of finding, for example, a particular clause type. Talk to us if you would like help with selecting or using these tools. They are trying to solve a different, but related, problem. We recommend using multiple approaches.
My IT department won’t let me use it
Yup, companies are increasingly locking down their computers, and this may need approval. Feel free to direct your IT department our way if they have questions, and in the meantime, talk to us if you would like help reviewing your contracts.
Does this confirm whether my contract is Brexit proof?
There is huge uncertainty right now about what Brexit actually means and, whatever the outcome, what you need to check in the contract will depend on the nature of the deal. Remarkable Uno is a tool to help lawyers look for key words to speed up review processes. It can’t guarantee that your contract is fine.
Is this legal advice and are you now my lawyer?
What do you think?