EY Law has entered into a global framework agreement with Luminance. Having trialled the legal AI platform in its M&A centre in Belfast, EY has rolled the service out for large scale document review across its entire legal advisory and legal managed services offerings, comprising more than 2,100 lawyers in 84 jurisdictions. According to Luminance CEO Emily Foges, the review software is now the primary product for due diligence across the entire practice group.
“With three of the Big Four accountancy firms now using Luminance, we are witnessing a seismic shift in the legal landscape as law firms need to innovate to keep pace,” said Foges. “In today’s climate, the adoption of this machine learning technology is essential for law firms looking to stay competitive. It’s an incredibly exciting time as organisations across the world are beginning to see real results from this technology and our agreement with EY Law is proof of that.”
This is a significant win for Luminance, although Foges would not be drawn on the nature of the agreement in terms of the payment structure – we understand that Luminance typically charges by transaction as opposed to the enterprise licenses of some of its competitor.
EY Law’s work with Luminance is the latest demonstration of the organisation’s commitment to investing in technology and innovation for legal services. It follows the recent acquisition of legal services firm Riverview Law to enhance and scale the EY Law legal managed services offering. The acquisition was designed to bring increased efficiency, risk management and service transparency, whilst reducing the costs of routine legal activities for EY clients.
Earlier this month, Luminance – which was launched in 2016 by a group of mathematicians and software engineers from the University of Cambridge – closed a $10m second round of funding from investors including Invoke Capital, Talis Capital and Slaughter & May.
The financing valued the business at $100m. Luminance technology is now deployed in over 130 organisations on six continents with products focused on M&A due diligence, compliance, litigation discovery and real estate. Other clients include top 100 firms such as McDermott Will & Emery and Holland & Knight. The company has raised $23m to date and has recently opened a fifth office in New York. More product roll-out is expected soon.