Aussie firm patents legal search technology

Gibson Dunn takes Hong Kong team from Ropes & Gray… Hogan Lovells confirms board appointments…

Aussie firm patents legal search technology
Aussie firm patents legal search technology
Australian law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth has patented a new legal search technology which identifies documents with low quality searchable text.

The patent granted by IP Australia is for optical character recognition, which Corrs will use as part of a new service called JustOCR.

“OCR technology was a huge leap forward for the legal industry, particularly in litigation cases,” said Corrs Partner James Whittaker. “Our new OCR analysis feature is the next step up, providing users with a significant strategic advantage in ascertaining where the gaps are in their own and other parties’ document collections.”

The new product was developed by the firm’s innovation team and head of innovation Graeme Grovum said that it can cut the analysis of 1.5 million pages – a task which can take a week or more – to just a few hours, with a huge benefit for client costs.

Gibson Dunn takes Hong Kong team from Ropes & Gray
A team of four lawyers is joining Gibson Dunn in Hong Kong from the local office of Ropes & Gray.

The corporate partners - Paul Boltz, Scott Jalowayski, Michael Nicklin and Brian Schwarzwalder – will continue their private equity, finance and securities practice at their new firm.

Gibson Dunn’s Hong Kong partner in charge Kelly Austin says the new arrivals “represent a transformational step for the development of our Hong Kong office.”

Hogan Lovells confirms board appointments
Three new members have been appointed to the board of Hogan Lovells.

The board comprises 12 members and, although it does not have executive responsibility for running the firm, it oversees its affairs and provides input to key areas including leadership, compensation and lawyers’ development.

Andrew McGinty remains the board member for Asia Pacific and is joined by new members Bruce Oakley for the Americas and Leopold von Gerlach for Continental Europe.

Meanwhile, Ben Higson has been re-elected to the ’45 and under’ seat. 

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