A new software system unveiled at the Legal Tech conference gives lawyers the power to build their own 'electronic robots' – intelligent electronic agents that can be sent out to find relevant information on the Internet.
The 'e-bots' are part of the NSite intranet system from NMatrix, a New York-based supplier of knowledge management software to law firms and investment banks.
Davis Polk Wardwell co-developed the system with NMatrix over the last three years, while Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is believed to have signed a deal with NMatrix to use the intranet software and e-bots.
The system is thought to be the first of its kind used by law firms. The intelligent agents were available in the previous version of NSite, but now lawyers can build their own robots, rather than having them built by NMatrix.
The e-bots electronically explore predetermined Internet sites, legal information providers (such as Lexis-Nexis) and a firm's intranet data at regular intervals.
The user is then notified by their e-bot via e-mail of any change in a topic or any new information that may be of interest.
Lawyers can tell the e-bot which content provider or Web site they would like searched on a regular basis. Once created, the e-bot executes an initial search and continues to 'harvest' information on a regular schedule specified by the e-bot's creator.
John Lord, NMatrix chairman, said the use of e-mail and hypertext had provided a universal way for any lawyer to access information.
"Essentially, the system works with any Mapi-compliant e-mail system and Netscape and Explorer browsers at level four and above," he said.
Lord said that several of the top 10 US firms were already piloting the software and he was confident the majority of the top 10 or 15 law firms would be using the system before the end of the year.
The system will also be available in the UK through Legal Expert Systems in London.
Davis Polk director of professional services and systems Michael Mills said one example of how the system could be used was by an anti-trust lawyer working in the telecommunications industry.
"She can use a software agent to harvest new position papers and regulations from the Department of Justice Anti-trust Division and FTC and FCC Web sites by running a full-text query against newly-posted web pages," he said.
"She can collect Lexis-Nexis trackers following stories on key players in telecoms or run a stored query against her firm's document management system for new memoranda on competition issues.
"And eventually she can package it [the information] all into a MyYahoo-style intranet page that is e-mailed to her every morning."