The May 2018 enforcement date for the EU's Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has companies scrambling to prepare their information governance processes and procedures. Alternative legal services provider Axiom is hoping some of these companies will look to some nontraditional compliance approaches to meet the regulation's requirements.

This week, Axiom launched its GDPR Contracts Compliance Solution (CCS), a service for organizations' contract remediation needs. Using technology with artificial intelligence-based infrastructure, the service identifies priority areas in contract databases per GDPR requirements, drafts and sends addenda to counterparties updating contract terms, and offers a streamlined workflow management for negotiation.

Mathew Lewis, senior vice president and co-head of Axiom's Global Banking Practice, explained that companies have largely failed to address the size and scope of the contract work they expect to deal with before GDPR's enforcement date.

“Too often, companies overlook contract remediation entirely, view the work as something that can be handled in-house by existing team members or rolled up into a larger response,” Lewis said. “We have found that this approach severely underestimates the complexity of the task at hand.”

More broadly, Lewis sees a space for alternative legal services in helping organizations drill deeper into some of the remaining areas of GDPR compliance they may need to address before May, which can be cheaper and quicker than employing consultants to review broader GDPR compliance.

“The beauty of alternative legal services is that it allows our clients to quickly scale up a team of experts focused on the specific regulation, and provides a laser-focused way to target often overlooked elements that clients would otherwise leave until too late,” Lewis said.

Some organizations remain wary of alternative legal services. Lisa Hart Shephard, CEO of legal market research group Acritas, previously told The American Lawyer that traditional law firms are generally still “the preferred option” for in-house counsel. Yet Axiom is hoping that its  technology and services around it will help the company stand apart from outside counsel options.

Building services around an AI-based technological infrastructure is an increasingly common technology strategy for dealing with complex contract analysis. Lewis noted that while AI can boost the speed and accuracy of contract work, both of which can lend a huge hand to companies in GDPR compliance, the technology is perhaps best at helping organizations figure out where to focus their efforts.

“AI alone will not be enough to become GDPR-compliant, but it's an important part of scoping and prioritizing agreements so that you can tackle the problem intelligently,” Lewis noted.

 

The May 2018 enforcement date for the EU's Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has companies scrambling to prepare their information governance processes and procedures. Alternative legal services provider Axiom is hoping some of these companies will look to some nontraditional compliance approaches to meet the regulation's requirements.

This week, Axiom launched its GDPR Contracts Compliance Solution (CCS), a service for organizations' contract remediation needs. Using technology with artificial intelligence-based infrastructure, the service identifies priority areas in contract databases per GDPR requirements, drafts and sends addenda to counterparties updating contract terms, and offers a streamlined workflow management for negotiation.

Mathew Lewis, senior vice president and co-head of Axiom's Global Banking Practice, explained that companies have largely failed to address the size and scope of the contract work they expect to deal with before GDPR's enforcement date.

“Too often, companies overlook contract remediation entirely, view the work as something that can be handled in-house by existing team members or rolled up into a larger response,” Lewis said. “We have found that this approach severely underestimates the complexity of the task at hand.”

More broadly, Lewis sees a space for alternative legal services in helping organizations drill deeper into some of the remaining areas of GDPR compliance they may need to address before May, which can be cheaper and quicker than employing consultants to review broader GDPR compliance.

“The beauty of alternative legal services is that it allows our clients to quickly scale up a team of experts focused on the specific regulation, and provides a laser-focused way to target often overlooked elements that clients would otherwise leave until too late,” Lewis said.

Some organizations remain wary of alternative legal services. Lisa Hart Shephard, CEO of legal market research group Acritas, previously told The American Lawyer that traditional law firms are generally still “the preferred option” for in-house counsel. Yet Axiom is hoping that its  technology and services around it will help the company stand apart from outside counsel options.

Building services around an AI-based technological infrastructure is an increasingly common technology strategy for dealing with complex contract analysis. Lewis noted that while AI can boost the speed and accuracy of contract work, both of which can lend a huge hand to companies in GDPR compliance, the technology is perhaps best at helping organizations figure out where to focus their efforts.

“AI alone will not be enough to become GDPR-compliant, but it's an important part of scoping and prioritizing agreements so that you can tackle the problem intelligently,” Lewis noted.