Dentons-Atlanta Photo Credit: John Disney/ALM

Dentons has announced a partnership with RADAR, a provider of incident response technology, to use its tools for the firm's internal compliance and client services. The move is the latest in a growing trend of law firms looking to leverage technology and automation for regulation compliance.

Starting at the beginning of 2019, Dentons will use the RADAR platform to assess data incidents and automate procedures if a data breach has occurred. Through RADAR's online application, the user creates a report of a data incident and answers a web form regarding the event. If it determines an incident was a breach, RADAR provides automated guidance of applicable notification requirements.

RADAR CEO Mahmood Sher-Jan said his company currently has no plans to create any Dentons-specific software or platform. Instead Dentons will use RADAR software “internally and promote leverage for delivering services for their clients.”

Firms such as Stoel Rives, K&L Gates and Davis Wright Tremaine are also using RADAR for data incident response and assessment, according to published reports. Sher-Jan said clients are “nervous” of the evolving growth and complexity of global regulations and his software offers a quick and consistent approach for evaluating possible data breach liability.

The partnership came about because Dentons is housing data governed by various international regulations, and ensuring it meets data breach notification requirements can be cumbersome.

“Data protection is paramount, and similar to the clients we serve, [we] need to deliver internally” said Dentons global chief innovation officer John Fernandez.

Fernandez noted that this isn't Dentons' first foray into legal tech, pointing to the 2015 launch of NextLaw Lab, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dentons created to invest in and develop legal technology.

Although this RADAR collaboration is not a NextLaw Lab venture, Dentons said such a partnership is needed to not only help the firm's own compliance, but also help its attorneys offer clients compliance advice. 

“When you have tools like RADAR and you can bring the power of Dentons behind that it allows you to give much more specific advice,” said Dentons chief security officer and partner Karl Hopkins.

For Sher-Jan, merging technology and legal is a great union, although it can be difficult to achieve with a profession known for its apprehension to change.

“We've been advocating for the role technology can play in legal,” Sher-Jan said. “[It's] sometimes not always an easy path because there's a lot of strong subject matter expertise and the status quo isn't easy to change.”

Dentons' partnership with RADAR comes as other firms look to leverage technology to automate breach compliance. In September, Davis Polk & Wardwell launched a portal that allows clients to assess if a data incident warrants a notification and provides template notification statements.