Positive thinking How can technology improve contract screening?

The agreement will see PwC launch pre-screening products for clients in collaboration with ThoughtRiver by the first quarter of 2020.

The startup's technology will be used by the Big Four firm's "new law" practice, a division of the firm's legal arm that advises in-house legal teams on operational efficiencies, with a particular focus on effective use of technology.

According to a statement by ThoughtRiver, the agreement followed a competitive tender process and discussions during a period of 18 months.

The partnership is the latest between legal tech startups and U.K. firms. Earlier this year, HFW announced it had entered into a "development partnership" with a litigation analytics startup, Solomonic, which uses court data with the aim of improving predictions, case research and outcomes.

Meanwhile Simmons & Simmons acquired Cambridge-based legal engineering firm Wavelength, which uses data science to create solutions that will help the firm work through large-scale projects, such as the replacement for the Libor benchmark and a GDPR exercise, more efficiently. In addition, Clyde & Co brought in machine-learning firm Neural Vision Technologies (NVT) to assist with automating the search and retrieval of records and documents through its search platform, NVT VISTA.