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In the legal tech world, language isn't the only thing that can get lost in translation. Heads of innovation at international law firms say that launching legal tech across different countries isn't always as simple as installing software. Bringing new products to different countries can oftentimes mean tailoring them to a new region's laws, data regulations and language. There are some tools, however, that more easily cross borders than others.

"There's no way you could design a product around global law because there is no global law," said Tom Gummer, innovation manager of Kennedys Law, which recently expanded its KLAiM virtual lawyer platform to its Latin America clients.

Gummer noted "one of the challenges is making sure the requirements of each jurisdiction has been considered." That includes updating the tech with local legal expertise.

Unlike the piecemeal approach of designing the software in accordance to local law, adding more languages to a software's user interface can be done more broadly, he added. For instance, an English-written user interface can benefit U.S. and U.K. offices, while translating the user interface to Spanish benefit users in most South American countries. 

Differing language aside, Gummer said online workflow platforms are more straightforward to launch across international offices, because these platforms, such as those that manage prelitigation tasks, may follow a similar set of processes in various jurisdictions.

Hogan Lovells global lead of legal services delivery Stephen Allen noted that e-discovery tools also travel well because many can operate in multiple languages, and the platforms are more established. 

"[E-discovery platforms] had more time to mature and I also think it's much easier to understand," Allen said. "The actual market is a lot older … and you don't have to train people about why to use it."

But while e-discovery is leveraged by international lawyers, other platforms such as court analytic tools aren't as readily usable outside of the U.S., Allen added. 

"You don't have the same level of data. PACER makes all federal court cases and decisions online immediately," he said. Legal tech companies such as Gavelytics and LexisNexis' Lex Machina, for instance, can offer insights into judges' rulings by accessing these public databases. But elsewhere, such as in France, access to court documents can be restricted and inhibit the market for court analysis tools.

While a court system may dictate how accessible court records are, governments' regulations can also place new requirements on data sharing for law firm tools. For instance, Reed Smith practice innovation director David Pulice noted that the firm's extranet was popular across its 29 national and international offices. But when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect May 25, 2018, lawyers became concerned about where their client data was being stored and obtaining consent from clients before placing their data on the cloud.

"To combat that we installed an environment in the U.K. to ease the adoption of the tool both for our lawyers and clients," Pulice said. "The lawyers would have it right there to ease the clients' concern about storing data abroad."

Reed Smith's solution echoes what other law firm innovation leaders also note: that deploying legal tech with the intention of global use can ultimately be done if it meets client needs.

"If they can use it, we want to give them the ability to use it," Pulice said. "We've purposely tried to eliminate those barriers. Even with all that good work, there are some barriers that we have to try to overcome, but again, I think a lot of it is education and letting them know what's available."