Smart Legal Opinions

Legal opinions are provided by lawyers in a very wide range of contexts and scenarios. They can be very long and convoluted, and can require time-consuming review. The legal profession is heavily paper-based and the automation of legal services is still at a relatively early stage. A major aim of this project is to explore how technology could be applied to the current processes of preparing and producing legal opinions in the context of business and financial settings, potentially resulting in their becoming more understandable and usable, and less vulnerable to inconsistent or incorrect interpretation. It is envisaged that the study will include an evaluation of how legal opinions could be expressed in a more structured form, and whether this could improve the process of reaching conclusions and facilitate the use of data analytics. The project will also examine possible areas of inter-disciplinary cross-over between eg language/grammar/syntax, and computer science, including the feasibility of using blockchain.