June 11, 2019

 

docQbot and LegalSifter are proud to announce a strategic partnership to offer a “combined intelligence” contract review product to users in China. The product – “docQbot LegalSifter,” will be the first AI-powered contract review tool to provide guidance in Chinese to help Chinese import-export companies review English-language cross-border contracts more quickly and more effectively. This Chinese-language help text will display in the margin comments to the reviewed contract in LegalSifter’s standard format. This is the first time that help text in a language other than English has been incorporated into the LegalSifter platform.

In addition, docQbot and LegalSifter have collaborated to create a separate commercial risk report that will be produced automatically at the same time as the annotated contract in LegalSifter’s traditional format. This commercial risk report will also be produced in Chinese and will rank contract risk issues identified in the automated review process – higher risk, medium risk and lower risk. This risk report is making its global debut as part of the docQbot-LegalSifter platform. LegalSifter plans to roll out similar comemrcial risk report functionality elsewhere around the world in the coming months. This commercial risk report takes advantage of a major new breakthrough in how LegalSifter’s contract review system (called “sifter settings”) can be calibrated to provide users with even more ways in which to customize the tool to meet their particular requirements.

The new commercial risk report and traditional LegalSifter annotated contract will work together to provide users with a more complete overview of the potential risk issues in a contract – the commercial risk report ranks the contract risk issues by level of importance, while the annotated contract directs users to where in the contract those issues arise. All of the Chinese-language help text in both the commercial risk report and the annotated contract on the docQbot-LegalSifter platform has been drafted by the docQbot team to reflect both international standards and Chinese norms for cross-border transactions.

China’s foreign trade totaled more than 5 trillion USD in 2018 and there are estimated to be more than 5 million import-export companies in China. Based on market research conducted by docQbot, Chinese import-export companies are required to work off of the foreign trading partner’s paper in up to 80% or more of cross-border transactions. The vast majority of Chinese import-export companies review these English-language contracts without the help of legal counsel. This leaves them exposed to significant contract risks which they are not able to identify on their own. The docQbot-Legal-Sifter tool willl help these companies identify and manage these risks more effectively.

With docQbot LegalSifter, users simply upload a draft contract into the online software-as-a-service platform. Sifters—software trained to read text and look for specific concepts—review the document in a few seconds to a minute or two and then produce the annotated contract with in-line margin comments together with the commercial risk report. docQbot-LegalSifter will offer this as an out-of-the-box solution for China, designed specifically for the Chinese market. Guidance is tailored to the different points of view of the parties to the transaction, and sample clauses are provided in English, so that Chinese users can more easily copy and paste with appropriate modifications.

In one case study in the US, LegalSifter found that when contract managers without subject matter expertise in a specialized contract reviewed the contract using the LegalSifter tool, they were able to achieve time savings of more than 90% and spot five times more issues than when they reviewed the contract on their own without technology assistance. The vast majority of Chinese users will have lower levels of fluency in English and will be less familiar with international contract terms than the typical native English speaker contract manager outside of China, so the docQbot-LegalSifter tool will help Chinese users save even more time and spot even more contract risk issues than they currently can do on their own, potentially achieving time savings of 98-99% while realizing a more than 10-fold improvement in spotting relevant contract risks. This will help Chinese import-export companies save time and money while better protecting their profit margins, which have come under increasing pressure as the Chinese economy has matured.

Robert Lewis, co-founder of docQbot and Senior International Counsel of Zhong Lun Law Firm, a top-3 Chinese law firm, commented, “We are excited to team up with LegalSifter to bring this cutting-edge legal AI technology to China. We think the combination of LegalSifter’s powerful platform and our bilingual capability and expertise in cross-border transactions in China provides Chinese users with an unmatched tool to do cross-border deals smarter and faster.”

docQbot will pair this docQbot-LegalSifter platform with their existing automated contract drafting tool, powered by HotDocs. Using the docQbot automated contract drafting tool, users without a legal background can create highly customized bilingual English and Chinese contract drafts in 15 minutes or less simply by answering a few straightforward commercially-focused questions on the docQbot online platform. Now with the addition of the docQbot-LegalSifter platform, docQbot users will be able to review English language contract drafts provided by the foreign counterparty or produce a high-quality dual-language contract, in each case in just minutes, and all at very low cost.

“We are fortunate to be partnered with docQbot. We are a global company, and the Chinese market is one we intend to serve. The combination of docQbot’s local expertise and our Sifters will make a lot of clients happy,” said Kevin Miller, CEO of LegalSifter.

The docQbot-LegalSifter platform is being launched in connection with the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) held in Beijing from May 28 to June 1, 2019, where it was the featured exhibit in the Beijing Municipal Government’s exhibition space at CIFTIS. The docQbot-LegalSifter platform was given extensive coverage in CCTV4’s nationwide television news report of the 2019 CIFTIS event. The docQbot automated contract drafting tool powered by HotDocs was initially announced at the 2018 CIFTIS event, where it was also part of the Beijing government exhibition, and was one of only two exhibits featured on CCTV4’s nationwide and worldwide television news reports of the 2018 fair. The docQbot automated contract drafting tool, which is still in beta mode, currently has registered
users in more than a dozen provinces across China.

For additional information, please contact Robert Lewis at +86 1380 116 4471 or robertlewis@docqbot.com.

About docQbot

At docQbot our mission is to help (1) Chinese companies avoid common problems and achieve more success in outbound investments and foreign trade transactions in international markets, (2) foreign companies do business more effectively in China in a way that complies with international standards and domestic business practices, (3) China-based business managers save time and money, improve efficiency and reduce risks in both domestic and international transactions, (4) entrepreneurs access top quality external legal support across China and around the world, and (5) outside lawyers provide better quality services at lower cost to corporate clients.

For further information, please visit www.docqbot.com.
 

About LegalSifter
 

LegalSifter is dedicated to bringing affordable legal services to the world by empowering people with artificial intelligence. LegalSifter intends to achieve its mission by working with the legal profession, not against it. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA), LegalSifter offers its products directly to organizations as well as through and with law firms.
 

Contacts

Robert Lewis
Co-founder, Chief Expert
robertlewis@docqbot.com
+86 1380 116 4471
 

Sara Yu
VP, Product Development and Strategic
Partnerships
yuqianqian@docqbot.com
+86 152 1089 9670
 

Laura Taylor
Vice President of Partner Experience
laura@legalsifter.com
412-523-5977
 

Eben Adams
Vice President of Growth & Partnerships
eben@legalsifter.com
412-596-3788