Charles Russell Speechlys shortlisted for FT Innovative Lawyers Europe 2022 Award

Charles Russell Speechlys has been shortlisted in the ‘Business of Law: Using Data’ category at the FT Innovation Lawyer Europe Awards. The Firm has been recognised for the corporate teams use of Luminance to identify Share Purchase Agreements (SPA) trends in the private M&A market.

The corporate knowledge project was spearheaded by corporate Knowledge Development Lawyers (KDLs), Erin Anderson and Jodie Dennis and leading legal AI tech platform, Luminance. The team undertook a large-scale review of Share Purchase Agreements (SPAs) in private merger and acquisition transactions, ultimately to uncover buried know-how, identify market trends, collate interesting drafting, address risk, and inform best practices.

The project involved training Luminance in recognising clauses and data points found in a SPA and conducting an in-depth analysis of key clauses. This factual analysis improves the quality of advice and can immediately identify clauses that are complete outliers, saving a considerable amount of time and cost for the Firm and its clients.

Director of Knowledge, Aileen Johnson, commented: “This is our first nomination for an FT Innovative Lawyers Europe Award, and we are delighted to be shortlisted for such a prestigious award that recognises the innovative and highly collaborative nature of our Knowledge Team.

I’m particularly thrilled for Jodie and Erin who conceived of the idea for the project in the first place to harness insights from market data.  It is wonderful to see that the Financial Times has recognised the value and impact that KDLs have on clients and the wider legal industry.”

Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance, said: “We are pleased to see Luminance’s next-generation AI deployed by this forward-thinking team in such an innovative way. By uncovering critical insights and knowhow often buried within these types of documents, Luminance’s technology is now helping to inform best practice and strengthen decision making for Charles Russell Speechlys in the future.” 

The FT Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe will be held at the Natural History Museum in London on 13 October 2022.