Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer faced a high-volume dispute matter where a client had accumulated 6,000 claim documents with 200 new documents arriving every week. In litigation-heavy matters, timely extraction of key claims data is critical — delays in processing can affect case strategy, deadlines, and client reporting. Manual review at this scale was unsustainable for the matter team, creating a bottleneck that no conventional staffing approach could resolve without prohibitive cost and unacceptable turnaround times. The firm needed an end-to-end automated pipeline that could ingest, extract, and act on claims data continuously.

Freshfields deployed Kira, a machine learning contract analysis platform, integrated with HotDocs document automation to create a fully automated claims processing pipeline. Kira was configured to automatically extract structured claims information from an internally developed case management system, passing key data points directly into HotDocs, which then generated the required client-facing documents. Beyond the standard Kira models, the team leveraged Kira Quick Study to train custom machine learning models for regulatory review work — including Brexit compliance assessments and analysis of changes in German regulations. The firm established a governance framework to manage model development: defining which models were built, for what purpose, and who certified them for production use before wider deployment.

The Kira and HotDocs integration created a scalable, end-to-end automated pipeline capable of processing the client's existing backlog and absorbing the weekly inflow of new claims without manual intervention. Key outcomes included:

• 6,000 documents processed through the automated extraction and generation pipeline
• 200 documents/week handled on an ongoing basis without additional headcount
• Platform adoption expanded beyond disputes to corporate, derivatives, regulatory, and dispute resolution practice groups across multiple Freshfields offices
• Custom models were built for Brexit and German regulatory compliance, broadening the use case beyond the original matter

• Integrate, don't isolate: Combining Kira with HotDocs unlocked an end-to-end automation pipeline that neither tool could deliver alone — look beyond standalone contract review to full workflow automation.
• Governance is non-negotiable: Define who builds models, for what purpose, and who approves them for production before scaling; ad hoc model proliferation creates risk.
• Document your models: Detailed model documentation aids internal knowledge transfer and helps practitioners explain AI capabilities clearly to clients.
• Information security remains a constraint: For large financial services clients, data residency and cloud security requirements must be addressed before deployment, not after.