Words as Data – Demystifying Legaltech

On 2 June 2021, Shaun Lim ’18 (Research Assistant, TRAIL) delivered a technology talk at Allen & Gledhill entitled “Words as Data – Demystifying Legaltech”. Conceptualised by Lim Lei Theng ’92 (Head, Knowledge Management and Co-Head, Pro Bono, Allen & Gledhill), the talk was attended by almost 200 participants, and introduced practicing lawyers to the basic algorithms used in legal technology today, the possibilities opened up by legal technology, as well as some pertinent precautions on the use of the same.

The topics covered included basic statistics and probability, natural language processing (including regular expressions, parts of speech tagging, document classification, information extraction and retrieval, and natural language generation), outcome predictors in the form of regressions, both linear and logistic, and how to assess and evaluate legal technology.