AI-Assisted Legal Document Review & Due Diligence
Deploy AI to accelerate contract review, due diligence, and regulatory analysis — reducing review time by 70% while improving coverage and consistency.
Transformation
Before & After AI
What this workflow looks like before and after transformation
Before
Junior associates spend 60-80% of their time on document review during M&A due diligence and contract negotiations. A typical due diligence exercise requires reviewing 5,000-50,000 documents over 4-8 weeks. Key risks are missed due to reviewer fatigue, and inconsistent review standards across team members lead to quality variation.
After
AI pre-screens documents, flags risks and anomalies, extracts key clauses, and generates summary reports. Review time drops from weeks to days. Associates focus on strategic analysis and client counsel rather than page-turning. Coverage is 100% — every document is reviewed, not just a sample.
Implementation
Step-by-Step Guide
Follow these steps to implement this AI workflow
Define Review Framework
2 weeksWork with senior partners to codify what constitutes a risk, what clauses matter, and what thresholds trigger escalation. This institutional knowledge becomes the AI's training signal. Document review playbooks for each practice area (M&A, real estate, IP, employment).
Select & Configure AI Platform
2 weeksEvaluate legal AI platforms (e.g., Kira Systems, Luminance, Relativity). Key criteria: clause recognition accuracy, language support (critical for SEA with multiple jurisdictions), integration with your document management system, and data security certifications.
Train on Firm-Specific Documents
4 weeksFine-tune AI models on your firm's document corpus — your contracts, your clause libraries, your risk categories. Run test reviews on completed matters where the "right answer" is known. Measure precision and recall against senior associate review.
Pilot on Live Matter
3 weeksDeploy AI review on a real due diligence or contract review engagement. Run AI and traditional review in parallel. Compare results: risks found, time spent, and quality of output. Collect feedback from associates and partners.
Scale Across Practice Areas
2 weeks + ongoingRoll out to additional practice areas with practice-specific training. Build firm-wide review templates and quality benchmarks. Train all associates on AI-assisted review workflows. Track productivity gains and client value delivery.
Tools Required
Expected Outcomes
Reduce document review time by 60-70%
Achieve 100% document coverage (vs. sampling in manual review)
Identify 20-30% more risk flags than manual review alone
Free up 40-50% of associate time for higher-value strategic work
Improve review consistency across team members and jurisdictions
Solutions
Related Pertama Partners Solutions
Services that can help you implement this workflow
Frequently Asked Questions
Leading legal AI platforms support major Southeast Asian languages and handle mixed-language documents (e.g., contracts with English and Bahasa Indonesia clauses). For less common languages, OCR and translation layers can be added. The key is testing accuracy on your specific document types and language mix.
Enterprise legal AI platforms offer on-premise or private cloud deployment options that keep client documents within your security perimeter. Look for SOC 2 Type II certification, encryption at rest and in transit, and the ability to delete all data after each matter. Client engagement letters should be updated to address AI use.
Ready to Implement This Workflow?
Our team can help you go from guide to production — with hands-on implementation support.