I have been predicting that predictive tools would gain an increasing presence in the practice of law. The press 
release from Thomson Reuters about Legislative Insights on Westlaw Edge carefully skirts the prediction issue by substituting the word “probabilities.” Thomson Reuters deep legislative coverage is about to be turbo charged with technology from Skopos Labs. Thomson Reuters was an early investor in Skopos through their venture capital arm Thomson Reuters Ventures.
Legislative Insight is driven by a proprietary machine learning and natural language processing methodology from Skopos leveraging more than 250 factors to assign a “Probability of Enactment” score to each
bill. Each bill is tagged with a code indicating relevant industries that will likely be impacted if the bill is passed.
The algorithm weighs multiple factors, including the text of a bill as well as political and external variables.
Here is an example from the press release. A textual analysis could show an environmental bill would be more or less likely to pass with the terms “climate change” included compared to a bill where “global warming” is used. Political variables could range from the composition of Congress to the assigned committee. External factors incorporated may be related to gross domestic product or natural disasters.
Khalid Al-Kofahi, vice president of Research & Development for Thomson Reuters and head of its Center
for Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing, noted the value of continued development and
collaboration to meet the need of our customers. “Thomson Reuters has been employing AI and machine
learning for more than 25 years. We continue to build and enhance AI applications in-house but also
partner with companies that can complement our offerings. The capabilities of Skopos Labs are
impressive, and we’re excited to bring more AI and machine learning to Westlaw Edge through Legislative
Insights.”
The Legislative Forecasting Market Companies and special interest groups support an army of “K Street” lobbyists to provide insight into as well of influence on the passage of federal laws. There could be a leveling effect from the application of AI and machine learning to the legislative process. Law firms and their clients have a lot to gain from from greater insights into legislative enactment probabilities. High stakes deals, risk analysis, pro bono initiatives and litigation can all be impacted by changes in laws. Thomson Reuters was preceded to the legislative predictions market by Fiscal Note, Wolters Kluwer Federal Knowledge Center and Lexis Legislative Outlook which also includes state law predictions.
Predictions vs Trends The legal market is still on a learning curve with analytics for trending. While trends can be useful in assessing outcomes of litigation there are no litigation products which assign weights to certain factors in a given scenario. There are only a few products in the legal market which are offering predictions and even fewer which allow lawyers to interact with the predictive tool and change the mix of factors or eliminate certain factors all together. Those features will no doubt be developed across the legal analytics spectrum. For now the growth or predictive products like Thomson Reuters Legislative Insight is a very positive step into the future of analytics an law.
Here is the press release:
EMBARGO – Wednesday, Feb. 12 @ 11 a.m. ET
Thomson Reuters Adds Legislative Insights to Westlaw Edge
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, February 12, 2020 – Thomson Reuters introduces Legislative Insights, a new
tool on Westlaw Edge that provides actionable data relating to proposed federal legislation.
Westlaw Edge users will now be able to take advantage of the comprehensive legislative content from
Thomson Reuters and technology from Skopos Labs to present a complete picture and provide counsel
relating to proposed legislative changes that may affect a client, company, agency or an entire industry.
“Legal professionals want to exhibit a deep level of understanding of their clients’ businesses and
operations,” said Lisa Mulrooney, director of Product Development at Thomson Reuters. “Legislative
Insights on Westlaw Edge enables users to deliver greater value through deeper insights and strengthen
their trusted partnership with their clients.”
Driven by a proprietary machine learning and natural language processing methodology from Skopos
Labs, Legislative Insights uses more than 250 factors to assign a Probability of Enactment score to each
bill. Additionally, a tag is generated for relevant industries that will likely be impacted if the bill is passed.
The algorithm weighs multiple factors, including the text of a bill as well as political and external variables.
A text example could show an environmental bill would be more or less likely to pass with the terms
“climate change” included compared to a bill where “global warming” is used. Political variables could
range from the composition of Congress to the assigned committee. External factors incorporated may be
related to gross domestic product or natural disasters.
Thomson Reuters was an early investor in Skopos Labs through Thomson Reuters Ventures, its venture
capital group that focuses on growing and mentoring early stage startups. The Skopos Labs team
consists of artificial intelligence researchers, attorneys, data scientists, software engineers, and
policy experts, building solutions ranging from legislation, regulation and election-level insights.
Khalid Al-Kofahi, vice president of Research & Development for Thomson Reuters and head of its Center
for Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing, noted the value of continued development and
collaboration to meet the need of our customers. “Thomson Reuters has been employing AI and machine
learning for more than 25 years. We continue to build and enhance AI applications in-house but also
partner with companies that can complement our offerings. The capabilities of Skopos Labs are
impressive, and we’re excited to bring more AI and machine learning to Westlaw Edge through Legislative
Insights.”
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of business information services. Our products include highly specialized
information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the
world’s most global news service – Reuters. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest
world news, reuters.com.
CONTACT
Jeff McCoy
+1.651.687.4091
Thomson Reuters Adds Legislative Insights to Westlaw Edge
Page 2 of 2
jeffrey.mccoy@thomsonreuters.com
