Zuva releases Multi-Level Document Classifier via its API Offering
TORONTO, October 3, 2023 – Zuva and Litera are partnering with the Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry (SALI) Alliance to release an open-source document classification taxonomy. This project to build an enhanced multi-level document classifier is the culmination of nearly a decade of work started at Kira in 2014, evolving into a collaboration as Kira was acquired by Litera in 2021 and Zuva spun off into a separate corporation.
Today Zuva and Litera are announcing their partnership with SALI to provide open-source document classification taxonomy in the hopes that the legal industry and the tech industry can come together to provide cleaner data and standardization to firms and legal professionals. This comes alongside the launch of an enhanced document classifier, which automatically identifies 225 document types, based on the thorough taxonomy.
The enhanced document classifier is available immediately via Zuva’s API offering.
Zuva and Litera’s journey to reach this announcement was extensive. Beyond the years spent crafting and refining the taxonomy, the teams of lawyers, paralegals, and research scientists also sourced and curated tens of thousands of documents, honed the AI, refined its capabilities, and implemented a number of technical enhancements.
In today’s legal and document management technology industry, businesses will often employ multiple, even competing, systems. For example, a single company or law firm might use three different contract analysis AIs, plus another document management repository, potentially with its own AI, and perhaps three further contract management systems. Herein lies the challenge: How can data from one system be seamlessly integrated with another when private taxonomies diverge? This issue drove Zuva and Litera’s decision to open-source their advanced document classification taxonomy to the SALI (Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry) Alliance™.
The SALI Alliance, a reputed global non-profit, has been pivotal in steering the legal industry towards standardized data practices. Their Legal Matter Standard Specification (LMSS) has already set benchmarks for uniform data categorization.
In the new era of AI-driven legal technology, document classification and data standardization are more crucial than ever. Document management systems at law firms and corporations can contain millions of documents. This is where automatic classification comes in. By correctly and granularly identifying document type, users can more easily find documents they need. Not only that, but documents can be automatically routed to the right place for further review.
Toby Brown, president of the board of The SALI Alliance commented on the collaboration: “Legal data standards are critical for optimizing efficiency and nurturing global collaborations. Zuva and Litera’s contribution is an exciting addition to the standards we’ve established, further paving the way for vast opportunities across the legal spectrum.” SALI leader Damien Riehl adds “For Large Language Models (LLMs), an important method of increasing accuracy and reducing hallucinations is Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and SALI’s 13,000+ tags can helpfully curate that document subset — for LLMs to summarize, analyze, and synthesize.”
Noah Waisberg, Zuva’s Co-Founder and CEO, commented: “We’re thrilled to offer our multi-level classifier to our customers today. Our document type taxonomy is likely to be more comprehensive than that of many other vendors, and while keeping it to ourselves could create a competitive advantage for Zuva, we think our customers are a lot better off if others use our taxonomy too, or if competitor systems’ taxonomies can be translated to ours.”
“Standardizing document classification ensures consistency in how contracts are categorized and processed, making contract review and analysis more reliable and reducing the risk of oversight and errors in those workflows,” said Corinne Geller, Director, Legal Knowledge Engineering at Litera. “Organizations are faced with an ever-growing volume of contracts; moving towards uniform document type classification both enables scalability and facilitates collaboration, allowing legal teams to develop better insights on larger sets of documents with accuracy and confidence.”
The benefits to the legal industry are multifold. With SALI’s active community — including Providers (e.g., law firms, ALSPs), Buyers (e.g., Law Departments), and Vendors — Zuva and Litera’s taxonomy offers a platform for further enhancement. Additionally, organizations using multiple document systems from diverse vendors will find improved interoperability, thanks to a standard classification taxonomy.
Some of the direct advantages include:
- Enhanced Data Management: A uniform taxonomy streamlines data mapping and minimizes data corruption risks.
- Streamlined API Integrations: With standardized taxonomies, software vendors can now seamlessly design APIs that promote easy integration.
- Facilitated Vendor Selection: Organizations can conveniently assess vendors supporting these standardized taxonomies, making switching vendors more hassle-free and reducing the risk associated with vendor selection, and expediting product onboarding.
Zuva and Litera’s Multi-Level Classification, in association with the SALI Alliance, promises a more unified future for document classification and adoption of legal standards.
Learn more about the API version of Zuva’s Multi-Level Document Classifier or review the 225 document types.
Learn more about The SALI Alliance.
To learn more about Kira and the future of legal AI, watch: Amplify Impact in M&A Due Diligence and Beyond: Leveling up Transactional Workflows with Generative AI
About Zuva
Zuva’s team has been building contracts AI since 2011. Zuva’s technology has been used to pull data from millions of agreements, by the world’s most demanding contract reviewers. Zuva has freed its technology from any individual system or workflow, making it dead simple for people to get contract data automatically extracted by AI, where they need it. For more information, or to try Zuva’s contracts AI yourself (for free!), visit www.zuva.ai.
Media contact:
John Lute john@zuva.ai
About Litera:
Litera has been at the forefront of legal technology innovation for over 25 years, crafting legal software to amplify impact and maximize efficiency. Developed by the best legal minds in the industry, Litera’s comprehensive suite of integrated legal tools is both powerful and user-friendly and simplifies the way modern firms manage core legal workflows, secure collaboration, and organize firm knowledge and experience. Every day, Litera helps more than 2.3 million legal professionals focus on their craft.
Litera: Less busy work, more of your life’s work.
Media Contact:
Vanita Thind vanita.thind@litera.com
About SALI:
The Standards Advancement for the Legal Industry (SALI) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to establishing open, practical standards for the legal industry. SALI’s mission is to lead legal industry innovation through collaboration and the development of data standards to promote interoperability and improved legal work.
Media Contact:
Damien Riehl damien.riehl@vlex.com
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