Robert Ambrogi Blog
The American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR) and the legal technology company Clearbrief today announced a partnership by which AAA-ICDR will provide Clearbrief’s AI-powered writing and document analysis tools to its panel of 5,500 arbitrators and mediators.
The partnership follows a successful six-month pilot program and represents a continuation of AAA’s initiatives to integrate artificial intelligence into alternative dispute resolution processes.
The collaboration will give AAA-ICDR panelists access to the Clearbrief platform, which offers capabilities for document summarization, drafting assistance, and automated fact-checking. The platform will also be available to parties in AAA-ICDR proceedings for an additional fee on a case-by-case basis.
With Clearbrief, the two organizations say, arbitrators and mediators will be able to more quickly and easily generate timelines, search and summarize evidence, verify facts and laws, and hyperlink citations within draft awards.
“At the AAA, we are transforming dispute resolution with cutting-edge AI tools with the security and accuracy required for confidential matters,” said AAA-ICDR President and CEO Bridget McCormack. She said that the technology will allow arbitrators to focus on drafting well-reasoned awards by streamlining their fact-gathering and organization process.
During the pilot program, arbitrators reported significant efficiency gains from the platform’s ability to generate timelines, search and summarize evidence, verify facts and laws, and automatically hyperlink citations within draft awards. Louise LaMothe, an AAA-ICDR arbitrator and retired U.S. magistrate judge, praised the system’s impact on her work, while arbitrator Kyle-Beth Hilfer specifically noted the time-saving benefits of the citation-checking tools.
“Clearbrief’s cite-checking tools are a huge time-saver when drafting an award,” Hilfer said. “The integration with the electronic case hearing record and online case law repositories assures consistency and accuracy.”
The partnership includes a commitment to training arbitrators and mediators in the responsible use of AI technology.
Clearbrief’s platform, which was named the 2023 Litigation Technology Product of the Year by Legalweek, integrates with Microsoft Word and various legal research and document management systems, including LexisNexis, Relativity, iManage, and Netdocs. The company’s technology is currently used by numerous law firms, courts, and government agencies across the United States.
“Clearbrief’s tools provide arbitrators, mediators and parties with unparalleled visibility into the key facts of a dispute,” said Jacqueline Schafer, Clearbrief’s founder and CEO. “We are thrilled to collaborate with AAA in revolutionizing how documentary evidence is analyzed and documents written during arbitration.”
This initiative represents the latest step in the AAA-ICDR’s broader strategy to modernize dispute resolution services through technology adoption. The organization, which has administered more than eight million ADR cases since its founding in 1926, continues to focus on delivering efficient and transparent outcomes while maintaining the security and confidentiality requirements essential to alternative dispute resolution.