London—Dentons Helix, the firm's new law offering for clients in the UK, has developed an algorithm that has transformed decision-making for in-house legal teams in the employment litigation space. Using historical data that is specific to each client, the algorithm mimics previous decisions made by humans in the organisation as to whether there has been a desire to settle or defend employment claims.

Use of the algorithm has slashed the amount of time taken up in meetings between in-house legal and HR teams, freeing them up to spend more time thinking about initiatives that reduce claims from being raised in the first place. For one such client, the algorithm has been used over 125 times, saving an estimated 325 hours of legal and business time in the first 6 months. As part of the service the Dentons Helix team regularly feeds back initiatives they have identified to reduce claim volumes, so that clients can proactively tackle root causes and achieve real claim reductions.

Dentons Helix resulted from a recognition that there is a disconnect between traditional private practice and new law approaches, neither of which are fully focused on enabling in-house legal teams to achieve their strategic objectives. The model continues to provide the quality and depth of traditional external legal support, along with the technology and innovation, data and cost controls of managed legal services and new law offerings. Testament to the solution comes in the shape of a shortlist for the Managing Partners' Forum Awards 2022 in the category of 'Best new solutions for clients'.

'Our objective is to redesign every element of the traditional approach to legal services. We work closely with clients to really understand their pain points and how we can address them', said Dentons Helix Managing Director Ash Rees. 'In any employment dispute there are a standard set of decisions that employers have to make at certain points in the claim process. We turned that into a set of 'decision trees', and then used historical data around real-life decisions that have previously been made in order to create the algorithm. Since launching in June 2021 the algorithm has reached the correct decision 90% of the time, based on whether the client believes it was the correct decision to settle or proceed with defending the claim.'

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