Legal Utopia Continues to Innovate in Lawtech with Proof of Concept in Employment Law
Legal Utopia is delighted to be participating in the PhD Industry Placement scheme
run by The Data Lab in partnership with the University of Edinburgh’s DDE
Programme. Under the scheme, Katarzyna Prus, a PhD student from the School of
Informatics, will join the Lawtech firm, Legal Utopia for a short period to work on a
proof of concept to automate claims assessments under the Vento Guidelines for
injury to feelings in discrimination cases before they progress to an employment
tribunal.
Legal Utopia has invested heavily in developing legal technology that provides
access to justice. This includes its patent-pending AI tool that helps people
intelligently understand their legal issues as well as source and hold calls with
lawyers. The firm is also undertaking research and development in improving
consumer quality of choice through digital comparison tools and will be launching
new portals soon. In 2018, the company obtained a grant from European Regional
Development Fund KEEP+ Scheme and, by 2019, it had analysed more than 100k+
cases for its machine learning solution. The collaboration with The Data Lab will
contribute to Legal Utopia’s innovation in Lawtech.
Dr Paresh Kathrani, CEO of Legal Utopia said: “We are very happy to welcome
Katarzyna to Legal Utopia. It is our vision to empower people through technology
and, for many people, going to an employment tribunal for discrimination claims can
cause considerable anxiety. We would like to assist them. Katarzyna brings
tremendous experience in both AI and Natural Language Processing and will add to
the work we started back in 2017 with our innovative AI system that helps people
understand the law.”
Katarzyna added: “I am happy to see companies like Legal Utopia use technology to
make navigating through the complex legal system easier for more people. I hope
that I can make a meaningful contribution towards the firm’s vision during my time
with them.”
Heather Thomson, Head of Skills at The Data Lab said: “Data and AI is often an
underused resource which can help businesses of all sizes and across all sectors to
make more informed decisions. This project was one of 30+ placements funded by
the University of Edinburgh Data-Driven Innovation Entrepreneurship (DDE)
programme. As a result of the impact and success of these initial projects, The Data
Lab with additional support from DDE will support a further 60 placements over the
next two years through our PhD Industry Placement Programme, which helps
businesses to access a wealth of support, while also giving students and opportunity
to build their skills in a professional environment.”
Applications are open from the 27 th April to be part of the new round of the
programme, with opportunities for PhD students in data science and AI to undertake
paid placements with organisations across sectors in Scotland.
Students and organisations interested in learning more about participating in the
programme can contact placements@thedatalab.com or visit The Data Lab PhD
Placements webpage for more information.
About Legal Utopia
Legal Utopia is LawTech company focussed on empowering people through
technology to enforce their legal rights. Our mobile and web platforms use artificial
intelligence to enable people to understand their legal issues and find and book a
lawyer, as well as access other services.
About The Data Lab:
The Data Lab is Scotland’s innovation centre for data and AI. Through hubs in Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, we foster innovation through collaboration, build skills
and grow talent, and champion Scotland’s data science community. We help Scotland
maximise value from data and lead the world to a data-powered future.
https://www.thedatalab.com/
@DataLabScotland
