Wilson Sonsini’s Chief Innovation Officer, David Wang, is rarely impressed by the latest tech buzz. He knows that complicated solutions aren’t the answer—legal professionals have enough complexity in their day-to-day. Wang is committed to helping Silicon Valley’s largest law firm working smarter, not harder.
So when Wang started searching for the right technology to solve the gigantic burden of manually extracting information from legal documents, he prioritized a simple, practical, and intuitive solution that would simplify the workload over the shiniest new toys.
Manual document review: A long-standing legal problem
When it comes to manual document review, Wang joked that he reached his breaking point just a few years into his tenure as an attorney. After spending three straight days in isolation staring down a single document, he knew something had to change.
Wang's experience with never-ending document review is not unique to him. “It’s a fundamental issue in the legal industry,” said Wang.
“Lots of smart people who are trained to practice law end up doing manual, repeatable work.”
And it’s not without reason. To act reliably, legal teams need to understand exactly what’s in their contracts—and keep close tabs on it.
Finding an AI-Powered solution that drives faster business
Wang knew that the right contract management solution could give Wilson Sonsini a technological edge—and he was aware of the AI-hype in the legal tech space. He wanted a proven solution with robust Natural Language Processing (NLP) models already built, so he put contract management vendors of all sizes to the test.
Wilson Sonsini tested more than a dozen legal tech platforms, including big names in the legal industry. Wang explained, “Some of the larger vendors sent us back proposals for tens of thousands of dollars just to build a plan to do the information extraction. Lexion came back a week later with all of the information we asked for already extracted. It was incredibly impressive. We’ve been working with them since.”
For Lexion, AI has always been more than just hype. The flexibility and speed the product enabled helped Wilson Sonsini to move business forward, faster. Wang explained:
“From a business perspective, it’s not just about saving legal professionals time, it’s also about speed—getting information in the hands of stakeholders and attorneys on the front lines—making deals close more quickly.”
A simple software that anybody can use
Yes, the AI is powerful, but Wang’s favorite thing about Lexion? The ease of use. “Most solutions geared toward lawyers have a very complicated UX, but we don’t have time to adopt something complicated. There’s sophistication in simplicity, and that’s why Lexion stands out.”
And the Wilson Sonsini team agrees. Team members don’t feel overwhelmed by a new system, and it’s easier than ever to help them follow processes: “Process compliance for information requests has gone way up because people feel like they can actually use Lexion—it’s simple.”
Continuing to grow with Lexion
Working with Lexion’s engineering team, Wilson Sonsini continues to build solutions as new challenges arise. “We’re able to keep building new models,” said Wang, “which tells you how talented the engineering team is and how powerful the NLP is that’s powering the system.”
Wang and his team are also thrilled that as Lexion continues to evolve, there have been no compromises on usability: “It’s been surprising to me to see the pace at which additional functionalities are being added all the time, and it continues to be simple, intuitive.”
The Wilson Sonsini team leverages Lexion both as an operating system to stay organized and as a tool to extract the information they need. Wang says the solution sticks because every development decision is made with the customer’s workflow in mind.
“Lexion keeps the focus on the customer problem—it’s their north star.”
