Why AI translation is a must-have for legal firms with global colleagues and clients

author_by DeepL Team

Law firms working with international clients and colleagues must navigate language barriers, foreign laws, and cultural nuances. To address these challenges, legal teams are increasingly incorporating AI translation technology into their workflows to streamline legal translations, improve multilingual communication, and increase productivity. Thanks to major progress in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, AI translation technology is more sophisticated than ever. DeepL Translator exemplifies this. With its precise, contextually relevant, and natural-sounding translations, DeepL Translator is a top choice among businesses worldwide—including those in the legal sector. The adoption of AI translation in the legal industry is part of a larger digital transformation trend. According to Gartner research, in-house legal departments will handle 50% of major corporate transaction work using NLP and ML technologies by 2024. By 2025, they’re expected to triple their spending on legal technology, which makes sense as AI can reduce workloads for lawyers by up to 90%. In this post, we’ll explore how legal teams can leverage DeepL Pro—an industry-leading suite of AI translation tools—to overcome language barriers, deliver better legal services, and drive business success. Translate legal documents quickly, accurately, and at scale DeepL Pro provides a fast, cost-effective, and highly accurate solution for teams in need of convenience translations that are non-binding. Trained on millions of translated texts, including public European Union (EU) legal documents, DeepL Translator’s neural network technology can understand complex, nuanced texts and translate them with precision.

Illustration of four legal documents aligned side-by-side. From left to right they become progressively larger. Each document has non-descript text on it as the illustrations are meant to be general representations of legal documents and not specific to any one country or locale.

Additionally, DeepL Pro offers a scalable solution for translating entire documents, including PDFs, Word files, and PowerPoint presentations, while preserving the original formatting, images, and fonts. This feature makes DeepL an ideal choice for law firms and lawyers that need to get legal translations done quickly and efficiently. Stay compliant with data privacy laws DeepL recognizes the necessity of client confidentiality and data privacy in the legal industry and takes great care to ensure both through state-of-the-art security measures. Data encryption safeguards against unauthorized access, and translations are deleted immediately after completion. Compliant with strict standards like the EU's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), DeepL also offers business customers a DPA (Data Processing Agreement) upon request. According to Dr. Anna Zeiter, LL.M., CIPM, CIPP/E, Associate General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer at eBay, this is a level of protection law firms and lawyers should expect from their technology providers:

“Data protection is a critical issue regarding AI communication technologies and their adoption by global business players, employing thousands of people and serving millions of users. As AI-powered systems are increasingly used to collect and process vast amounts of personal data, we need to ensure that AI providers take appropriate measures to protect the privacy of their customers.”

Overcome language differences with multilingual clients As global mobility increases and countries become more diverse, lawyers can expect to serve more multilingual clients and meet more language barriers. In the US, the American Bar Association (ABA) guides lawyers when encountering language access issues, suggesting either an interpreter or technological assistance to fulfill professional obligations and enable informed client decisions. The ABA states that once clients face a language access issue, lawyers must decide whether an interpreter or technological assistance is necessary to fulfill their professional obligations and ensure that clients can make informed decisions. They also note that “the availability of assistive and translation technologies is another example of the ever-increasing impact of technology on the practice of law and underscores the duty of lawyers to develop an understanding of relevant technology.” DeepL Pro effectively bridges language gaps for lawyers and clients by offering fast, accurate translations across platforms, including web translators, apps, browser extensions, and an API. Integrations with applications like Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Google Docs facilitate seamless communication, enabling lawyers to provide top-tier services to multilingual clients. Maintain consistency when translating legal terminology DeepL's glossary feature is a game-changer for legal teams because it lets them create and manage their own legal terminology database. This makes sure translations stay consistent by customizing and standardizing how specific words and phrases are translated.

Illustration of three legal documents and a drop down menu for a mock AI translator with various languages.

Plus, these glossaries can be shared with coworkers, teams, or even the whole company. Whether it's for a small project or something bigger, shared glossaries help keep legal translations top-notch and prevent problems that can arise from mistakes and oversights. Simplify international legal research International law is complex. It deals with diverse legal systems and cultures and is constantly evolving to address new global issues. To practice it effectively, it’s important to stay informed through ongoing research. AI translation is the perfect aid according to Dr. Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche, LL.M. (L.S.E.), CIPP/E, Partner at Taylor Wessing:

“Using AI and technology-enabled tools in the legal sector is becoming increasingly important to remain competitive and improve efficiency. These tools can assist lawyers with legal research, document review, and contract analysis and translation, freeing up time for more complex and strategic work.”

With features like whole document translation and glossaries, DeepL Pro streamlines international law research, enabling lawyers to translate foreign legal texts accurately and quickly. This reduces the need for manual translations, which can be time-consuming and tedious, and allows for more strategic work. The bottom line AI translation technology is transforming the legal sector. Law firms that collaborate with colleagues and clients from across the world are more empowered than ever to overcome language differences and work across cultures. Those that embrace AI translation technology now will be able to provide their clients with the best possible legal representation, surpass competitors that were resistant to digital transformation, and become industry leaders. Learn how your law organization can leverage DeepL Pro for global expansion, and about the opportunities and risks of AI in global communications. Download our recent webinar, Data Privacy and AI: Scaling Your Business Safely in the Global Market.