Turning legal research models into a product lawyers could use

The business uses data science and analytics to help legal professionals understand the legislation and precedent that bear on a case, and shape their strategy accordingly. When Sazed was introduced, through a mutual contact, the underlying data structures and models existed. There was no application to put them in front of a lawyer.

The business needed two things: a product that legal professionals could use for research, and the ability to keep building software in-house once the engagement ended.

The central decision was the platform itself. Because of the sensitivity of legal data, Sazed recommended a cloud-native design on AWS with data governance and residency controls in place from the start rather than added later, and with budgeting and cost controls set up so that a small business could see and cap what it was spending.

Sazed then architected the application and led the build, engaging a principal engineer for the project and working alongside the business's own data scientists and data engineers, so that the capability to build stayed with the business.

A working application was delivered to the agreed specification, on a secure and cost-controlled cloud platform the business owns.

Putting it in front of legal professionals showed that the experience was more than they wanted. That finding led to a decision to simplify the product, a change the business is now making with the capability built during the engagement.

The business now has the platform, the governance controls and the in-house ability to keep building without Sazed.

The engagement did not end at hand-over. Sazed remains available for support and architecture decisions as the product changes.