Courtrooms in the cloud: How Opus 2 quietly changed the game
AI is making its mark on the legal profession, an industry renowned for its cautious approach to change. Yet, behind the scenes, innovative technologies have been quietly transforming courtrooms for years.
If you ever sat behind the row of barristers and the lawyers that instructed them in a courtroom at the High Court, you may have noticed ‘Opus 2’ flashing up on their monitors.
London’s judiciary is one of the most respected and widely used court systems in the world, thanks to English law and extensive efforts to promote it worldwide. But it is still considered old-fashioned from the outside.
You could, at times, be excused from thinking there was any form of tech that has ever graced some of the Royal Courts of Justice after you witness barristers’ clerks wheeling boxes upon boxes into a courtroom filled with folders that contain bundles for the hearing.
However, over the years, litigation and arbitration have grown, not only has the value of cases surged, but the workload for lawyers has increased as well. In some major and complex cases, disclosure alone can involve thousands of pages of documents.
Opus 2, founded in 2008 by investor Graham Smith-Bernal in London, is a cloud-based litigation and legal technology solutions firm, launched to the market in 2011, it has become part of the litigation process for top law firms across the City.
Chief operating officer Charlie Harrel, a former lawyer, told CityAM that when he joined the legal business, it had its “big break” in the 2011 $6.5bn Berezovsky v Abramovich legal battle. “At the time, that was the biggest piece of private litigation to sort of run through the course [through the courts], and that was when the business really began to go gangbusters.”
The case between the two Russian oligarchs saw Opus 2 facilitate a ‘paperless’ trial, providing electronic access to over 15,000 documents and 200,000 pages of pre-trial materials, which allowed lawyers and the judge to instantly search transcripts and documents.
Harrel states that the tech group is a UK success story, but it has been “quite under the radar” in the wider legal-tech worldThe latest financial results for the tech firm showed it generated nearly £59m in revenue, while it is behind most of the major legal battles in the English courts and in other markets, including the US.
Covid impact on legal tech
The pandemic kicked the judiciary into the 21st century. Like most everything in the UK, the courts were also forced to close their doors as the country grappled with the spread of the covid virus.
Instead of seeing courtroom numbers on the daily lists, it began to reference Microsoft links, and, over the pandemic, it became the norm to watch barristers present their cases to a judge from their homes.
“It was a big moment for the industry… it was quite a worrying moment when suddenly courtrooms shut for everybody… for our business, we were doing a lot of our work in court,’ Harrel stated.
There was significant complexity around virtual hearings, as lawyers and judges faced challenges adapting to new technology. Harrel explained that Opus 2’s role in supporting virtual hearings was to ensure smooth operations and address technical issues.
“What we’re seeing is hybrid is very much a normal way of doing things now, so that is definitely a big change in the sort of legacy post‑covid,” he added.
AI in the courtroom
Unlike 14 years ago, legal tech is booming today, mostly as a result of a flurry of businesses launching AI tools targeted at City lawyers.
Unlike these, Opus 2 is taking the slow and careful road when it comes to generative artificial intelligence, as Harrel explained, they don’t want to rush AI into the hearing room just to make “flashy” headlines.
He recognises that the courts have been explicitly sceptical in judgments and warnings about AI‑generated material and noted that litigators are inherently risk‑averse, adding, “it’s in the job description.”
Last year, two High Court judges explicitly warned lawyers they may face severe criminal sanctions if they misuse or fail to verify AI-generated legal material provided to the court, after two court cases had to be reviewed as lawyers relied on citations and quotations generated by AI tools.
As technology continues to evolve, the legal profession stands at a crossroads between tradition and transformation. In the courtroom, where lawyers can face ‘contempt of court’, the new shiny tech tool may filter through more slowly than in other sectors.
Eyes on the Law is a weekly column by Maria Ward-Brennan focused on the legal sector.