Hello ALTA community. We’re excited to join the virtual conversations, all the way from Sweden. Here’s a little bit about us, our AI (Assistive Intelligence) contract assistant Donna and why we’re keen to get involved.

Why do we call it Assistive Intelligence?

We started Donna 2 years ago when we realised that, as lawyers, you all struggle with hours of repetitive and tedious work. Proofreading hundreds of pages of a contract just to find tiny mistakes in capitalisation or quotes is exhausting, and frankly we all end up reading over our own mistakes anyways. And if in 2020 cars have the ability to drive themselves, how come it still takes 20 button clicks in Word every time you want to insert a cross-reference?!

We don’t believe in replacing a lawyer with a robot. We believe in replacing the robot within a lawyer. We see the power of AI to help with robotic, error-prone, and repetitive tasks whilst empowering you, the lawyer, to focus on creative problem solving for your clients.

How does Donna work?

Think of Donna as a sophisticated legal-checker that improves the speed and accuracy of legal contract reviews. Donna sits in the Microsoft Word ribbon and works in the background analysing the document whilst you write. When you’re ready to review or complete a final check, just hit the Donna button and you’ll see potential suggestions identifying problems that you can easily work through. Undefined terms, missing cross-references, duplicate clauses, punctuation: these are just a few of the small details that Donna picks up.

But that’s not all. So much of reviewing a contract is about having key information at your fingertips. If you’ve ever felt the pain of endlessly looking for a defined term, then rest assured, you can stop scrolling now. Handy previews and overviews let you quickly navigate to any defined term and its definitions with a single button. You’ll also see a similar convenient overview of all numbers and dates, so you no longer have to worry about a nasty surprise after the deal has closed.

Who is Donna for?

Donna works for both law firms and in-house lawyers or really anyone who regularly drafts and reviews contracts. Because our main focus from the start has been to build a consumer friendly app, it’s easy enough for anyone to just download and go, without any training. In fact we often see lawyers sign up with their gmail address, because they are keen to try out the tool in their own time. And the response we’ve had so far has been overwhelmingly positive, especially Australia where over a quarter of Donna’s users are based.

Want to find out more?

Just like Donna learns every time you use a suggestion, we thrive on feedback from the legal community. And so we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to say hello or send us any feedback, ideas or even any gripes you have about MS Word. You’ll find us in the chat on www.donna.legal

We look forward to hearing from you.

From our team to yours,

Rik Nauta
Donna Co-founder

About Rik Nauta

Co-Founder/CEO – Donna                                                                        Having interned at my mother’s law firm age 11, I had a glimpse into how the legal industry really works (and when it doesn’t). The experience initially scared me into a different career building a deep AI and NLP technology company. But before long I realised the technology we had built was perfect for solving many of the problems I observed in law in those early years. Today, I’m pleased to say my mom is still a happy customer and our whole team is set out to make Donna every lawyer’s best partner.