In conversation with Thomas Snider at Charles Russell Speechlys
“I think when it comes to arbitration case law, sources and AI capabilities, Jus Mundi is best in class. It’s a tool frankly that I wish we would have had sooner rather than later.”
Tom Snider
Partner, Head of International Arbitration at Charles Russell Speechlys
Results at a Glance
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Research Speed (Associates) | 50% faster for specific research tasks |
| Tribunal Constitution (Partners) | 80% time savings on arbitrator due diligence |
| Team Adoption | Vast majority using near-daily |
| Primary Benefit | More time for strategic thinking and client value |
About Charles Russell Speechlys
Charles Russell Speechlys is a global law firm with a rapidly expanding international arbitration practice spanning London, Paris, Geneva, Zurich, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Tom Snider, Partner and Head of International Arbitration based in Dubai, leads the firm’s growing arbitration capabilities serving high-net-worth individuals, UAE-based companies, and international corporations across major arbitral hubs worldwide.
As the firm scaled its arbitration capabilities, the leadership recognised a clear operational priority: equip lawyers with the most advanced research and decision-support systems available.
The Opportunity
International arbitration is an inherently complex field that demands sophisticated research capabilities. As CRS’s practice expanded across multiple jurisdictions, the firm recognized opportunities to enhance efficiency in two critical areas: legal research and tribunal constitution.
The Research Challenge: Traditional arbitration research requires navigating multiple layers of authority. “The general approach was we would start by grabbing one of the leading treatises on international arbitration, pour through that, find the relevant section, read the commentary, and then dip down into the footnotes to identify primary sources,” explains Tom. “We would then have to go out to various sources to find those cases and commentators.”
Unlike other legal fields, arbitral awards are often confidential and scattered across disparate databases, making comprehensive research inherently time-intensive. Associates found themselves spending considerable time in the preliminary stages—locating the right treatises, navigating limited search functionality in digital texts, and tracking down primary sources – before even beginning substantive analysis.
The Arbitrator Selection Challenge: Tribunal constitution presented similar complexity. When the opposing party nominates an arbitrator or an institution proposes appointments, thorough due diligence is essential. Understanding an arbitrator’s prior cases, co-arbitrator relationships, procedural preferences, and substantive positions requires synthesizing information from multiple sources – a process that, while crucial, consumed significant partner time.
The Technology Gap: The firm explored various technology solutions, while these performed well for general corporate and commercial matters, none offered the arbitration-specific depth the team needed. General AI tools would produce responses better suited for commercial lawyers without arbitration expertise, lacking nuanced understanding of procedural rules, institutional frameworks, and arbitration-specific doctrines.
As Tom put it, “You just get confused answers that look like they’re for a commercial lawyer.” When he tested the same questions in Jus AI, the contrast was immediate. It “understood the arbitration-specific nuances” and surfaced only relevant arbitral sources – a “night and day difference” that showed what true domain intelligence looks like.
The Solution: Arbitration-Specialized AI
After evaluating multiple platforms, CRS chose Jus AI for its unmatched focus on international arbitration and comprehensive database of awards, commentary, and arbitration-related court cases.
Best-in-Class Arbitration Intelligence
“When it comes to arbitration case law and sources and data capabilities, Jus AI is best in class,” says Tom. “It’s a tool frankly that I wish we would have had sooner rather than later.”
The platform’s specialized nature proved transformative. Unlike general legal AI tools that produce confused answers more suitable for commercial lawyers without arbitration expertise, Jus AI demonstrates deep understanding of arbitration-specific nuances.
Intelligent Research Planning
Jus AI’s agentic architecture allows practitioners to pose straightforward queries that the system then reframes with arbitration-specific considerations – examining relevant institutional rules, domestic arbitration legislation, and applicable legal frameworks. This eliminates the need for extensive prompt engineering while still delivering sophisticated, targeted results.
Direct Access to Primary Sources
The platform addresses the firm’s compliance requirements seamlessly. By pulling information directly from primary sources, Jus AI removes the verification step that would be necessary with other AI tools, streamlining the research process while maintaining the firm’s quality standards.
Strategic Integration with Jus Connect
For partners like Tom, combining Jus AI with Jus Connect revolutionized tribunal constitution work. “It’s really useful to see when you have a prospective arbitrator, what cases he or she has been sitting on, who they’ve been sitting with, and then once you have that information, moving over to Jus AI to explore some of the awards they’ve written and positions they’ve taken.”
Measurable Efficiency Gains Across the Arbitration Lifecycle
50% Faster Legal Research
“Our associates are finally 50% faster in terms of how they’re using it for research,” confirms Tom.
What previously required navigating treatises, footnotes, and scattered sources now happens in a streamlined workflow.
Jus AI has become the default starting point. “A lot of times I walk into their offices, and they have Jus AI on their screen ready to go,” Tom observes. “For short questions that may come up in preparation for a meeting or a more involved research project, Jus AI has really become their first port of call.”
80% Time Reduction in Arbitrator Selection
“Using Jus Connect in combination with Jus AI in relation to prospective arbitrators probably cuts down the time we spend on that exercise – the time we spend on that homework – by 80%,” says Tom.
“In the past, often that was a cumbersome process. Now it’s the first thing I do when the other side nominates an arbitrator or when we get a letter from an institution with an appointment – I go straight to Jus Connect and type in their name.”
Enhanced Quality and Confidence
“In terms of value for our clients, I think it’s two-fold,” Tom explains. “Number one is the cost and time-saving services. But the other component is just the quality of the output – it’s more detailed, it’s more extensive, it gives us more confidence in the research that we’re conducting and the advice that we’re giving to clients.”
Strategic Time Reallocation
“It frees up our time and allows us to avoid spending time on mundane tasks and really spending our time and effort on that high-value critical thinking for clients,” says Tom.
Team Adoption
“Basically our entire [arbitration] team is using Jus AI from partners all the way down to associates,” confirms Tom. “We use it on a regular basis, almost a daily basis – I think some of our associates very much on a daily basis.”
The team leverages Jus AI throughout the arbitration lifecycle: “We use it in early case assessment to assess the client’s position, when we’re putting together the pleadings, preparing for the hearing, and we even use it post-award in the enforcement process to identify what the applicable rules and procedures are at the enforcement stage in various jurisdictions.”
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