Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the July 2025 issue of the In-House Community Magazine.
The Asia-Pacific legal landscape is undergoing a technological revolution. Cloud solutions and AI-powered tools are rapidly transforming how legal professionals approach cross-border disputes and complex investigations. At the recent Relativity Asia Roadshow in Hong Kong, industry experts shared their first-hand experiences navigating these changes and offered practical insights for legal teams facing similar challenges.
The panel, moderated by Benjamin Ng, senior account executive at Relativity, featured distinguished speakers including Michael Mo, partner at Deloitte Hong Kong; Joyce Li, senior director at Ankura; and Matt Lan, senior manager at Baker McKenzie's Global eDiscovery and Data Advisory team.
Accelerating Efficiency Through Cloud-Native Processing
The shift from traditional processing methods to cloud-based platforms has dramatically altered the speed and efficiency with which legal teams can handle complex cases. Mo highlighted common pain points that many firms have overcome: slow throughput, cumbersome processes between different platforms, and technical failures.
"We previously used processing tools that gave us roughly 15 to 20 gigabytes per hour. When we moved to Processing in RelativityOne, it significantly boosted our speed and reduced overhead,” Mo said.
Cloud solutions have proven especially effective for firms looking to scale while maintaining high security standards. Beyond operational gains, cloud environments remove the need for managing physical infrastructure and offer significant savings on hardware and technology upgrades. Legal teams are increasingly shifting focus from infrastructure maintenance to strategic analysis and investigative work.
For security-conscious clients, cloud solutions offer additional comfort. Lan explained how Baker McKenzie's adoption of cloud technology about 18 months ago has transformed client interactions: “In certain instances, the cloud allows us to use clients' environments to push data directly to our cloud environment, rather than bringing it into our infrastructure first.”
Overcoming Security Barriers in Data Collection & Movement
Despite the clear operational benefits of the cloud, security remains the foremost concern for organisations considering cloud-based solutions in Asia. The roadshow panelists shared various approaches to address these concerns, with most firms adopting multi-layered security strategies.
International certifications form a foundational element of these strategies. Deloitte, for example, maintains ISO certification and the Cybersecurity Protection Certification Scheme (CPCS) required for working with state enterprises in China. For clients with heightened security needs, firms are offering flexible solutions, including on-premises deployments when necessary.
Li emphasised the importance of technical solutions like customer-managed keys and client domains, while acknowledging the critical role of partnering with a vendor with a proven security posture. Relativity's Calder7 security team, for example, has helped Ankura’s team overcome client concerns. “Relativity dedicates a significant percentage of revenue to security initiatives, creating a highly secure environment,” Li explained. “These collaborative efforts help us convince clients and make them more comfortable with cloud adoption.”
The good news, according to Lan, is that as cloud adoption increases, organisations are more prepared to handle security concerns: “Most of our clients are on cloud themselves, so I feel like cloud adoption has passed a certain threshold. Security questions are addressed more quickly and simply now.”
Practical day-to-day challenges in data collection remain, especially as legal teams encounter a growing variety of file types and messaging platforms. Tools that can process formats from platforms like WeChat—where data includes audio clips, screenshots, and attachments—are critical. A robust platform that can accommodate multilingual, multimedia data sets significantly streamlines investigations.
Streamlining Cross-Border Matters
In Asia's diverse legal landscape, one of cloud technology's most valuable contributions is standardising workflows across jurisdictions. Cross-border cases involving multiple locations can now operate on the same platform, with data moving smoothly between regions as needed.
This standardisation extends to deduplication across jurisdictions, a crucial capability when working with countries that have different export constraints. As Mo explained, “We can share hash values without sharing the data itself, allowing review of copies outside restricted jurisdictions.”
For global firms like Baker McKenzie, standardised cloud platforms enable their worldwide teams to work seamlessly across different geographies. “It allows us to provide the same advice to the same client, even when dealing with them in different geographies,” noted Lan.
AI-Powered Review and Incident Response
The Hong Kong Roadshow featured the first regional demonstration of Relativity aiR for Review, Relativity’s generative AI solution for document review. This marked the launch of both Relativity aiR for Review and aiR for Privilege availability across Asia, highlighting the growing importance of generative AI tools in addressing the unique challenges of the legal market in region.
Introducing AI capabilities to clients remains a gradual process for many firms. Li described how Ankura begins with basic analytics tools like email threading before moving to more advanced capabilities such as machine translation and technology-assisted review (TAR). Client confidence builds as they see concrete results from practical applications.
Industry leaders are approaching generative AI with strategic caution. Panelists and attendees expressed optimism about its potential while acknowledging implementation challenges specific to the region. A Deloitte representative noted their exploration of local LLM deployment for their Navigate solution has proven difficult. They recognise that offering generative AI capabilities quickly may require routing through other locations, showing openness to this approach given that client data can be hosted overseas if necessary. The critical decision point remains with clients, who must approve the ephemeral transmission of their data.
Testing and communicating with AI vendors is paramount, particularly for ensuring effective functionality with Asian languages. Thought leaders emphasise the importance of asking region-specific questions about capabilities: Has the technology been tested for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages? How effective is prompting in these languages? These considerations are crucial for ensuring AI solutions meet the specific needs of the Asian market, where linguistic complexity creates unique challenges for document review technologies.
In time-sensitive disputes—particularly on the defence side, where parties often have little time to prepare—AI allows investigators to work backward from the desired outcome and target relevant documents faster. One professional provided the recent example of reducing document volume from 200,000 to just 200 for court submission, demonstrating the strategic application of AI review.
Looking Ahead at Regional Opportunities with Generative AI
Panelists expressed enthusiasm about generative AI's potential to transform legal review processes. Lan compared the current moment to the emergence of technology-assisted review a decade ago: “It will be interesting to see how it affects turnaround times, billing models, and client expectations.”
For firms operating in mainland China, the ideal future includes AI tools that can streamline compliance reviews across multiple regulatory frameworks simultaneously. The ability to identify all sensitive information in a single review cycle would dramatically improve efficiency while ensuring compliance with China's complex regulatory landscape.
Platforms like Relativity aiR offer not only smarter review but could eventually assist in suggesting investigation strategies based on uploaded data. When implemented thoughtfully, generative AI has the potential to be a game changer—bringing clarity, speed, and insight to investigations and disputes alike.
As cloud adoption and AI implementation continue to accelerate across Asia, legal professionals who embrace these technologies will be best positioned to handle the increasingly complex challenges of cross-border disputes and investigations in this diverse and rapidly evolving region.
Graphics for this article were created by Natalie Andrews.
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