What We Do
D2 Legal Technology (D2LT) is an award-winning legal data consulting firm acting as a trusted advisor to institutions on process, data and the use of technology to unlock business value through legal change. There is an increasing recognition that the fundamental conservatism of the legal profession needs to give way to greater dynamism in order for organisations to survive and thrive in the digital age. D2LT provide the strategy and assistance to help its clients excel in meeting this challenge.
Unlock Business Value
In a complex world, with heightened regulatory expectations, it is often difficult for institutions to effectively assess the impact of, and risks associated with, their legal data. Negotiated contractual data is also often difficult to consume by many of the affected parties e.g. Trading, Treasury, Risk, XVA etc. This can lead to manual re-keying leading to both inefficiency and operational risk.
Legal teams increasingly turn to technology to address issues around legal data, operating model and processes and yet it often turns out not to be the panacea that was envisaged. D2LT works with its clients to ensure that solutions for firms are appropriate to them and unlock business value for them. This requires a strong focus on and understanding of the processes within in-house legal departments and consumers of legal data, refining and optimising these to meet business needs.
D2LT is technology and vendor agnostic and is constantly assessing the availability and suitability of vendor solutions in an ever-changing market and is able to advise clients on their technology choices. In fact, D2LT is also often approached by vendors to assist in this area for them to better understand the business problems that they are asked to help solve , as well as engaging with academia in these areas.
Tailored Solutions
Founded in 2011, D2LT originates, designs and manages the delivery of legal change solutions for its clients by proactively taking the time to understand their businesses, the regulatory needs and their existing operating environments.
Multi-disciplinary Teams
D2LT has a unique blend of industry knowledge, legal, technology and transformational skills which equips it to quickly assess the issues an institution is facing and to propose and deliver an appropriate solution. D2LT is the consultancy of choice to act as a credible link between Legal, Risk ,Trading and Operations to design fully integrated and optimised solutions.
LegalTech solutions – Embracing the Digital Agenda
D2LT focuses on embracing the digital agenda and helping clients to understand, select and configure the tools that sit in this LegalTech/FinTech ecosystem. These include contract management, document assembly, workflow, optical character recognition (OCR), artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning, digital assets, blockchain/distributed ledger and smart contracts. Our approach is to advise clients how to refine and optimise processes and structure data effectively before employing any enabling technology since this is typically a precondition to maximising the value of such solutions.
Industry & Academia Collaboration
D2LT’s primary business relates to legal and fintech consultancy within capital markets, working with investment banks, trade associations (such as ISDA, ICMA and ISLA), asset managers (such as Insight Asset Management), digital assets firms (such as BlockFi, BSV Association and Tokenovate), Financial Services Regulators (such as the Philippines SEC) and smaller trading firms (such as World Fuel Services and Export Trading Group).
D2LT also regularly advises in the capital markets industry in respect of legaltech and fintech strategy. This is demonstrated by its privileged instructions by key trade associations, such as ISDA, ICMA and ISLA – and as recognised in multiple industry awards. D2LT is highly regarded in terms of its research into smart legal opinions, and is currently sponsoring a Ph.D. student at the University of Surrey looking into its application, which has excited the capital markets industry in terms of its potential application. Finally, D2LT is involved in Law Commission consultations regarding developments under English law concerning digital assets, decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), smart contracts, and electronic trading documentation.
Areas of Expertise
D2LT’s areas of expertise and client engagements include work in the fields of:
- Documentation services and staff augmentation across legal, documentation and compliance;
- Document digitisation (e.g. use of AI/NLP to extract relevant terms from document portfolios for downstream data flow across Business Optimisation, Regulatory Compliance and Operations);
- Contract Lifecycle Management (development of business cases, vendor selection processes, implementation / configuration of systems);
- Smart Contract Design;
- Legal Opinion Digitisation (i.e. the automatic application of legal advice in legal opinions, such as close-out netting legal opinions, trade tagging and counterparty due diligence, to downstream processes and systems)
- Workflow systems (development of business cases, vendor selection processes, implementation / configuration of systems)
- Compliance & Legal Risk Framework development
In respect of trade associations (such as ISDA, ICMA and ISLA):
- Development of clause taxonomies and libraries;
- Legal agreement data standards & modelling;
- Development of protocol and T&C’s for digital asset providers
D2LT’s broader practice also includes:
- Assistance with data privacy (such as GDPR, CCPA), through creation of data inventories, data privacy notices and review of contracts, policies and procedures.
- Legal Agreement and Opinion Data Governance
- Development of target operating models re: Use of AI, AI Frameworks e.g., the ethical design, development and deployment of AI technology
- Digital Assets (development of rules based agreements, cryptocurrency policy management and compliance framework
Publications
Akber Datoo, ‘Legal Data for Banking: Business Optimisation and Regulatory Compliance‘ (Wiley) – it is available on Amazon for purchase.
The FINTECH Book: The Financial Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Visionaries – it is available on Amazon for purchase.
The INSURTECH Book: The Insurance Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and FinTech Visionaries – it is available on Amazon for purchase.
Several consultants have co-authored articles for Wiley’s ‘The LegalTech Book: The Legal Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and FinTech Visionaries‘ – it is available on Amazon for purchase.
Awards
In 2024, D2LT was awarded a Band 1 ranking in Chambers and Partners’ NewLaw 2024 Guide ‘Legal Transformation Consulting’ category, while CEO and founder, Akber Datoo was also been given an individual Band 1 ranking in Legal Transformation Consulting. D2LT was also acknowledged for its transformative work in Contract Lifecycle Management.
In 2021, D2LT won the Waters Technology Inside Market Data & Inside Reference Data ‘Best Counterparty Data Project or Initiative’; was shortlisted in the Law Society Awards’ ‘Excellence in Technology and Innovation’; and was recognised as a finalist in the Financial Times’ ‘Collaborative Innovation’ award.
In 2020, D2LT was shortlisted in the Law Society Excellence Awards; announced winner in the Leading Adviser Awards’ ‘Legal Documentation Systems’ Consulting Provider of the Year’, and recognised in the FT Intelligent Business Special Report for its LEI Counterparty Due Diligence Utility.
In 2019, D2LT won the Data Strategy award with ISDA at the Financial Times Intelligent Business Awards. D2LT was also listed in second place in the Top 10 Market Shapers, recognized for acknowledging the importance of data to the sector and working out ways to harness it to create business value for clients.
In 2017, D2LT won the ‘Data, Knowledge and Intelligence’ category in the Financial Times’ Innovative Lawyers Award. D2LT was also ranked ‘Standout’ in the ‘Collaboration’ category. In 2016, D2LT was ranked ‘Standout’ in the ‘Innovation in new Models’ category, while founder & managing partner, Akber Datoo, was cited as one of EMEA’s 10 most innovative individuals in legal practice. Also in 2016, Akber was appointed to The Law Society’s Technology and Technology And Law Committee (TALC).
In 2015, D2LT won Best Risk Management Initiative in The Lawyer Business Leadership Awards following its work with leading financial institutions.
