Navigating Corporate Risk and Mass Claims Events
The modern enterprise operates under a constant and growing threat of mass claims, class actions, and group litigation events. For corporate counsel, the traditional battleground of the courtroom is increasingly shifting to the data room, demanding not just legal acumen but unprecedented speed and accuracy in data management. This article is the third in a series exploring the practical application of artificial intelligence (AI) within the class action and mass claims context, focusing now on the unique mandate of the in-house legal function.
Corporate counsel’s primary role is protecting the enterprise, maintaining business continuity, and preserving shareholder value. This necessitates moving beyond simply supporting external defence counsel to establishing proactive risk management and implementing a rapid, intelligent incident response plan. AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), is the essential internal operating system for legal and compliance teams to identify, contain, and quantify risk before a claim is filed or a regulator steps in.
Proactive AI: Monitoring Compliance and Anticipating the Event
The most valuable application of AI is in prevention. Global regulatory landscapes are complex, dynamic, and non-static. Reliance on traditional auditing—periodic sampling of data and manual policy checks—is insufficient for the massive, real-time data flows generated by a modern enterprise.
Continuous Compliance Monitoring
AI offers the first viable solution for continuous compliance monitoring. LLMs can be trained on proprietary policy guidelines, regulatory circulars, and historical risk events. Once trained, they can be deployed to constantly review colossal volumes of internal unstructured data—emails, Slack and Teams chats, contract drafts, and internal reports.
This process enables the AI to identify conversational anomalies and potential risk indicators that a human might miss. For example, AI can spot patterns suggesting systemic failure, such as widespread internal discussions about data handling errors, consistent failure to follow a product quality control step, or potential anti-competitive practices. This creates an "always-on" diligence system, uncovering systemic issues or "red flags" long before they escalate into public breaches or regulatory actions.
E-Disclosure Readiness
Proactive AI also simplifies a defensive posture. AI builds e-discovery readiness by ensuring that internal data is consistently classified, tagged, and stored with future litigation or regulatory hold needs in mind. This foundational data hygiene dramatically reduces the time and cost associated with collecting and reviewing documents once a formal legal matter begins.
AI-Powered Incident Triage and Response
When an issue is discovered—whether it is a cyber incident, a critical product defect report, or an internal whistleblower complaint—the speed and accuracy of the initial 72-hour response window often determine the outcome of the ensuing litigation or regulatory action. This critical window, widely recognized in crisis management, is paramount for regulatory notification and containment.
Rapid RCA and Triage
Traditional incident response relies on manually piecing together events from fragmented systems, a process that can take weeks. AI accelerates the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and triage phase.
For a data breach, AI can be immediately deployed to scan millions of log files, network traffic data, and structured records. It can quickly pinpoint the exact scope of the incident: which systems were compromised, what specific data fields (e.g., names, addresses, financial details) were accessed, and who, specifically, was impacted.
Similarly, for product liability or consumer protection issues, AI-powered e-discovery tools can instantly search, filter, and prioritise documents based on contextual relevance, establishing a clear timeline of events and initial liability facts. By automating the data synthesis and analysis, AI can significantly shorten the initial investigative phase, enabling counsel to advise leadership and regulators with confidence and agility.
Quantifying the Scale of Liability and Customer Impact
Once an event is confirmed, corporate counsel must answer two critical, immediate questions for the C-Suite: “Who is affected?” and “What is the financial exposure?”
Identifying the Affected Population
To manage a potential mass claims event, counsel must precisely define the universe of affected customers or parties. AI provides a defensible, auditable method for making this determination. Artificial Intelligence (AI) models can cross-reference, reconcile, and validate data across disparate internal systems, including customer relationship management (CRM) databases, transaction histories, customer service logs, and warranty records. This results in an accurate list of those affected, which is essential for proper victim notification, remediation efforts, and managing the intake of claimants should a class action ensue.
Preliminary Liability Quantification
For financial provisioning and disclosure purposes, the C-Suite needs a rapid, defensible estimate of financial exposure. AI is ideally suited for modeling scenarios. It can ingest data points ranging from historical regulatory penalties for similar incidents to past litigation settlement values and the company's own transaction volumes.
These predictive models can assist counsel in providing a data-driven range for potential regulatory fines, legal damages, and remediation costs. Crucially, this AI-assisted early quantification gives the company greater control over the narrative, informs negotiations with insurers, and allows counsel to enter discussions with regulators or potential litigation funders with a clear, defensible understanding of their maximum exposure.
How Ankura Can Help
Ankura is at the forefront of applying AI, and specifically LLM capabilities, to the challenges of mass claims litigation. We understand that technology alone isn't enough; it requires a combination of deep legal domain expertise and cutting-edge AI solutions. Our Ankura AI platform and services are designed to empower law firms at every stage:
- Ankura AI Platform: This proprietary platform provides a secure and scalable environment for managing and analysing massive datasets. It incorporates advanced Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning capabilities, including state-of-the-art LLMs, specifically tailored for legal investigations and group litigation.
- AI-Powered Document Review and Analysis: Our platform accelerates document review, automatically identifying key clauses, extracting relevant information, summarising content, and flagging potential issues.
- Intelligent Data Extraction: Ankura AI leverages advanced algorithms and LLMs to efficiently extract structured data from unstructured sources, enhancing data accuracy and accessibility.
- Advanced Analytics and Data Visualisation: Ankura AI transforms raw data into actionable insights, including robust claim inventory matrices.
- Custom AI Solutions: Our team of technologists and legal experts can configure and deploy tailored AI solutions, including selecting, training, and integrating the most appropriate LLMs and machine learning techniques for your specific needs.
- Data Security and Compliance: Ankura prioritises data security and compliance. Our Ankura AI platform adheres to stringent data protection protocols, including GDPR, while employing robust encryption, access controls, and data segregation to safeguard sensitive information.
Ankura's AI solutions empower counsel to work smarter, faster, and more effectively, to achieve better outcomes for their clients. Contact us to learn how Ankura can help you leverage AI to transform your approach to group litigation.
Conclusion: Building the Resilient Legal Function
AI shifts the in-house legal function from being viewed as a reactive cost centre to a proactive risk guardian. The true value of this technology lies in creating digital readiness—the capability to identify, contain, and scope enterprise risk faster and more accurately than ever before.
In a global environment where legal and regulatory pressures are accelerating, this agility is non-negotiable. Corporate counsel must recognise that AI is not an auxiliary tool; it is a core competency. By developing AI-enabled workflows with their internal teams and integrating AI into every stage of the risk-lifecycle, they ensure the entire organisation is well defended and digitally prepared for a mass claim event. Investing in this capability now is the only way to meet the speed and scale of the modern mass claims and litigation environment.
This article was first published with ThoughtLeaders4 Disputes Magazine.
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© Copyright 2025. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. Ankura is not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice.
