In early 2022, Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused a chain reaction, resulting in supply chain issues, energy concerns, and a global economic slowdown. One of these events was the rapid growth of sanctions against Russia. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld launched the Russian Trade Control Resource Center, the first module of its OverRuled legal research platform, to assist in-house attorneys in comprehending Russian export and trade requirements a few months into the war.
The company is expanding its subscription-based legal research offering globally, providing legal and compliance professionals access to the full OverRuled suite. It includes separate sanctions modules for all countries on the U.S. sanctions list, which can be subscribed to separately. Akin spent more than five years researching and compiling data using sources such as the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control to create the offering.
Over two years were dedicated to testing OverRuled on Akin lawyers and constructing the IT infrastructure for the platform's AI to learn and present data as visual maps. During this time, a risk assessment score for each region was also developed. Fadlallah, an international trade partner at Akin, stated that the firm hopes to extend OverRuled beyond export controls and sanctions lawyers. However, their current objective is to be the legal research platform for those in the same way LexisNexis and Westlaw are for litigators.
OverRuled offers additional tools such as the Penalty Calculator and Trade Risk Maps. The calculator enables attorneys or compliance professionals to enter the value of a shipment a client wants to make in a particular jurisdiction. Fadlallah clarified that the calculator would utilize the data to identify the regulatory risks associated with the transaction, such as whether a voluntary disclosure is necessary. The calculator's evaluation relies on prior OFAC enforcement cases to provide a reasonable baseline for potential penalties.
Akin plans to launch its Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) export control module and Directorate of Defense Trade (DDTC) export control module for OverRuled later in 2023. Other modules are scheduled for release in 2024. However, Myers stated that some of these modules might only have AI-powered capabilities if enforcement data sets are sufficient.
