Dispatches
Customer story

Legal citation checking

Every citation in a brief verified against the underlying case, overruled authority flagged, exceptions routed to a lawyer for review.

Night beforeAssociate checks every citation in a brief byhandOverruled authority still slips throughMotion to Dismiss - Final.docxPlaintiff's claims are barred by res judicata. Smithv. Jones (7th Cir.).The Court must apply the standard set forth inAnderson v. Liberty Lobby (U.S.).As established in Miller v. Department (overruled),this doctrine applies.The forum selection clause is enforceable underMaritime Co. v. Allied (U.S.).Defendants are entitled to summary judgment. Wilsonv. Garcia (U.S.).The statute of limitations begins to accrue upondiscovery. Chen v. State.Associate · 11:47 PMThe old way: manual citation checkSESSIONVerify all citations in the attachedbrief before filing tomorrowMotion to Dismiss.docxBrief with citationsAthena via email · Litigation inboxEmail triggers the AOPEvery citation extractedfrom briefSmith v. JonesVerified · case pulledAnderson v. Liberty LobbyVerified · case pulledMiller v. DepartmentOverruled authority flaggedMaritime Co. v. AlliedVerified · case pulledWilson v. GarciaSuperseded authority flaggedChen v. StateVerified · case pulled×Underlying casespulled and checkedAthena verifies each cite and flags problemsAthena wants toDeliver citation review with flaggedexceptionsOverruled or superseded authority flaggedRest verified with links to sourceReview document ready for litigatorWAITING FOR A PERSONLitigator reviews flagged cites onlyAmLaw 100 firm · Before filingA lawyer reviews only the exceptionsExceptions to a humanathenaintel.com
Fig. 02The story in 22 seconds, from the old way to “Exceptions to a human.”
Before · what we did · after
  1. Before

    An associate checks every citation in a brief by hand the night before filing. Overruled authority slips through anyway.

  2. What we did

    An AOP triggered by email. Paste the brief or upload the folder. Every cite verified, the underlying case pulled, overruled or superseded authority flagged.

  3. After

    A review document with only the exceptions for a human. The rest is confirmed with a link to the source. An AmLaw 100 firm runs it from the litigators' inbox.

Citation verification · Brief filedTrigger · Email with brief attachmentCitation verified, underlying case pulledCitation verified, underlying case pulledOverruled authority flaggedSuperseded authority flaggedCitation verified, underlying case pulledCitation verified, underlying case pulledReview document withflagged cites and links tosourceAthena · AmLaw 100 firm
Fig. 01Every cite pulled and checked; overruled authority flagged for review
How long it takes · what to plan for

It flags; a lawyer decides. Connect your licensed research databases for comprehensive coverage.

Exceptions to a human. Everything else, confirmed.

Example workflow

Email-triggered brief verification to review document

SURFACES INWHAT COMES INTHE PLATFORMWHAT GOES OUTDELIVERED BACKWebMobile · voiceText (SMS)Slack · TeamsChromeOffice add-inMeeting botMeetingsWordPowerPointSheetsFiles · PDFsDataAgentsAppsSessionsSpacesStudiosMeetingsLakehouseSemantic modelsDatabaseDashboardsPowerPointSheetsDashboardsData · APIsApps · portalsWebMobile · voiceText (SMS)EmailSlack · TeamsChromeOffice add-inMeeting botEmail1Workflows (AOPs)2Library3Word41 INLitigator pastes brief oruploads folder of motionsinto email2 RUNEmail trigger firescitation-checking AOP;every cite extracted andverified3 CHECKUnderlying case pulled;overruled or supersededauthority flagged asexception4 ANSWERReview document withflagged exceptions andlinks to confirmed sourcesdelivered
Fig. 03The route on the system map: Email → Workflows (AOPs) → Library → Word. Connectors: Email in, document review out
What it runs on
What customers say
“Use the Athena platform probably closer to the concept and how it was designed, like, with the spaces architecture where you've got a set of primitives and capabilities, and you bring together the right set of capabilities to solve a task.”
Audit lead · A global professional services firm
“I'm very excited. This is something that I have been piecemealing with the limited tools that analysts get... rather than me at nine PM getting a failure email and deciding I'll just do it myself.”
DC Ops Data & Analytics lead · A Fortune 500 retailer
“It's good to understand the capability of the platform. That how far, and how quickly you guys can get these things going [...] that has been impressive overall.”
VP-level AI leader · A Fortune 500 retailer
“Lets us get a lot more out of our data than [...] We can sit on top of all of the data in [our data warehouse] as opposed to just, like, our little ingested, you know, three gigabytes semantic models. I think we have a lot of power here.”
Analytics lead · A Fortune 500 retailer
“Gave Athena the spreadsheet, explained which column I was trying to figure out, and then ten secs it told me... exactly how the calculation was based on the other data.”
Analyst · A global manufacturer
“He wrote the entire stuff. By itself. And I was there, and I was thinking, alright. If I had to write all this stuff, I mean, I would've spent days, days, days.”
Manufacturing analyst · A global manufacturer
“I send that to the programmer and he said, alright. I read your file. I copied the section of the code because he has the right interface, and it works. Wow. Just like magic.”
Manufacturing analyst · A global manufacturer
“One workspace. All different, let's say, avatars of their output data. Right? Suddenly, it's dashboard. Excel is here. PowerPoint is when it's all together. It's very impressive.”
Global Sustainability lead · A global manufacturer
“Digital worker, it gets spun up, it gets given access to the toolkits that it needs. It gets given access to the data that it needs. Just exists for the period it needs to exist to perform the task. And then it gets torn back down again afterwards.”
Audit lead · A global professional services firm
“I like that direction, that concept of the agent is the agent. It becomes an entity in its own right with its own ownership and its own missioning, and you get rid of the gray area and the blurry lines.”
Audit lead · A global professional services firm

Verbatim from customer calls. Customers anonymized.

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