Sustainability / ESG

Dusseldorf, 19.09.2024 – CMS Germany took two first places at this year’s PMN Management Awards. At the PMN Award Gala, the international commercial law firm received prizes in the Legal Tech category for its “Noxtua“ legal AI and in the ESG category for the joint “The Chancery Lane Project”. The awards are organised by the Professional Management Network (PMN), a network of international commercial law firms and audit companies. In its laudation for the “Noxtua” project, the jury highlighted the need for lawyers who engage with the potential of artificial intelligence. As conventional language models have broad but not deep knowledge, CMS joined forces with the Berlin start-up Xayn to develop Noxtua, the first sovereign European legal AI with its proprietary language model. The jury commended CMS for this pioneering work and the firm’s proactive approach in embracing technology with this initiative, knowing full well that the use of AI will provide more time to develop creative solutions for clients. According to the jury, CMS is setting an industry-wide benchmark with Noxtua. Explaining its choice of the pro bono alliance “The Chancery Lane”, which is supported by CMS and other participating law firms in Germany, the jury praised the legal toolkit for business and the community as a contribution to the fight against climate change, a community initiative and an open-source tool. The jury also pointed out that the project was introduced in Germany by CMS in 2022, with the firm carrying out the preparatory research on carbon footprints and the areas of law that are of particular relevance in this context as well as organising the rollout. In the jury's view, the CMS Foundation, which was set up by the firm in 2015, played a key role in getting the many CMS lawyers and lawyers from other firms on board that are lending their voluntary support to “The Chancery Lane” project. The PMN Management Awards were launched in 2009 and recognise innovative projects in management and business services within commercial law firms in Germany. The awards are presented in seven categories, with the finalists and winners being selected on the basis of projects submitted by law firms. After considering all the entries, a jury consisting of five industry experts chooses the winners. The aim of the awards is to support the development of management and business services within law firms and to highlight success stories. About Noxtua: Noxtua is a legal AI with its proprietary large language model and AI assistant. Lawyers from corporations and law firms can use the Noxtua chat to ask questions about legal documents, analyse them, check them for compliance with company guidelines, (re)formulate texts, and have summaries written. About „The Chancery Lane Pro­ject”: “The Chancery Lane Project” (TCLP) is an international, non-profit cooperation that develops climate protection clauses for contracts and makes them available free of charge on its website. The clauses are provided in particular for industries that have the largest carbon footprint or where the greatest impact is seen. More than 350 law firms and companies worldwide are currently participating in TCLP in order to jointly develop relevant model contract clauses for climate protection on a pro bono basis for free-of-charge use in contracts. CMS introduced this project in Germany and carried out extensive preparatory research on in­dustry-spe­cif­ic carbon footprints, also identifying key areas of law that offer leverage for climate protection. More than 50 volunteers have contributed to TCLP to date. The aim is to build up legal expertise on climate protection in Germany’s commercial law firm sector to further the transformation towards a lower-emission economy. Press Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com

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