By Richard Tyler
The world's largest law firms have spent the past 12 months engaged in a bloody battle over control of legal cyberspace.
UK giant Linklaters edged ahead for a while with the launch of Blue Flag Confirms, which allows derivatives transaction managers to automatically build "confirm" documents on-line automatically.
Not to be outdone, arch-rivals Clifford Chance and Allen&Overy both revealed internet-based transaction management products - dubbed "virtual deal rooms" for cross-border transactions.
Allen&Overy's newchange.com also came with an attractive new "modular" documentation system, an innovation the firm claimed cuts the time taken to draft documents by 95%.
Then in September, Linklaters jumped ahead with its own deal room, clients@Linklaters, that for the first time gives clients access to original documents stored in its databases.
Last month the battle entered a new phase when for the first time one of the big firms, Allen&Overy, agreed to sell its proprietary know-how on the legal risks of collateralizing derivatives to a JP Morgan on-line derivative services spin-off called Cygnifi.
Cygnifi's legal risk collateral management product is called Trinity, which offers regularly updated summaries of legal memoranda on the risk associated with collateralized derivatives, including enforceability and documentation.