Author: Onit

With the Rising Use of AI In Legal Services, What Should In-House Counsel Look For?

Posted on April 28, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Legal Management

The increased use of AI in legal services is indisputable. Analysts predict that corporate legal departments will see technology budget increases as significant as three times by 2025 and an ongoing push to automate legal work for productivity. With its ability to bring immediate results out-of-the-box and learn and improve over time, AI offers the ideal technological solution to boost efficiency and save time for high-performing legal departments. In fact, this study found that AI for contract review can increase productivity by 51.5%.

However, not everything that claims to be AI these days is actually AI, and not all AI solutions are created equal. AI can significantly boost efficiency, streamline workflows, and save costs – if you invest in the right AI solutions.

Given the tremendous benefits of AI technologies, it’s helpful to understand the features that set the best AI tools apart from the competition. When you’re looking to purchase AI solutions and transform your legal department, you should consider whether they offer the following characteristics and features.

Time to Value

When you invest in new technology like AI, you want to start reaping the benefits as soon as possible. Therefore, when looking at AI options, you want to find solutions that allow you to quickly begin realizing value after you implement them.

Several factors can decrease the amount of time it takes to realize value from an AI solution. The software should be quick and easy to implement and roll out across all your users. Your AI should also ideally be pre-trained, meaning it’s ready to go straight out of the box, rather than requiring additional time to train it. The faster your users can capitalize on all the benefits of your AI solution, the faster it will translate into value for your organization.

Pricing Structure

Technology vendors take a wide range of approaches to pricing their products, and how they price them can significantly impact their value and usability for your enterprise. As the use of AI in legal services increases, the last thing you want to do is agree to a pricing structure based on the number of users.

When the price of your AI solution is not based on user numbers, you have the option of using the technology to work across all business units in your organization without having to worry about incurring extra costs when additional collaboration would be valuable. The ideal solution will have no limit on the number of users who can interact with the system for the initial price of your investment.

User Experience

Like any technology, AI is only valuable if your users can use it effectively. Any solution you choose should be easy to understand and execute without excessive training or a steep learning curve. Look into whether the product you’re considering has a proven implementation department.

The right tools will also have a good track record in the customer satisfaction department. It’s worthwhile to look into the vendor or product’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). An NPS is based on customers’ ratings of their likelihood of recommending a company, product, or service on a scale of 0 to 10 – so the higher the NPS, the better.

Underlying Platform

Any AI solution you purchase will have to operate on some underlying platform to function. At a minimum, that platform should be a trusted product that has the capacity necessary to meet all your needs and the ability to scale as those needs change.

Even better is not having to rely on external platforms for your chosen AI solution to work. The ideal tools will run on a reliable platform supplied and maintained by the same vendor as the AI solutions themselves. This will allow you to deploy products and updates quickly. Also, look for no-code platforms that will enable you to build your own apps with little or no technical experience.

Immediate Usability

A solution is only helpful if your users actually use it. It’s also most helpful if they can start using it right away. Long implementation delays or the need to invest significant time in learning to use a product can outweigh the benefits that product might eventually offer.

You should look for out-of-the-box products that require minimal configuration before they can be used in order to get the full use of AI in legal services. Such products are ready to go almost immediately, meaning you can quickly start using them to address the problems that drove you to seek out AI in the first place. At the same time, however, they can also be customized to meet the most simple or customized workflows within your organization.

Partner Network

While the vendor of your chosen AI solution certainly matters, so do your vendor’s partnerships. You want a technology provider that partners with other top-notch providers and professionals who can address your needs outside of those related to the specific AI technology you’re buying.

You want your AI product vendor to have alliances with experienced implementation service providers to ensure that your chosen solution succeeds across your entire enterprise. Beyond implementation, your provider should also be part of a robust ecosystem of partners who can address your needs as they arise, from the most routine business needs to the most novel demands that might arise. Having the right partnerships also means that your vendor can leverage those partnerships to design the most optimal solutions to address a particular problem.

The Use of AI in Legal Services – Investing in the Right AI

The excitement about AI is understandable – today’s technologies can accomplish tasks that seemed impossible even just a few years ago. Wanting to incorporate those advancements into your organization to improve the ways you do business is a great impulse.

You need to be sure, however, that you’re getting products that are effective and not just hype. Even more importantly, they must be tailored to your organization’s needs if you want to see actual benefits from them. Not every AI solution is suitable for every organization, and not every AI provider will give you the support you need for your products to succeed.

By considering the factors outlined above before you purchase any solution, you’ll put your organization on the right path to genuinely benefiting from AI. It’s worth the time to do your research and think before you buy.

Bodhala Named A Company To Watch In 2021

Posted on April 23, 2021 by - Legal Operations

We’re excited to share that Built In NYC has recognized Bodhala on its list of 21 NYC Companies to Watch in 2021. Designed to highlight New York City’s growing technology sector, Built In NYC’s list recognizes innovative and growing companies that are making waves in their respective industries.

It has been one year since we announced our $10M growth investment led by Edison Partners and this recognition from Built In is a true testament to the growth and success we have experienced over the past year. 

We’re proud of our team here at Bodhala and we’re excited to continue driving innovation and transparency within the legal services market. 

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Interested in joining our high-performing team of smart, scrappy thinkers and doers? Check out our open positions.

LSM LESSONS: Associated British Foods and EDF

Posted on April 20, 2021 by - Enterprise Legal Management

Legal spend management software solves several different challenges depending on the organization. During the pandemic specifically, this could be as fundamental as no longer being able to review and pay paper-based invoices in the office. For Associated British Foods (ABF), who were already using e-billing before lockdown, usage of the system increased because remote working meant e-billing was the only option! However, legal spend management software really comes into its own when applied strategically.

For ABF, this meant maximizing volume discounts with firms. Daniel Wate, their Legal Technology Analyst, says, “Legal isn’t revenue generating, so we implemented legal spend management software to ensure we were spending responsibly and give us accountability. With last year being challenging, for example, the temporary closure of our Primark stores, we’ve been more likely to maximize volume discounts with firms, something we couldn’t do unless we knew what we were spending.” This has been achieved by consolidating the number of firms and reaching volume thresholds faster. Another savings area is through using spend data to make the case for hiring internally, “we’ve noticed that sometimes it’s cheaper if we hire someone else rather than using a law firm,” Dan explains.

As Managing Legal Counsel, Lynne Kellett says that EDF UK NNB (EDF) uses the tool for a similar purpose, “We leverage local firms as an extension of the in-house team, so we need spend data to encourage our firms to deliver additional services and value add in line with our panel arrangements.”

Even in BAU times, spend management is an essential strategic tool. ABF started its e-billing journey in 2012. Daniel reflects, “It was a very manual process. We spent a lot of money but didn’t know with which firms, how many firms, where in the world, who was instructing the firms, or how much we were spending!” They also suspected that the rule, “notify legal must before engaging law firms,” was not being followed. Using BusyLamp eBilling.Space has allowed them to control this more effectively.

This cost visibility is also essential for EDF. Lynne remarks, “the General Counsel wanted to “press a button” to find out how much was being spent, when, and where, without using spreadsheets.” Legal spend management tools today go beyond the process of e-billing, with RFP, WIP, vendor management, and complex analysis and prediction capabilities now commonplace. EDF looked for such a tool after identifying that the end-to-end process for engaging firms was just as important as tracking the costs. Freeing the team from admin and reporting was also critical.

INVOLVING STAKEHOLDERS IN THE LEGAL SPEND MANAGEMENT PROJECT

Although the primary users of legal spend management software, the legal team is not the only stakeholder, and it’s crucial to involve other departments in the project journey. Sourcing, finance, tax, and IT are typical functions that need to be involved. They can help you draft RFP requirements, offer a different perspective, ensure legal processes integrate with other departmental processes, and help solidify the business case if the tool benefits more than just the legal team.

Involving finance was key for EDF since reporting to finance was a heavy administration burden before they implemented Onit’s European legal spend management solution BusyLamp e-billing.Space. Lynne remembers, “part of the streamlining of the process was to remove some of those manual steps, so we wanted to make sure the output would still meet finance’s requirements.” Lynne also recommends getting help from IT as they have experience rolling out tech projects but cautions it may take longer than you expect, “legal is not profit-generating like other departments, so you need to make your case early and strongly!” Daniel echoes this sentiment, “while IT is a useful resource because they do rollouts all the time, they are busy, and you will have to join a queue. So, get them involved as soon as possible and communicate often.”

FUTURE LEGAL SPEND MANAGEMENT PLANS

As referenced earlier, legal spend management is more than just e-billing. In the near future, EDF plan to use the RFP tool in e-billing.Space and also wants to report objectively on how law firms deliver additional value. Lynne explains, “The longer we use the software, the more data, and more consistent data, we are getting about our firms. This will help us drive not only the best price but the best value – especially for larger projects. This is win/win – it’s not free for law firms to give us these value-adds, so tracking it means we can recognize it.” Being able to do this in one single system means avoiding yet another spreadsheet.

Next on ABF’s agenda is billing guidelines, which are already in place for the company’s USA law firms, but they plan to implement them throughout the rest of the world. Using BusyLamp for driving value is also important, though. Daniel says, “we pull a lot of reports but don’t get the maximum benefit from them; we need to think how we can use them to drive discussions with and leverage usage of law firms.”

Learn more about BusyLamp from Onit, our end-to-end legal spend management solution built for European corporate legal departments. 

Six Must-Have Features to Look for in Legal Intake Software for Corporate Legal

Posted on April 19, 2021 by - Business Process Management

Legal intake software transforms a task that is often a frequent and significant contributor to a corporate legal department’s organizational chaos.

With no standard legal service request process or legal intake software, tracking and assigning requests is nearly impossible. Business partner requests for legal services are often tossed into the legal department sporadically by email, text or informal conversations from various departments. Usually, the requests omit necessary resources or documents, necessitating an email or phone conversation to obtain the relevant materials before the actual legal work can begin.

To overcome these obstacles, corporate legal departments should consider automated legal intake software.

By implementing an intelligent, self-service portal to initiate legal service requests, the first phase of the battle is already won. Information can be shared across departments and systems with this solution. Fewer staff members will need to spend time entering data for the same client and matter, saving money.

The benefits of legal service request (LSR) software include:

  • The ability to streamline and simplify the legal service request process
  • A drastic reduction of the cycle time spent on manual, administrative tasks
  • More time to focus on high-value legal tasks
  • Enhanced responsiveness to your business partners

If you think that LSR software would be a great thing to have in your corporate legal department, you are right.

Six Features You Should Look For In Legal Intake Software

  1. Central intake – The ability to support a central intake process for all legal service requests not only simplifies the process but it provides a complete audit trail as well.
  2. User-friendly Interface – The software should be intuitive, easy to learn and even easier to use with virtually no training to get started.
  3. Variable Workflow – The workflow process should be flexible and easy to change, meaning legal service requests can be altered, reviewed and approved by all the participants and new approvers can be quickly added without slowing down the process.
  4. Automated Notifications – Eliminate the “black box” perception. The software should automatically generate notifications to keep business partners updated on the status of their requests.
  5. Reporting & Dashboards – Reporting and dashboard views enable the corporate legal department to track legal service requests by region, department, business unit or other criteria.
  6. Rapid Deployment – A quick deployment means little or no IT involvement, so the corporate legal department can be up and running quickly.

All of this will allow the legal department to spend more time focusing on business consumers’ needs – not following up on paperwork and other purely administrative and time-consuming tasks. With well-chosen legal service request software, the legal department can provide higher quality services, operate more efficiently and become a driving force in fueling the company’s success.

To learn more about legal service request software, visit here or request a demo of how Onit can automate your legal service requests.

What the Future With AI Looks Like for Enterprise Legal Management: InvoiceAI Coming Soon

Posted on April 13, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Company News and Events

As technology continues to evolve, many in-house counsel and legal professionals wonder what their future with artificial intelligence (AI) looks like. Will legal AI technology replace lawyers? Will it make work easier or more complicated?

Fortunately, we already have indicators of legal AI success. It’s providing commendable results in contract lifecycle management, accelerating contract approvals by up to 70%. Now, AI is also enhancing enterprise legal management software.

InvoiceAI, the new, AI-enabled invoice review solution for enterprise legal management, is coming to Onit and SimpleLegal next month. It lets corporate legal departments leverage the power of AI to boost efficiency in invoice review drastically. When InvoiceAI does a first-pass invoice review, in-house counsel reset their activities to review only the invoices that genuinely need their attention. This frees them up to focus time on more critical, higher-value work that helps the company succeed.

The Future with Legal AI Technology for Legal Operations

More and more companies are incorporating the benefits of AI in their workflows every day. In their annual global survey on artificial intelligence, The State of AI in 2020, McKinsey & Company found that half of their respondents had adopted AI in at least one function in their organizations. The survey also found that companies were increasingly using AI as a tool for generating value, particularly in the form of revenues.

Recent research from Gartner agrees. According to Gartner, by 2023, having AI will be a substantial competitive advantage for companies, bringing a 30% increase in efficiency to document completion and contract negotiation processes via AI-enabled contract lifecycle management tools. They also predict that, by 2023, 90% of multinational global enterprises will be investing in those solutions, as will 50% of regional midsize businesses.

What do these AI advantages look like when quantified?

Onit conducted a study of its ReviewAI software to quantify the time and cost savings for its pre-signature contract review AI software. The study found that lawyers were 51.5% more productive when using ReviewAI than when working manually. The percentage of productivity increased the more proficient they became with the tool.

To illustrate this benefit, consider that a typical midsize company in the United States employs 28 lawyers and reviews 4,850 contracts annually. With ReviewAI, each of these lawyers can unlock capacity – 51.5% more – and that same team of 28 lawyers can now process 2,498 more contracts annually.

That’s the same as adding nine lawyers to the team.

A Better Way to Review Invoices

The competitive advantage that AI has brought to functions like contract lifecycle management is now coming to invoice review. With InvoiceAI, general counsel and in-house counsel will finally be able to stop wasting precious time on tedious invoicing tasks. While legal AI technology handles your first-pass review, you can focus on more important things.

Onit’s founding principle is to help lawyers more effectively practice law, and InvoiceAI is a critical new tool to make that goal a reality.

AI-enabled legal invoice review from Onit and SimpleLegal will be available in May 2021. To learn more about InvoiceAI and how AI can improve your legal invoice review, contact Onit today or email [email protected].

What to Look For in Enterprise Legal Management Software

Posted on April 8, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Enterprise Legal Management

Enterprise legal management software turboboosts legal operations and brings new levels of operational efficiency to corporate legal departments. A comprehensive solution that combines e-billing, matter management and legal service request intake into a single, streamlined platform provides a game-changing way to analyze legal spend, minimize company risk and drive process efficiency.

All these benefits are only possible, though, if you find the enterprise legal management software (ELM) that can support your corporate legal department and its unique needs. Finding ELM software that meets the following criteria will put you on the path to success.

  • Future-Proof Functionality: You don’t want your enterprise legal management software to run on a platform with limited capabilities. Look for an ELM that runs on its own business process automation and business intelligence platforms that can accommodate the department’s future technology needs for AI, contract lifecycle management and legal holds. The workflow integration between products will be native and much more robust this way, compared to multiple systems on different, poorly integrated platforms.
  • Good User Experience: You want your ELM solution to be easy to use, with a modern interface and experience that gets users up and going quickly. You also want it to be something people enjoy using. Look into your product or vendor’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) – a rating of how likely customers are to recommend a company, product or service on a scale of 0 to 10. The higher the NPS, the better.
  • Enhanced collaboration: Prioritize no-code platforms for your enterprise legal management software, as they allow you to build whatever apps you need for your corporate legal department – even if you have little or no technical expertise. For example, the Onit Nation (our customers, partners, business analysts and developers who use Onit platforms) has developed more than 5,500 Apps. These Apps do everything from automating government regulation reporting to managing trade association approval to streamlining the trademark renewal process and beyond.
  • Flat Pricing: Speaking of collaboration, consider the pricing structure for ELM solutions. You want to avoid ELM solutions that are priced based on how many people use the software. Per-user pricing limits how you can use your solution, forcing the choice between cost and collaboration. When that choice is no longer needed, you can work across business units, automate requests and increase transparency and trust.
  • System of Engagement: Traditional ELM vendors take a data collection-minded approach to managing matters and legal operations. Their technology platforms act as a system of record but are rarely used by lawyers and legal operations managers to deliver any real strategic value. Look for a vendor that offers an ELM system of engagement. This process-driven solution integrates workflow and collaboration and allows you to define the legal business processes that are critical to your organization.
  • Partner Implementation Network: While your vendor is key to a smooth implementation, so is their partner network. Your ELM provider should have an experienced and professional partner implementation network made up of strategic alliances that will ensure success across your entire enterprise.

Interested in learning more about enterprise legal management software, platforms and optimizing technologies? Check out our guide to platforms or our breakdown on driving efficiency in a post-pandemic environment.

To learn more about how ELM from Onit can transform your law department operations, contact us or schedule a demo today.

Onit Welcomes Brad Rogers as Its Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth

Posted on April 6, 2021 by - Company News and Events

Brad Rogers, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth, OnitToday, we are excited to announce that Brad Rogers has joined Onit as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Growth.

For many Onit customers, he doesn’t need an introduction. He’s very familiar with legal operations and transformation, as he most recently served as Chief Operations Officer and Chief of Staff for Advocacy and Oversight at a Fortune Global 100 company. While there, he held a leadership role in building legal operations capabilities designed to drive productivity and cost reductions.

In his new role, Brad focuses on developing, executing and sustaining corporate strategic initiatives that advance Onit’s aggressive growth trajectory and innovation. This is an area he’s well-versed in, having more than 25 years of transformation, process excellence, strategic planning and legal operations leadership experience at major multinational corporations, including Bank of America, GE and JPMorgan Chase. He also holds an MBA in Competitive Strategy and Quantitative Methods from Fordham University, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma Quality and Change Management.

Podcast: Brad Rogers Discusses What is Driving Change in Legal

In Brad’s view, the legal industry is primed for transformation, not unlike that seen in healthcare two decades ago. Leaders in law are now thinking differently about how to drive efficiency, effectiveness and value.  The transition – which was happening well before remote working – is accelerating, with new operating models that are built on what he sees as the four major drivers of change in the industry. These include technology, the rise of legal operations, the replacement cost revolution and business model innovation.

To hear more of Brad Rogers’ insights on how the industry is poised for transformation, you can listen to our podcast interview with him (see below.)  You can also read the press release announcement here.

 

NDA Automation: Get Better, Faster NDAs With the Help of Artificial Intelligence

Posted on April 1, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are some of the most commonly drafted agreements at any company. While they may be common, however, that doesn’t mean they’re unimportant – in fact, they’re critical to protecting a company’s business strategies and trade secrets.

Most companies use the same form NDA in almost every situation, changing only party names and the description of the confidential information involved, leaving the rest of the agreement to a series of standard terms. This means that, even though they’re important, NDAs are very repetitive and routine in terms of drafting.

Corporate legal departments have long been bogged down in routine contracts. Preparing NDAs can take up a significant amount of lawyers’ time, taking them away from other important work that can bring more value to the organization.

The routine nature of NDAs makes them a prime candidate for contract artificial intelligence. With the combination of AI and contracts, business users can engage in risk-free self-service to review and redline NDAs in less than two minutes. This frees up your legal staff to focus on higher-value work that helps support and grow the business.

Contract AI for NDAs and NDA Automation

AI is changing the game when it comes to routine contracts like NDAs. With AI, you can increase the speed of contract preparation and review while at the same time reducing your risk.

Onit’s ReviewAI software employs AI to quickly and accurately draft, review, redline, and edit all types of contracts, including NDAs, in a matter of minutes. ReviewAI isn’t just for those with legal training – non-legal business users can use ReviewAI to receive reviewed, redlined, and approved NDAs via email or a self-service portal in less than two minutes. This self-service option removes a huge burden from legal’s shoulders, freeing up valuable time for more complex legal matters.

For lawyers and contract professionals working on NDAs, ReviewAI offers a Word add-in that offers more hands-on functionality. The add-in automatically drafts, reviews, redlines and edits your NDAs against corporate standards. You’ve likely invested time in crafting standardized language for your NDAs and defining exactly what constitutes confidential information and how it’s to be treated. ReviewAI will learn those terms and customize them based on user feedback, making your NDA applicable to whatever scenario you’re addressing at a given moment.

ReviewAI is a game-changer because it contains NDA automation. The software empowers legal departments to review contracts 60-70% faster. It also leads to a 51.5% increase in user productivity, which is critical for making the most of your resources at a time when legal departments are under increased pressure to do more with less. With Review AI, it takes two minutes or less to review and redline a contract and also offers:

  • Contract summaries that identify a risk profile, issues, and recommendations after contract review
  • AI-assisted contract redlining that automatically generates track changes and commentary in either Word or PDF
  • Contract review templates for customizing contract review and ensuring corporate standards are being met
  • Automated alerts that use contract review templates to automatically flag key contract issues and suggest proper edits
  • Customizable clause library where you can create unique company clauses or leverage over 2,600 clauses created by legal experts
  • Enhanced navigation that helps you quickly jump to key legal concepts, clauses, and terms
  • Seamless integration with Onit’s Contract Lifecycle Management solution or third-party CLM tools

ReviewAI handles the entire pre-signature phase for NDAs. This dramatically reduces your contract lead time while decreasing your legal costs.

NDAs Made Simple

NDAs and other routine, repetitive contracts shouldn’t take attorney time and focus away from higher-value legal work. Tools that combine AI and contracts to produce NDA automation take these time-consuming tasks off your lawyers’ plates and also empower your business users to engage in self-service without increasing risk.

Contact Onit today to learn more about how ReviewAI can help with NDAs and other routine contracts.

Legal Industry News: Current News and Trends in Legal Operations, March 2021

Posted on March 31, 2021 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

Welcome to our March industry run-down, where we share with you some of the most pertinent and timely articles on legal industry news. We hope this roundup of legal industry trends provides some useful takeaways.

In today’s lineup, we share insights about how Lenovo uses AI and automation for contract management, legal technology trends from Gartner and how leaning into communications and leadership traits exhibited by women can enhance collaboration between lawyers and clients.

#1

 An AI Checklist for Every Phase of Contract Lifecycle Management

Contracts are the main source of risk and obligations for corporate legal teams, and if not managed properly, they can lead to a whole host of complications and business failures. The right contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool allows you to modernize the way you deliver legal services, automating and standardizing processes to create a single point of truth for all your contracts.

Nick Whitehouse, general manager of Onit’s AI Center of Excellence, tackles the latest in legal industry news by sharing a checklist for contract AI, covering all phases of CLM. The article includes considerations for both the pre-signature and post-signature contract management phases, including topics like the importance of pre-trained AI, how a CLM solution can turn contract data into actionable intelligence and the overall benefits of contract AI.

(Source: Lexology)

#2

Are You AI-Certified? According to Experts, You Might Want to Look Into that.

While AI solutions are often touted as the solution to human error and bias, the data underlying those tools can contain just as many biases. Problematic data means problematic results, and even potential liability.

One current initiative is trying to change all that by empowering attorneys to give their clients reliable and substantive advice about the AI tools they’re considering using. The University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society has partnered with AI Global, a nonprofit focusing on advancing responsible and ethical AI, to create a certification project for lawyers looking to help their firms implement AI tools or advise their clients about AI. The goal of the new program is to create an international framework of AI across a number of industries that is fair, ethical, and responsible, eliminating bias and privacy breaches.

(Source: ABA Journal)

#3

Five In-House Legal Tech Trends from Gartner

In recent years, automation and other technologies have emerged as the obvious solution for beleaguered legal departments that are under constant pressure to cut costs and boost efficiency. While the legal industry has historically been resistant to technology, things have slowly been changing. When the pandemic hit, legal departments shifted gears. As a result, they’ve been able to discover the many benefits of incorporating and embracing technology to achieve business outcomes.

The trend toward widespread technology adoption is only expected to continue. Gartner recently predicted five trends we should expect to see in legal tech in the coming years:

  • By 2024, 20% of generalist lawyers in corporate legal departments will be replaced by nonlawyer staff
  • By 2024, 50% of corporate legal departments’ work related to major corporate transactions will be automated
  • By 2025, corporate legal departments will triple their spending on legal technology
  • By 2025, at least 25% of corporate legal application spending will be on nonspecialist technology providers.
  • By 2025, corporate legal departments will have only captured 30% of the potential benefits of their CLM solutions

 (Source: Gartner)

#4

Look to Women to Advance Success and Collaboration in the Legal Industry

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Women’s Network of the Legal Value Network’s shined the spotlight on what makes women leaders successful and how adopting feminine leadership and communication styles can benefit law firms by advancing collaboration between lawyers and clients.

Female leadership has really risen to the occasion in the face of the pandemic’s challenges, largely because traditionally female leadership qualities – compassion, humility, and collaboration – have been what companies have needed to thrive despite uncertainty. “The qualities that make women great leaders through times of crisis are also what make them great leaders every day,” says Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient and founder of The Equality Lounge.

(Source: Legal Value Network)

#5

The Future of Contracting: CLM Automation + AI Transformation at Lenovo

Every legal department can benefit from more efficient processes. Technology is the key to making that possible. The World Commerce and Contracting Association recently held a webinar that looked at the Lenovo legal department transformation journey, highlighting how Lenovo successfully built a strategy for an effective global rollout of contract lifecycle management technology that relied heavily on AI.

Key themes of the webinar included:

  • Lenovo’s CLM evolution and transformation roadmap
  • Multi-year goals related to their contract management technology
  • Why the culture must eat change management for breakfast
  • The benefits and ROI of a single CLM platform

You can watch the entire webinar to learn how AI is driving the future here.

(Source: World Commerce and Contracting Association)

Bonus Resource: Lean Into LegalOps

Get the inside track on corporate legal and operations trends, the very best events and helpful content from the legal community by joining Lean Into LegalOps today. The online forum lets Onit customers and other members of the legal community share and learn from one another with webinars, debates, weekly catch-up calls and more.

From the CEO’s Desk: Change is Hard — Especially in Legal Services

Posted on March 31, 2021 by - Legal Operations

By Bodhala CEO & Co-Founder, Raj Goyle

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of sitting down for a conversation with Justin Kan — serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Twitch, and Silicon Valley darling — on a recent episode of Nasdaq’s hot, new World Reimagined podcast. 

Spending this time recording with Justin got me thinking about Atrium’s journey, its downfall (Justin shared a terrific self-analysis of key learnings), and how its efforts related to our mission at Bodhala. As a legal tech CEO navigating the extremely nuanced world of legal services, I wanted to share some thoughts on Atrium’s rise and fall. 

It’s no secret that the legal industry is a laggard on the technology adoption curve. 

But that’s rapidly changing.

The legal services market is a half-a-trillion dollar global industry. Like any massive market, opportunity, disruption — or transformation — is inevitable and is finally starting to take hold. And along with innovation comes investment. More money has been invested in legal technology companies in the last year than ever before — and things are just beginning to heat up. 

That’s why it’s no surprise that Justin started Atrium. He saw an obvious problem — law firms are incredibly inefficient — so he set out to create the “law firm of the future”. A hybrid of technology and technology-enabled services, Atrium would tackle inefficiency while delivering the level of service expected from top-tier lawyers. 

His history of success drew big-name investors like Andreessen Horowitz to his vision, landing Atrium $75M+ in funding by 2018. Fast forward to 2020: Atrium closed its doors for good. 

With a world-class leader, $75M in funding, and an industry seemingly “ripe” for disruption, it seemed to be “all systems go” for Atrium. So what happened? Why do some legal tech startups fail, while others succeed? 

Price Isn’t Everything

The legal services industry is a unique beast. While price is always important to some degree, it’s not as big of a determinant for corporate clients as you might think. Aptly dubbed an “old boys club,” in-house lawyers often source their law firms the same way they picked their kickball teams in elementary school — by choosing their friends (often law school buddies or old law firm colleagues).

This presents a unique barrier to entry. Moving from a relationship-driven selection process to a price-driven selection process can be a major hurdle, requiring buyers to change how they think about not only the procurement process but also the value of the service.

While Atrium’s services and its fixed-fee business model were appealing to its target market, it focused on a practice area that was already relatively commoditized. Startups never had money to burn, and law firms had long been forced to price competitively in order to win business. 

Much like investing in a startup, many firms would give “bargain-basement” rates to get in early with potentially large, long-term customers. In this particular market, there is not a lot of wiggle room to undercut on price, which forced Atrium to set rates at almost a loss in order to be truly “competitive”. Atrium hoped its margins would improve once it could automate some of the lawyers’ tasks, but maintaining a team of lawyers proved to be expensive. The more clients sought out their low-cost services, the more money Atrium lost. 

While undercutting on price is a fair strategy for new businesses to gain traction with customers, it’s not sustainable for long-term growth. When it comes to legal services, corporate clients prioritize expertise and value over the price tag. Their focus lies on finding out the level of value delivered at that price and whether or not they could find equal or better value elsewhere at a lower cost. 

But the opacity of the legal services market and the complete lack of price discovery have made this nearly impossible. That’s why data is a critical piece of the puzzle. 

Data is Key

Legal services are not a commodity product. There is a finite amount of work that is routine enough to be simplified through automation. Atrium looked to become the technology-run law firm of the future, but its maniacal focus on simplifying and commoditizing services failed to recognize the nuances of the services themselves.

When it comes to legal tasks, everything is not always what it seems. Tasks that appear similar at face value can be drastically different in execution, resulting in the “same task” taking 10 times longer to complete in one matter than in another. For example, a task performed for an M&A-related matter might require more expertise than the same task performed for a litigation-related matter, thus making it more time-consuming and expensive. Without extensive, structured legal billing data, it’s impossible to truly identify like-tasks or average time or cost.

Atrium ultimately under-priced its services because it likely didn’t have the legal billing data necessary to appropriately model the costs. As a result, the business’ prices were set so low that it could not even cover its margins. 

Pricing is complicated, but data is key to success.

Knowledge is Power

Legal billing data is a beast. Cleaning and structuring it is tough and so is building up a critical mass of data to even glean insights from. But it’s a crucial step in understanding the minutiae of legal services. Without it, you’ll succumb to the nature of the beast. 

When it comes to legal services, corporate clients prioritize value over price. However, value cannot be measured effectively without data on your side. And as we’ve learned from Atrium, data can play an influential role in determining whether a startup sinks or swims. 

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Get in touch with our team of legal billing and data experts to find out how Bodhala can transform your legal department.