Category: Artificial Intelligence

Top 5 Contract Negotiation Strategies

Posted on September 10, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Negotiation and compromise are a part of our everyday lives; whether it’s at home or a business situation. Contract negotiation is a discussion between parties with the desire to reconcile or resolve conflicting priorities in a written legal document. This can be a challenging task, especially when considering the risk or benefit of being too passive or aggressive in your discussions and how that might impact the bottom line.

Whether you’re an amateur or veteran, here are some strategies to keep in mind when negotiating your next contract:

  1. Set the Scope of Your Negotiation

It is important to be involved in setting the agenda of the negotiation. This could involve the method, forum, location, time, topics and the overall terms. By taking an active role, you can set topics of discussion that can protect and advance your interests.

  1. Understand the Counterparty

It is important to research your negotiating counterpart and consider what issues are important to them before you enter the conversation. Having more information and background allows you to predict what factors will be important and what they’ll likely ask for, so you can be prepared to respond accordingly.

  1. Identify Your Best and Worst Case Scenario

Make sure you have a clear idea of what you want from the agreement. Consider which parts of your contract are the most important to you or your company and identify what is your best or worst-case scenario. For example, ask yourself: which contract terms are non-negotiable for me? Which contract terms would be acceptable to compromise on? Highlight these legal issues in the agreement and work your way through the discussion one issue at a time. This exercise will help you prioritize your interests by keeping your eyes on the prize and avoid getting distracted by issues less important to you.

  1. Find Your Middle Ground

Prior to entering contract negotiations, you should set ambitious goals that you believe the other side will not agree to. This creates opportunities for concessions, showing the other side that you can compromise. For example, typically any first offer will be high and not realistic, so the party will expect that you will provide a counteroffer; this process may happen a few times before you find the acceptable middle ground. This exercise will allow you to make concessions that will not ultimately jeopardize your position and give you space to barter on issues of greater importance to you.

  1. Use Collaborative Language

In order to have productive contract negotiation discussions, you should see the counterparty as a collaborator rather than a villain. It’s a good idea to strike a collaborative tone and always attempt to end discussions on a positive note to maintain a professional relationship. For example, ask questions when reviewing the contract like “What’s the purpose behind this?”, “Could you explain what your intention was here?”, and “What about this alternative?” Showing your proactive efforts to work toward a constructive solution will help close the deal sooner.

Reviewing and drafting contracts take up to 70% of an in-house legal department’s time. With ever-increasing pressure to do more with less, improving contract efficiency through automation represents a significant opportunity to improve business performance. Learn how artificial intelligence can help you automate and manage a contract’s lifecycle.

8 Crucial Items for Your Employment ReviewAI Checklist

Posted on August 26, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management

Starting employment with a new company is often one of the most exciting moments in one’s career, but it’s not something that should be rushed into. One of the most important parts of this process is a careful contract review of the employment agreement, so you know where you stand from a legal perspective before any employment offer is agreed to.

A well-drafted employment agreement contract will clearly spell out the expectations of the company for the employee, and what the company owes the prospective employee to minimize any future disagreements.

Here are the top 8 things to look for when redlining an employment contract, particularly for the hiring of high-level executive or specialist positions:

  1. Compensation: A base salary is one part of the total compensation package. You also need to know if and when base salary increases occur, if bonuses are available and if there is a signing bonus. You’ll also want it to be clear in your contract review if your base salary can be reduced, and under what circumstances this can happen.
  2. Scope of Employment: In addition to the employee’s title and responsibilities, a good employment contract template should cover to what extent an employee’s responsibilities will expand or contract. For example including clearly defined terms for promotion, demotion and even potential relocation. For C-level executive hires, it should also outline if a seat on the Board of Directors is guaranteed or even allowed.
  3. Benefits: The amount of the benefits programs, and to what extent an employee can participate in them, should be clearly and definitively outlined in any employment contract template. This includes health and disability benefits, life insurance, 401(k) and stock options, vision and dental. This section of the employment contract should also outline vacation and sick leave policies, including how much can be accrued in a year or carried over. Lastly, the contract template should clearly define if any benefits are taxable to the employee, and if the employee can be reimbursed for the tax.
  4. Restraints: Look out for any restraints or limitations on your ability to engage in activities outside of the job.  These can be agreements to not compete, not solicit staff and clients or engage in other commitments either during or after the employment. Particularly look out for restraints of trades that limit what work you can do after the termination of your employment.  You don’t want to unduly impact your ability to earn a living or find another job after this one.
  5. Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property (IP) such as trade secrets, marketing strategies and business systems can be extremely valuable. Standard employment contracts usually include clauses saying any IP an employee develops during their employment is owned by the company, including whether it was created on the job, in the office, or outside their normal work hours using the company’s resources or information.
  6. Confidentiality: Employees are often trusted with access to different kinds of commercially sensitive information. Under an employment relationship, there is usually an implied relationship of trust and confidence. However, it is always best practice to clarify the obligations of an employee using a confidentiality agreement, also known as an NDA agreement, in relation to accessing, using, protecting, and disclosing the commercially sensitive information of the Business.
  7. Term, Termination and Post-employment Agreements: The employment contract needs to clearly define if the employment is for a contracted term of time or if it is “at will” employment. It also needs to define the grounds on which an employee can be fired (due to job performance, for example) or terminated “for cause,” such as for a felony conviction or breach of the employee agreement. The contract should also specify any severance packages (including so-called “Golden Parachutes”) and the conditions on which they can be given following employment.
  8. Dispute Resolution: Most employee agreements have clauses to deal with disputes between the employee and company, such as if binding arbitration is the exclusive way to deal with disputes, and what the applicable laws are to oversee such disputes.

Carefully reviewing your employment agreement before sending or signing can avoid misunderstandings that can cause disagreements or even legal action between the company and employee. Oftentimes, an experienced employment law expert will be consulted on high-profile contract negotiations. However, a great way to understand your rights and obligations is to supplement a human lawyer’s expertise with legal technology.

ReviewAI automates standard contract checks with legal template reviews, including employment agreements, saving you a significant amount of time during the contract management process. Each month we release new contract template reviews and skillsets built by subject matter experts that are specific to different industries and contract types (including employment agreements), ensuring a smooth contract review process and better employer-employee relations.

To learn more about contract automation and ReviewAI, visit here.

5 Tactics for Reading Legal Contracts

Posted on August 21, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

A contract is a collection of legally enforceable promises between two or more parties. Contracts can be full of “legalese” terminology, the rough size of a short story and intimidating to review. No matter how scary reviewing a contract can be, it is important to always understand what exactly you’re agreeing to.

Here are 5 tips you can use to learn how to read a contract:

  1. Examine the Contract

Reading a legal contract is as much about learning as understanding. There will be language that you understand at a first glance, and items that you want clarified further. Use the headings in the contract to understand the theme of the section, and the rights and responsibilities that fall under it.

As you read the contract, ask yourself if you know what each sentence means, and how it might affect you. You want to consider what happens when things go wrong.

  1. Understand What to Expect

Contracts usually start by stating parties and context — the “who” and “what.” For example, employment agreements will say that the employer will pay the employee for services.

A definitions section usually follows. This section spells out the defined meanings of words for the purpose of the contract, such as what “Effective Date” means. Definitions like “Default Event” might say something like “any event set out in section X.”

Another common contract feature is cross referencing: when one section or legal clause references another (sometimes on a completely different page of the agreement). This can make contracts hard to read, going back and forth or yo-yo-ing the scroll bar to read one section in the context of another.

  1. Make Notes

Take note of anything you aren’t sure about so you can look it up later or seek legal advice. It helps to print out a contract and use a pen or highlighter on it like you are studying for an exam. It’s a good idea to write notes or jot down questions in the white space of a contract to remember where you came across that issue.

  1. Google Some Legal Terms

Legal terms and jargon can make contracts feel impossible to understand; however, these terms can be easily googled. There are plenty of legal dictionaries available online. Some words, like “default,” mean something different in a legal context. Try googling “default meaning legal” or “default meaning contract” to get the legal definition of these words. It’s important to have a concrete understanding of what you’re agreeing to.

  1. Ask Questions

Once you are comfortable with the meanings of words and clauses, read the contract again and note any further questions or concerns you have. In particular, ask the other party whether there are any implied terms, and ask for clarification on any broad or ambiguous terms. It is important that the contract clearly state the parties’ intentions.

Bonus: Use a Legal AI Tool

Use our AI-powered contract management software, ReivewAI, to boost your confidence when reviewing your contract. Click on the defined terms or cross references in your agreement to pull out their meaning in the side bar of Word — allowing you to read your contract alongside the extra details. This helps you understand the contract better and alleviates eye strain!

How Artificial Intelligence and Automation Augment ReviewAI

Posted on August 18, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is disrupting every industry, including the traditionally paper-based legal sphere. While it’s taken time, lawyers are getting on board with the idea of ditching red pens and legal pads in favor of technology that will help them complete work more efficiently.

Reviewing and drafting contracts is manual, repetitive work that takes up to 70% of a legal department’s time. With increasing pressures on teams to do more with less, improving contract management efficiency and document consistency can be a serious cost issue. Contract automation, fueled by AI, helps teams spend more time on customer-facing tasks, improve business performance and reduce business risk.

But where do you start? AI might seem like a daunting technology to learn and integrate into your everyday work life, but in reality, it doesn’t take long to become proficient. You just need to find the right product. We recommend looking for the below items in a contract automation solution.

It Allows You to Manage Contracts in Microsoft Word

First things first. We believe that lawyers shouldn’t have to completely change the tools they use or download separate software. Lawyers primarily use Microsoft Word to review contracts, which is why we created an AI contract review solution as a Microsoft Word plugin so lawyers can edit legal documents right within the software they are already comfortable using. Got a PDF that needs to be redlined? Not an issue. Microsoft Word automatically converts PDFs into Word Documents when opened with the MS Word software.

The ReviewAI Word plugin opens on the right pane of your document and lists alerts, clauses and details that it automatically detects in your legal contract that you should pay attention to.

It Includes Contract Templates

ReviewAI ships with a range of preconfigured contract review templates to help you get started quickly, including legal document reviews in areas such as general supply, construction, employment, confidentiality, supplier agreements, due diligence, services and consulting agreements, etc.

It Offers the Ability to Customize

While legal contract templates are the easiest to use, different clients, contract values or work type might require different legal standards for you to adhere to in your contract management process; so your solution should include the ability to easily customize it to fit your needs.

Taking the time to create a playbook of reviews for different matters will allow you to use AI tools more efficiently across a greater range of work, while ensuring consistency across your team. These work similar to the pre-configured reviews, but are customized with your firm’s own standards.

It Allows You to Set up a Clause Bank

Don’t worry, you don’t need to have double majored in Computer Science to customize your own “review playbook.” One of the most important ways you can tailor your own legal contract review templates is by updating a central Clause Bank that stores your firm’s standard clauses, enabling you to draft and review contracts more efficiently with AI.

Any legal AI tool worth its salt will have out-of-the-box, pre-configured checks for different contract review use-cases across multiple industries. These contract review templates speed things up so that the legal team doesn’t have to customize their own review templates for run-of-the-mill agreements.

By using ReviewAI, you can capture new clauses while working on documents by simply highlighting the clause you want to capture, going to the Draft Tab and clicking on the “Create clause” tab. Entering relevant tags along with the clause language helps team members effortlessly find your work within the easily accessible ClauseBank available to the entire team.

If you need ideas, we provide sets of sample clauses that users can modify for their own use. In light of the global COVID-19 crisis, we have added extra sample clauses to the ClauseBank to help with your new drafting challenges. The sample clauses are pandemic tagged and include Force Majeure Delays, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan, and Pandemic Preparedness and Definitions.

It Allows You to Jump to Legal Concepts and Details

Another way that AI comes in handy is being able to easily identify legal concepts, clauses and details within clauses without having to scroll back and forth.

Your legal contract review tool should automatically flag key contract issues and suggest edits that match successful precedent legal contracts. The more you use your chosen tool, the better the alerts and suggestions the AI provides for your given industry. In the case of ReviewAI, blended natural language processing, linguistic and machine learning techniques create an AI that learns faster from far less data with higher generalized accuracy.

At the end of the day, the legal AI tool you use should standardize the way your team identifies and remedies contractual issues and improve collaboration efforts overall by widely sharing standard and fallback positions when drafting and negotiating contracts.

But don’t take our word for it …

“This technology has become an indispensable tool for everyday contract work. It has enabled greater consistency across our corporate practice area.” (Tom Maasland, MinterEllisonRuddWatts)

If you’d like to learn more about our ReviewAI legal AI tool and how it can help your legal team improve, set up a free, 30-minute demo today!

3 Things to Consider When Signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement

Posted on August 11, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management, Contract Lifecycle Management

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) establish a confidential relationship between parties who share sensitive information. A well-drafted NDA can protect sensitive information from being shared with others without your consent. Without NDAs, any information shared can be taken advantage of or publicly disclosed.

Following are some tips when creating and/or signing an NDA to ensure that you protect your best interests:

Q: What is the Scope of Confidentiality?

Make sure the purpose of the agreement is clearly understood and defined. Consider what the permitted use of information is and how long you are expected to keep it secret. Otherwise, the other party could use your information for their own benefit, or you could be expected to keep the information private for years, etc.

Q: What is the Definition of Confidentiality?

It is important to specify the kinds of information you want to protect or exclude from protection under this agreement and make sure to include that in your definition of confidentiality. If you don’t get specific, your discussions may not be legally protected or you may risk accidentally breaching the agreement.

Q: What Happens if There is a Breach of the Agreement?

Pay attention to the consequences of breaching the agreement and avoid any extreme penalties, such as liquidated damages or indemnities. Otherwise you may be facing an expensive legal bill.

Being informed empowers you to make smarter legal decisions now and in the future.

Review your next NDA agreement with ReviewAI. Try out the Confidentiality Skillset to find core issues quickly when protecting your confidential information, and further your understanding and obligations of confidentiality.

 

The NDA FAQ: Ask These 6 Questions Before Signing that Nondisclosure Agreement

Posted on July 31, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management

If you work in an office environment, chances are you’ve signed or sent a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) — perhaps without reading through all of the terms and conditions. On both sides of the equation, the importance of a well-written NDA is often overlooked. A poorly written agreement can lead to some gnarly (yet very avoidable) headaches, such as accidentally waiving your rights to sue for intellectual property infringement, costly indemnities or information leaks.

Before you pick up that pen, ask these questions about the important legal clauses in an NDA to understand your obligations of confidentiality and save yourself and/or your company future trouble.

Q: What is an NDA?

It’s important to first examine what a non-disclosure agreement is and is not. NDAs are used to protect sensitive information from being shared with others and to build trust between parties who have sensitive discussions. Without NDAs, any information shared can be taken advantage of or publicly disclosed, resulting in good ideas being stolen.

Q: What is the Purpose of the Agreement?

When you sign an NDA, you agree to share information for only a specific, stated purpose. This purpose needs to be thoroughly and clearly provided in the confidentiality agreement so that either party can easily identify incorrect usage of the information, if necessary, down the road. If the purpose(s) provided is vague, it can become a lot harder to prove or disprove that a party broke the terms of the NDA.

Q: What Information Falls under the Definition of Confidentiality?

NDAs are all about protecting confidential information, so it will be important for you and the other party to understand what kinds of information you both consider to be “confidential” and what information is excluded. State the type of information you want to protect or exclude from protection under this agreement (i.e., financial information, specific sets of data, unique processes, etc.) and include in your definition of confidentiality.

Q: What are the Remedies for Breach of Confidentiality?

The damage caused by breaching the agreement can vary by the kind of information involved and how serious the breach is. Equitable remedies — special legal help from a court — focus on preventing irreparable harm caused by the breach. It is important to state the kinds of equitable remedies you want to be able to access in case things go wrong, including specific performance, injunction and restitution.

Q: What is the Duration of Confidentiality?

Keeping a secret can be hard; keeping a secret for a long time can be even harder! This clause sets out the length of time you have to keep information confidential. It is important to know how long you need to protect information under this agreement so that you can set up business practices appropriately.

Q: What Happens When Confidential Discussions End?

What will you do with confidential information once discussions are over and the agreement has ended? What do you want the other person to do with your information? It is generally good practice to include in the agreement the obligation to return or destroy confidential information. The less information you hang onto, the less likely you are to accidentally disclose the information!

Being informed about the various legal clauses in an NDA empowers you to make smarter legal decisions now and in the future.

To learn about artificial intelligence helps you quickly draft, review, redline and edit all types of contract, visit here.

5 Areas of Law and Contract Management Becoming More Relevant in the Age of COVID-19

Posted on July 17, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management

No matter what industry you’re in, there’s no doubt that COVID-19 is changing both the way work gets done and how workers spend their time in the legal sphere — especially in the contract management arena. The pandemic has impacted the global economy, our healthcare systems, insurance claims, the prevalence of remote work and more.

Lawyers are busier than ever in this “new normal;” however, the kinds of legal contract reviews they are conducting are shifting.

Here are five practice areas that are becoming even more relevant in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Bankruptcy/Restructuring

Recent headlines have been filled with news of Chapter 11 bankruptcies, including J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, 24 Hour Fitness and many more. According to Epiq Systems Inc., Chapter 11 business bankruptcy filings increased 26% in the first half of this year, and U.S. courts recorded a total of 3,604 business filings for Chapter 11 protection, an unfortunate side effect of the pandemic. Lawyers are doing more work with debtors, creditors, equity interest holders and other entities that may be interested in a business (such as a prospective acquirer) that is confronting financial difficulties.

Health Law  

This varied area of legal practice encompasses a range of transactional and regulatory matters, including mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures for healthcare entities. Other work may include litigation concerning healthcare clients, enforcing governmental health and FDA regulations, conducting internal investigations and assisting with technology transactions, IP and data privacy. Digital health practices are constantly changing, and lawyers are keeping pace with the many legal changes that accompany the technological advances and regulatory updates the healthcare industry is experiencing during this pandemic and beyond.

Insurance

While the safety of employees and customers is on the forefront of company’s minds, mitigating financial losses that have come with COVID-19 so that they can continue to operate is another huge priority. Risk managers, in-house counsel and internal crisis management teams continue to pore over their insurance policies (i.e., first-party property insurance, cancellation insurance, etc.) to determine whether there is existing coverage to offset losses and liabilities. Legal teams are pulled into the mix when litigation is needed to resolve a dispute over coverage terms.

Employment

Lawyers in the employment arena represent companies or individuals in labor and employment disputes, draft policies and procedures, advise on union issues including unfair labor practice and discrimination charges, review employment and separation contracts, etc. Legal topics that are coming up more than ever before as the world grapples with coronavirus include issues of confidentiality, disability-related inquiries, health coverage, paid sick leave, reduction in force and more.

Privacy and Data Security  

This certainly isn’t a new area of law; the 2018 introduction of the GDPR in the European Union has affected the way companies do business globally. As both private companies and governments explore different ways to combat and prevent the spread of COVID-19, data collection and analysis of health and location information have become key tools. However, there is a balance that must be maintained between personal privacy rights and public well-being, a prime subject of newly proposed federal privacy legislation. While this legislation is being drafted, companies are taking steps to ensure that they are minimizing the collection of employee data to only what is reasonably necessary as well as utilize cybersecurity solutions to protect their employee and client data

Artificial Intelligence and Contract Management

As the M&A work, insurance disputes, employee settlements, new privacy policies, etc., pile up on lawyers’ desks, there is more pressure than ever before to be efficient and mitigate risk to the company.

That’s why more legal teams are using contract management solutions powered by legal AI to get their work done, including ReviewAI, our contract management tool.

ReviewAI is a Microsoft Word Add-in that enables lawyers to be 51.5% more productive. This contract management system provides more consistency in the contract review process by alerting the user when language and legal clauses don’t match corporate standards. Users can also leverage any of our immediately available contract review templates created by subject matter experts in areas such as employment, dispute settlement, confidentiality, data privacy and more. Learn how ReviewAI can transform your contract management lifecycle here.

8 Crucial Items for Your Procurement ReviewAI Checklist

Posted on July 1, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Management

No matter what company you work for or which industry you’re part of, procurement contract review is likely part of your daily life as a member of the legal team. Whether it’s ordering basic office supplies to keep your workplace running or more complicated like buying raw materials in bulk for multiple products, you should have a procurement process in place to make the purchasing process move smoothly.

Procurement is an important element of a company’s overall corporate strategy as it directly relates to the bottom line. Given the required collaboration between multiple departments, it’s important to have a procurement contract review checklist available to make sure the legal document’s terms are in line with corporate standards, helping avoid any delays or rejection of procurement.

Here are the top 8 things you should look for when redlining a procurement contract.

  1. Determine the level of delegated authority. Nail down who is responsible in your organization for routine purchases, who controls the acquisition of all the company’s requirements, etc.
  2. Define cost restraints. Establish the types of commitment and pre-set financial limits that staff are permitted to enter into so it’s clear for the legal team reviewing.
  3. Doublecheck the basics. It’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of the contract, but don’t forget about the nuts and bolts: parties’ names, price and dates/deadlines.
  4. Look for automatic renewals. Get familiar with the steps your company will need to take if you do not want the procurement contract to renew, and any associated penalties. If you do make the call to let the contract auto-renew, verify that the terms are favorable for your organization and are fair to both parties.
  5. Put safety and quality first. Part of your job is to ensure that only reputable suppliers are used. Make sure to include contractual obligations such as compliance with local health and safety laws and require updates regarding safety information for substances and industrial products directly in purchasing documents.
  6. Search for how changes will be processed. Requiring advance written notice for processing changes in purchase orders to the organization is always advisable.
  7. Verify the duration of the contract. Determining your corporate standards for the duration of contract is an important legal detail. Whether it be 12 months or 36 months, make sure the entire legal team is aware and on the lookout for the duration clause during the legal contract review process.
  8. Implementing a procurement contract checklist in your contract review workflow can help avoid costly mistakes. However, the best way to ensure that no stone (or legal clause) is left unturned is to supplement the human lawyer’s efforts with legal automation technology.

There are many types of contracts that are related to the procurement and supply chain world. ReviewAI now supports the following:

  • Purchase and Supply Review: Quickly check for common key issues when reviewing purchase and supply agreements such as payment terms, warranties and termination rights.
  • Statement of Work: Save time reviewing statements of work by being alerted to common issues, such as termination, liability and dispute resolution procedures.
  • Letters of Engagement: Use this review to quickly check for key issues in engagement letters, including scope of service, payment terms and warranties. In addition, the new procurement skillset automatically takes you to the key issues when engaging in procurement-focused contracts and helps you understand your contractual obligations. You can use this skillset to build reviews to evaluate your supply chain, risk exposure and contract management lifecycle.

As you start defining your internal contract review process, be sure to arm yourself with the best legal technology and knowledge to improve efficiency, decrease risk and promote effective procurement. Learn how ReviewAI can help.

How to Automate ReviewAI for Increased Legal Team Efficiency

Posted on June 24, 2020 by - Artificial Intelligence, Contract Lifecycle Management

It’s no secret that legal teams are notoriously slow in adopting new technologies like contract automation. The work is far from digitalized — most lawyers print, read and annotate hard copies of legal documents (hence the origins of the phrase “redlining contracts”) — and make their final edits within Microsoft Word as the only electronic step in the process.

Without effective contract management tools, the contract review process remains slow, requires enormous attention to detail and is prone to costly errors.

Consider the case of a junior professional reviewing a contract that requires more than a few changes.

While reviewing modifications that seem reasonable, but do not fit the corporate standards, the contract professional needs to send the revised agreement to a more senior lawyer for legal review and approval. While this is happening, the line of business manager is emailing the contract team, asking for a status update. Countless emails are sent back and forth while multiple business days are lost.

This bottleneck directly impacts a company’s ability to reach favorable contract outcomes, and ultimately impacts the bottom line.

Many new positions within legal departments are created to handle contracts and legal compliance, yet most legal departments still confront a persistent headcount shortage. Instead of continuing to hire more and more lawyers, legal departments need a new AI solution that delivers significant productivity gains, allowing lawyers to utilize their skills, experience and talent on higher-value business objectives.

Enter a Word Add-in and legal document automation software that allows lawyers to dramatically streamline many activities typical of legal work, such as redlining contracts, comparing clauses to corporate standards, and ensuring that fine details comply with corporate policy.

In a comprehensive study, Onit examined the impact of its legal AI assistant, ReviewAI, on the productivity of in-house lawyers during routine contract review and compliance activities.

The study required lawyers to review contracts across three contract types – supply, service and confidentiality – and perform five tasks – summary, analysis, comparison, repapering and drafting. Together, these tasks reflect the day-to-day activities of compliance checking, standard reviews and contract drafting, all of which are typical of the contract management role.

For each contract, participants had to validate 285 items against corporate standards as accurately and quickly as possible. The participants performed the exercise manually for half of the study, referring to the company clause bank precedents as needed. For the other half of the study, participants were required to install, learn and use ReviewAI to enable contract automation.

The impact of legal AI on the contract management lifecycle included:

  • Lawyers who were new users were 51.5% more productive when using ReviewAI than when working manually, and that productivity increased the more proficient they became with the contract management tool.
  • It took 34% less time for lawyers to perform their day-to-day work. That translates to a team of 19 lawyers being able to do the work of 28, reducing cost to process each contract from $592 to $395.50 on average.
  • The manager of the contracts team, a senior lawyer with significant legal and business experience, was able to reallocate 15% of his time to higher-value activities.

For a typical legal department, utilizing ReviewAI enables lower costs, increased knowledge retention and improved contract quality, delivering an estimated 45x multiple on the cost of the ReviewAI investment.

To see ReviewAI in action and learn more about the return on investment it can bring to your legal team, book a demo and we’ll show you the ropes.

You can also read the full-length whitepaper for more info on our study.