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Legal Operations: Document Management, AI, Contract Management
We’ve compared its functions to Bingo and, yes, dating apps. And the love from the C-suite only continues to grow.
Now, in partnership with our friends at LegalTech Publishing, we’re pleased to bring you our brand new Legal Operations Buyer’s Guide.
Download it here to see the newest tools to benefit your legal ops team.
The LegalTech Publishing Buyer's Guides and the products and services listings below are supported by vendor sponsorships.
Legal Operations: Reviewed Products & Services
Filevine
Filevine is the leading cloud-based collaborative work solution for law firms. Powering everything from case management and document management to client communication and business analytics, Filevine’s custom and bespoke tools simplify and elevate practice management and growth.
iManage
iManage transforms how professionals in legal, accounting and financial services get work done by combining artificial intelligence, security and risk mitigation with market-leading document and email management. iManage automates routine cognitive tasks, provides powerful insights and streamlines how professionals work, while maintaining the highest level of security and governance over critical client and corporate data.
LinkSquares
LinkSquares delivers an AI-powered CLM platform for legal teams. Customers have everything they need to write better contracts, close deals faster, and understand every aspect of every contract.
For more info, visit https://linksquares.com
Legal Operations Buyer's Guide
Download the Free Legal Operations Buyer's Guide Now
Legal Operations: Additional Products & Services
- 1Doc
- 2Agree
- A1 Enterprise
- Aavenir Contractflow
- Abraxio
- Actionstep
- Anaqua
- Athennian
- Bryter
- Contract Eagle
- Contract Logix
- DocJuris
- HotDocs Ltd
- Icertis
- Ironclad
- Onit
- PandaDoc
- Pitchly
- Robin AI
- Superlegal
- Trustpoint.One
ATL Non-Eventcast:
Jared talked with Jerry Levine of ContractPodAi about contract lifecycle management.
Highlights
- Contract management software – 1:09
- Doing it for 15 years – 2:15
- A product for legal technology – 2:31
- Trying to figure out how to solve a problem – 5:03
- Making a discovery – 6:47
- A day of discovery – 7:30
- What does contract lifecycle management means – 8:22
- The three stages of the process – 11:09
- Benefits if you’re a firm – 17:57
- Working better by adopting technology – 20:53
Jared sits down with Rik Nauta, Will Reynolds, Jerry Levine and Kevin Miller to talk about using contract management software.
Highlights
- Who are the guests? – 1:19
- What do they do on Halloween? – 3:19
- Why is it important for law firms to use contract management software? – 8:07
- Once you start automating and start using contract management software, you free up time and are able to focus on other tasks. – 12:08
- Features of a Contract Management Software. – 14:03
- There’s more focus on collaborative work: Younger attorneys are more open to collaboration. – 20:35
- The biggest shift or feature that you’ll start to see is the usability of the product that you want to use. – 22:45
- The future of Contract Management Software. – 23:58
- Contracts are written for people to understand. – 30:46
Jared spoke with Vishal Sunak of LinkSquares, Colin Levy of Malbek, Daniel Barnes of Gatekeeper, and Shashank Bijapur of SpotDraft, about contract management and the risk management systems, and the best practices for lawyers and law firms.
Highlights
- Who are the guests for today’s episode? – 1:25
- The icebreaker: What scary animal encounter they’ve had? – 3:23
- What risks are involved in the risk management and contract management spaces? – 9:40
- How do you build processes and how do you implement them? – 17:56
- How can you construct, simplify, templatize, and standardize languages within the contracts? – 28:08
- What lawyers don’t know about contract management software is that they should. – 37:35
- How to get more information about the guests. – 39:19
Jared welcomes Cain Elliott of Filevine.
Highlights
- Who’s the guest today? – 1:11
- Outlaw, the contract management platform. – 1:59
- Icebreaker: Cain being a skier and a snowboarder. – 3:27
- Tips for a young man on his first skiing adventure. – 4:46
- Why did he feel it’s important to make the acquisition? – 6:16
- Things to look for in a solution. – 10:30
- The difference between how to use the product as a legal department in a large company and in an independent law firm? – 12:30
- Balancing between ad hoc needs of specific clients. – 15:05
- The next evolution that Cain sees in contract lifecycle management. – 16:22
- Can contract lifecycle management assist in the staffing crisis? – 18:08
- The most important field type that exists. – 20:00
- How to get more information about Cain Elliott, Filevine, and Outlaw. – 20:50
Contract Lifecycle Management FAQs
What is contract lifecycle management?
Commonly referred to as “CLM,” contract lifecycle management is the process of tracking and organizing all contractual elements of a business relationship — from contract negotiation and drafting to post-execution storage and analysis.
For example, CLM may start with a sales negotiation, and then include non-disclosure provisions, and then continue to grow in varied areas throughout the duration of an engagement.
What are the benefits of contract management?
The greater the sophistication of your CLM system, the greater the benefits. Even a basic system of organizing your contracts so your team can easily locate them will save tremendous amounts of time for most lawyers.
Once the contracts are organized, however, strategic approaches can unlock myriad advantages for an organization. These may include better sales efficiency, new capabilities to analyze your existing contracts, and even revenue generation.
What should a contract management plan include?
The immediate steps will vary based on each individual organization’s needs, but they should comprehensively address all aspects of your contracts: These include storage and digitization of existing contracts, template creation, compliance, automation, negotiation tools, and post-execution management and analysis.
What can the best contract management software provide?
The benefits include easily locating your documents, knowing exactly what’s in your documents, reducing exposure to risk, speeding up your sales cycle, and even helping generate revenue — for example, by flagging agreements that have expired so the business can adjust accordingly.
Ultimately, however, the best systems will go much further.
Today’s software can leverage machine learning, blockchain, and metadata to bring about transformative efficiencies in contract-related processes, allowing lawyers to focus on high-level decision-making, while law departments operate with far greater speed and ease.
29 Squares for Legal Ops Bingo
By Stephanie Corey and UpLevel Ops
It’s no secret that there’s been an explosion of interest in the legal operations field in recent years. So much so that we’ve even got our own cliches!
Here, we bring you our favorite — and not-so-favorite — phrases we often encounter, fit for a game of Legal Ops Bingo.
1. “I know our processes are inefficient, but it’s how we’ve always done it!”
“We’re a small company. We don’t need to worry about operations and technology.”
2. “We don’t have time for streamlining our processes. We’re too busy putting out fires.”
3. “Why do we need to invest in legal spend analysis when we already know we’re spending too much on legal fees?”
4. “Why hire a legal operations expert when we can just wing it?”
5. “Setting up this new system will save us a lot of time, but we’re too busy, and we don’t have the budget!”
6. “Strategic planning takes too much time. We prefer to just wing it.”
7. “If we implement an information governance policy, I won’t be able to find old emails and documents.”
8. “We have a repository, but we also save things to our desktop.”
9. “Our lawyers will only work in Word, but we want to implement a detailed metrics program.”
10. “We have legal ops. We implemented eBilling.”
11. “We don’t need an intake system. That will get in the way of relationship building.”
12. “Legal Ops professionals make how much?! But I don’t even pay my lawyers that!”
13. “But our company/department is different…”
14. “Our clients insist on white glove service.”
15. “We’ve already cleaned up our templates. They’re good enough.”
16. “Fixed fees are too complicated. We’ll just charge hourly.”
BONUS ROUND: Shouting “Bingo!” after one of these will double your prize!
1. “Low-hanging fruit”
2. “Synergy”
3. “Value-add”
4. “Best practices”
5. “Paradigm shift”
6. “Out-of-the-box thinking”
7. “Streamline”
8. “Disruptive technology”
9. “Win-win”
10. “Thought leadership”
11. “Metrics & data analytics”
12. “Process improvement”
Featured Coverage:
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Reaping The Rewards Of Contract Management Software
A deep dive into all things CLM — for law firms and law departments alike — in the latest Non-Eventcast.
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The Non-Event Industry Wrap-Up: Contract Management and Automation for Law Firms
News from the world of legal tech, featuring LinkSquares, Malbek, Conga, iManage, Spot Draft, and Gatekeeper.
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Quick Hits:
Five-Minute Reads
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‘The Bloodbath Has Begun’: In-House Counsel Face Layoffs
Those working for tech company legal departments are receiving pink slips.
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Elevating Your Teams: Tips For Effective Collaboration
To foster a collaborative environment conducive to success, you just have to communicate regularly, encourage creativity, and be open to feedback.
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Your Guide To Mastering In-House Life
You can think of this eBook as your blueprint to achieving the gold standard of in-house work.
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Searching For The Next Generation of Legal Ops Pros
With demand hitting new highs, where should law departments be looking for fantastic legal ops recruits? Sign up and join us on March 17th for the answers.
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The Road To In-House: How Do I Leverage My Contacts?
Make it easy for people to help you: be as specific as possible in outlining your ask.
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ALSPs’ Role In Legal Industry Diversity Efforts
Expanding staffing choices opens avenues for change.