The year 2022 truly was a redemptive year for the world and every single individual wants to look upward from here on. Consumer demands have changed to keep up with the brand-new pace and there has been a paradigm shift in businesses. The digital space has conquered the markets and it is no different for lawyers, general counsels, law firms and the corporates. Interestingly, being paperless has become the norm now. This transformation was though very natural, but technology indeed has made the legal profession way better than before. 

Traditionally, the law firms believed in giving priority to the emotion quotient of the clients and therefore technology was evaded for long. The lawyers like to have a personal connect with the clients, so they did not welcome the digital transformation all that easily. But during the pandemic, the legal profession too had to move ahead with the social distancing challenges. A bright example is in the field of Contract Management Services. Digital transformation is not a novel concept for contract management process, but it was noticed that with technology the efficiency increased, the errors reduced drastically, and the speed enhanced by multifold, which in fact improved client relationships. The outsourcing business saw a huge boom in the contract management space as law firms and corporates could work seamlessly with their outsourcing business partners. 

What is new in 2022 for Contract Management Process?

The term “LegalTech” or legal technology is heard everywhere now. The pandemic pushed innovation and nothing, but technology could provide safe document sharing, access to files 24/7, tracking of cases at fingertips, and keeping in touch with the clients on a regular basis. Also, as every law firm or corporate had a different type of requirement, it was important to bring consistency in those practices, which was easily addressed by technology. Contract management processes were automated, which included signing of contracts, reviewing documents and tracking timelines. Many companies created contract management solution-based platforms that helped attorneys and general counsels to process voluminous documents  in record amount of time.

Why to Partner with The Legal Base?

• TLB’s skilled contract management team was particularly approached by law firms and corporates looking for partnerships to automate their contracts, which otherwise was heavily relied on getting done manually.
• Giant corporates sought assistance from TLB’s highly experienced “LegalTech” team to assist them with creating processes for themselves and for their clients too.
• Law firms based out of unique geographies contacted TLB asking for tech solutions to review contracts as their backlogs were piling up.
• Non-English-speaking countries indicated that they were not able to handle the contract documents due to shortage of staff in offices and so needed assistance in digitising their contracts by TLB’s team. This way their staff could access the documents from their homes too and the work per se did not require to have the knowledge of the language of that region.
• US and European companies and law firms approached TLB’s trained team to assist them in processing their contracts in the newest AI-driven software, which was a challenge for their in-house teams.

How did TLB address some of the contract lifecycle management challenges?

Like everyone, TLB’s teams were also caught off guard by the pandemic and lockdowns made it tough to implement things fast. However, TLB’s management strategized and made sure 

• TLB’s team quickly adapted to the newest technology and the leadership team encouraged employees to participate in “LegalTech” webinars and complete certifications related to contract management processes which put them a step ahead of others.
• The tech team and the contract lawyers at TLB created a flexible and robust structure to address challenges faced by the contract management processes including operational challenges.
• TLB used the latest and superior quality cloud services for document sharing with its clients and with its own team members and gave full access to the law firms and corporates to track their assignments real-time.
• Relationship building was given priority over costs, which in fact proved more profitable for TLB.
• TLB hired industry experts and with their help created end-to-end management of contract services. This helped clients to work with one partner and not multiple outsourcing agencies.

What do we anticipate as some of the continuing challenges?

Inconsistencies across organization is a huge drawback which needs to be addressed the soonest possible. While everyone does need a structure, but the requirements and the demands of the clients are different. The CLM works effectively in a structured way and those features need to be unanimously accepted by the law firms and the corporates.

Cost factor is another huge challenge. The more technologically advanced a platform is, the more expensive it is. The AI based platforms are even expensive. A lot of the small and mid-sized law firms step back from using these platforms unless they are assured that their profit margins are maintained.

While a lot of the law firms and corporates do want to adapt to technology, a lot of their end clients do not allow the same due to costs and data privacy issues which still has loopholes. Europe does have a strong and well established GDPR in place, but many countries including the US have yet to make these policies more effective for themselves.

TLB strives every day to make the systems better to handle the contract management processes and the clients have seen the difference. Connect with TLB’s contract management team to multiply your business opportunities.

For more details on how TLB can work with you and deliver 60 – 75% cost efficiencies , ping us –

contact@thelegalbase.com