Legal Tech

Partners signing contract online

Document Automation – Learning the Jargon

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(3 minute read)

Document automation can be a tricky concept to grasp, especially given all the jargon used by people in the field. It’s bound to be confusing when you are just getting started!

So why do you need to understand the complicated terminology? Legal technology is making strides in the legal and business worlds – in fact, according to Gartner, by 2024 it is estimated that 50% of legal work in major corporate transactions will be automated! This is especially crucial because of the impact of the pandemic. Check out how Avvoka has leveraged technology to help law firms and businesses solve challenges and drive business outcomes.

We admit – we’re guilty of using those complex terms sometimes too! So we thought that a handy glossary would help you understand document automation terms better. 

Document Automation Terminology

Jargon for total newbies:

document automation Jargon
  • Templating: This is one of the most fundamental concepts of document automation! Templating refers to the process of taking a standard precedent document and introducing automation instructions to turn it into an automated template.
  • Mass generation: Users can input information for numerous documents into an excel sheet and automatically produce large numbers of bespoke documents, saving them time and money. You can check more about how our clients have used this feature in Avvoka here.
  • Placeholders: Think of this as filler text linked to a particular question. Responding to the question inserts the answer wherever the placeholder was inserted in the document. They are basically dynamic input fields that can replace any field with interchangeable information that would typically be in square brackets (think about the parties, specific details of a particular contract).
  • Conditions: Using conditions, a user can control whether a particular word, sentence, phrase or clause is included or not in a contract. Users may answer a questionnaire item in a way that triggers the inclusion/appearance or exclusion of select conditional text. This can be game-changing to save time and avoid human errors. Also, it allows you to have a consolidated template that accounts for all different scenarios and possible standard variations of a document or contract that will be triggered depending on what is answered in the questionnaire.
    • Block condition: Affects an entire clause or paragraph and readjusts the numbering of the document.
    • In-line condition: Affects a word, sentence, or phrase within a clause.
  • Attribute: The name for a data point in a templated document. For instance, ‘Company Name’ would be a suitable attribute name for the data point that collects the answer to the ‘Please provide your company name’ question in a questionnaire. 
    • Attributes can be used where you’d like to create an input field into the document (like ‘Company Name’, the answer to which should drop the relevant company’s name into the document).
    • Attributes that only allow you to indicate a whole clause to drop in, using a condition.
  • Document management system: This is a piece of software that is used to keep track of and store e-documents, which allows the user to manage them with ease.

Jargon for the more experienced or tech-savvy:

jargon
  • Integrations: An integration is where two different subsystems are brought together to create one system. Interested in learning more about integrations? When considering what types of integrations you may come across in the document automation market, you should be looking at receiving data from one of the tools that you already use internally to fill out the questionnaires, sending completed questionnaires and the relevant data to your CRM system, or integrating with an e-signature platform like DocuSign and Adobe Sign. Check out Avvoka’s integrations!
  • Webhooks: They allow apps to communicate with each other by sending custom messages after being triggered by different events. As an API, are something that you can leverage for third party integrations. This time, instead of the middleman interface calling the document automation provider’s API, it is listening for calls or ‘notifications’ from the platform instead. Webhooks will send a message to your chosen URL based on different actions. These actions might include when a document is signed or created. This means that rather than your API interface constantly checking for every document created and its status afterwards, it is able to just wait for the notification. Typically what happens after the notification is that you might leverage the API to download the signed document, for example, after the webhook that notified you it had been signed. Webhooks are also great for integrations with tools like Slack, to send messages every time the status of a document changes. You can check this page to know more about how you can use webhooks in Avvoka.
  • API: A.K.A “Application Programming Interface”, these are the commands that two systems use to interact with one another. APIs allow software to interact and push or pull information to/from other databases or software. This might mean you can add users, create documents, or download documents without having to access the application itself. What’s important is that some software systems APIs are more extensive than others and will allow you to achieve more, so it’s important to look at what functions the API actually allows to ensure that it meets your integration needs. Learn more about Avvoka’s API here.
  • Operations: A complex input field that generates an answer by making calculations or converting the data into other answer forms. With operations you can take your templates to the next level, applying complex logic to any data in the template. At Avvoka we’ve introduced new and more advanced operations to bring your templates to the next level. Using operations you can limit the number of questions that you’re asking the user. Say for example you know that the first payment date is on the 5th of December, well we can use the dependent list operation to find each subsequent payment month. Or if you have a single template for multiple regions, you can use operations to make sure that the formatting complies with the jurisdiction that the end-user is in.
  • Repapering: The process of adapting client contracts after execution to account for an ever-changing regulatory environment. Have you checked out Avvoka’s SmartRepapering solution yet? With Avvoka’s SmartRepapering you can automate your document repapering with Avvoka’s end to end SmartRepapering solution. Transform your manual repapering process from a slow and costly activity that takes you weeks to one that can be completed in the click of a button.  Get started by extracting data from historic contracts including the clauses that need to be repapered using AI, then automatically generate new contracts in Avvoka, negotiate and e-sign them before storing them in your document management system.  Some repapering use cases can include
  • Data Protection Legislation
  • LIBOR
  • US Legislative Changes
  • MIFID II
  • CCPA

As automation software extends its presence across various industries, its terminology use will continue to become more widespread. But don’t worry with this introductory glossary you are now prepared to get into the world of document automation with confidence!

Now that you’ve understood the basic terms, why not give it a go yourself? Sign up for an Avvoka Academy 1.0 to try your hand at automating!

If you want to find out how you can get started with document automation, check out The Ultimate Guide: Document Automation 2022 – Our very own e-book where we provide expert legal tech advice about everything you will need to know and learn.

Read more from Avvoka: 

By:  Raam Jeganathan and Macarena Valenzuela
3333449

Avvoka snapshots: Could automation help mitigate some of the fallout from significant changes to the gig economy?

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(3 minute read)

In this post we will discuss:

1. What is the ‘gig’ economy?

The gig economy is the colloquial name for the labour market in which workers are not classed as employees, but as freelancers, moving from ‘gig’ to ‘gig’. These jobs are also characterised by their flexibility – people who work as drivers on ride-sharing apps, couriers, or delivery drivers for example would be classed as ‘gig’ workers, and we have about 5-million of them in the UK.

The concept of the gig economy has also become a hotly debated topic in the labour market – whilst some argue that it allows significant freedoms such as flexibility to work when you want, others maintain that it restricts workers from enjoying benefits like holiday pay or National Minimum Wage (NMW) (benefits typically only available to workers officially classed as employees).

Gig Economy

2. How and why is it changing?

Due to a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in March 2021, drivers on a particularly popular ride-sharing app were deemed to be ‘employees’, and therefore entitled to benefits such as holiday pay and NMW.

This marks a significant change to the concept of the gig economy, as the reality of the relationship between worker and employer was deemed to not be characteristic of contractor work. Big changes following scrutiny over the changing relationship between employers, employees and those deemed ‘self-employed’ have also been making waves in the regulatory world.

Employees

3. Why should I care?

The repercussions of such a ruling are many, but two of which are especially pertinent are to do with the strain that businesses could be under given the need to urgently revisit the status of their workforce: 

  1. It becomes a ‘test case’ for future rulings in lower courts – therefore creating pressure for thousands of companies to follow suit, and if so:
  2. It creates a burden for companies to produce and process new pieces of legal documentation for their new employees, all of which need to be created under time pressure and at scale.
Gig economy

4. What is document automation and how can it help?

Document automation is the process by which documents (for example, legal contracts) are made into questionnaires or forms that allow them to be assembled dynamically in a variety of different ways. For example, contracts can have clauses swapped in and out at the click of a button, meaning that drafting them becomes quicker, easier, and less risky for busy non-legal staff. Tools like this are therefore very well placed to help generate these agreements en-masse, from the most complex employment contract to the shortest addendum. 

Though unfortunately many private sector companies may opt to end the relationship they have with some contractors, more will need the means to quickly and easily generate the necessary agreements to manage their workforce in a whole new manner.

As a result of automation, companies who were previously reticent to solidify their relationship with their employees for fear of the massive logistic burden can now efficiently manage the creation, signing and storage of these new documents in an easily-accessible online portal with a super intuitive interface. 

Contracts

Document automation tools are exceptionally well placed to help mass-generate employment contracts and their connected agreements – we are here to help with all the new employment relationships that will be formed in the wake of these changes.

How does mass generation work in Avvoka? Firstly, users can download their Avvoka questionnaires as Excel spreadsheets. Once the Excel file questions have been answered using the information required to draft your batch of differentiated documents, the Excel file can then be re-uploaded to the platform. Once the Excel file has been processed, Avvoka will now have your 10s, 100s or 1000s of bespoke agreements automatically drafted and stored, based on the information contained within the Excel file. Read more about mass-generation here.

Some of the more general benefits of creating agreements en-masse include:

  • The time-saving domino effect: Given that Avvoka can generate hundreds of documents in minutes, your team will inevitably end up with more time. Teams with more time can work on complex and high-value tasks, and more high-impact work empowers employees to add more value to clients, instead of manually creating variants of the same document for hours on end. It’s a time-saving domino effect!
  • Use instant updates to change information: If the deal information changes across dozens of documents, your team can amend a centralised spreadsheet and re-generate the desired agreements in a fraction of the time it would have taken had it been done manually.
  • Organise and analyse your mass-generated documents: Generating multiple variants of the same document creates a rich, structured set of data from which you can glean seriously valuable insights. If they are being negotiated, why not run our Heatmap feature to see a graphic report detailing where you’re facing pushback? It’s never been easier to get the best insights from your contracts!
Automation

Want to find out more about document automation? Then check out our ultimate guide, which contains everything you need to know about document automation, planning and executing a document automation project, and how document automation can help your business work more efficiently and get to “yes” faster. 

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Krishna Swaminathan​
4470588

Avvoka’s Guide to Contract Playbooks

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(3 minute read)

As the pandemic accelerated the adoption of legal technology, the focus shifted from when law firms should adopt such tools to how they should be used. An intriguing and brilliant method that we have seen our clients deploy is the use of contract playbooks.

In this blog post we review :

With remote working likely to be a permanent fixture of employment moving forward, helping employees efficiently manage contracts has become a business priority. Contract playbooks use the existing technology infrastructure of an organisation to improve the execution of contracts, whilst saving time and developing employees. Previous blog posts have reviewed some of the success stories of our clients, how they have made the most of document automation during the pandemic and how they’ve achieved superb ROI through using Avvoka.  This week’s blog post will follow a similar line, deconstructing contract playbooks and provoking a discussion around why and how you should apply them to your organisation.

negotiation

Definition

A contract playbook is a comprehensive guide for a particular contract. It provides the user with the overall strategy for executing the document, including how to approach the negotiation and markup of a contract to protect the organization’s commercial interests. 

Common elements include a malleable precedent containing a number of alternative drafting options, or fall-back positions, for the most common points of contentious wording; drafting advice for the negotiator to understand which alternative wording should be used in any given situation; and ‘workflow’ instructions for any necessary approvals from senior stakeholders.

contract playbooks

Is it worth creating one?

In short, absolutely! A contract playbook saves time when it comes to training the user and reviewing the contract. Instead, it sets the foundation for the organisation to achieve better, more consistent commercial outcomes in negotiations. The user knows what to do in each contractual negotiation (on granular per clause level), and the negotiation data from the subsequent negotiation can be utilised by staff responsible for contract maintenance. Importantly, the user can develop professionally by having an excellent resource at hand. The user will be more confident to negotiate independently, thus making them a better negotiator in the long run.

In addition, a contract playbook helps to “democratise” the management of contracts, particularly for in-house business units like the HR or Sales departments. Instead of always seeking the help of the Legal department, individuals in these business units can comfortably manage the execution of a contract on their own, which improves efficiency for the organisation as a whole.

The challenges that emerge when setting up a playbook stem from the use of data: firstly, around capturing it, and secondly, the extent to which it should be used. Data from negotiations via Word and email needs to be captured to refine future negotiation strategy. This way, staff responsible for contract maintenance can constantly iterate upon and improve contracts’ contents. This accelerates contract negotiations and achieves better final negotiated positions. Nonetheless, utilising all of this negotiation data would create an excessively detailed contract playbook. The playbook needs to guide the user, not eliminate the need for exercising intuition; its purpose is to help the organisation and the development of the user, as mentioned earlier. One of the advantages of negotiating contracts with Avvoka, is not only an improved experience in negotiation but also that all that data is captured and can be analysed with our analytics tool. This makes the process of creating contract playbooks easier and accurate.

Contract drafting

How do I create a contract playbook?

Having worked with our customers to create their own contract playbook, we thought it would be helpful to share our best practices so you know how to approach creating one too!

Keep it simple

The key purpose of a contract playbook is to make the negotiation of a contract efficient. This can only be achieved if the user is accessing a simple guide with clear instructions. Overloading it with information will result in conflicting drafting and negotiation instructions, which undermines the purpose of the playbook and the fact it will be regularly updated. This is imperative, particularly where the playbook is used by non-legal business users or those without a legal background.

Focus on what matters to you

Achieving better commercial outcomes is at the heart of a playbook. Therefore, it needs to focus on the results that the organisation, and business unit in question, would like to achieve. For example, take a user in the HR team. The user will need to execute new hires, notably lateral executive hires, which is an obvious priority of the business unit. However, the user might want to specialize in managing intern or graduate hires too, thus the playbook for “new joiner” contracts should incorporate specialist advice around this matter too. Remember, the playbook needs to achieve better commercial outcomes, but it should also aid the professional development of the user! How do you ensure this happens? Get everyone involved when establishing and updating your playbook (we’ll cover this in more detail shortly).

Data, data, data

In today’s world underpinned by technology, data is gold. The perfect contract playbook uses data-driven instructions to guide the user through the negotiation of a contract. Therefore, it is critical that users have a way to capture and learn from that data, especially data that is unique to an individual or related suite of contracts.

  • At Avvoka, lessons from previous negotiations can be learned using Avvoka’s Clause Heatmaps. This feature uses negotiation data accumulated on Avvoka to show a visual representation of which contract clauses are marked up most by counterparties, using a traffic light colour system. Staff responsible for maintaining and updating the standard contracts can easily spot contract wording that is problematic, and revise it whilst also adding simple drafting advice and options.
  • Furthermore, using such data means the contract playbook can feed into future technological advancements within your organisation. For example, if you introduce the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to negotiate simple contracts, a contract playbook provides a fantastic, foundational set of instructions for the AI tool to use and learn from. 
signing contract

Iterate

A contract playbook will be a perfect product, but it is never the finished product. As negotiations continue and achieve better commercial outcomes, there will be new areas of pushback. Subsequently, the staff responsible for contract maintenance need to keep their finger on the pulse so they can understand the new pushback to update drafting advice and options. 

Two solutions are detailed key performance indicators (KPIs) and quarterly reviews about each contract playbook.

  • KPIs: This doesn’t mean a specific set of KPIs around the contract playbooks. Each business unit as a whole will have their KPIs, and each KPI will cover an individual or suite of contracts. By adding contract playbooks as a method of monitoring the relevant KPI, these will be reviewed on a regular basis and updated to meet the necessary targets to achieve the KPI.
  • Quarterly review: Setting a quarterly review will ensure timely updates to the contract playbook. The time period is enough to capture the data on how contracts have fared since the deployment of the current version of a contract playbook; however, it avoids excessively tinkering with the playbook such that its purpose is undermined.

If you want to find out how you can get started with document automation, check out The Ultimate Guide: Document Automation 2022 – Our very own e-book where we provide expert legal tech advice about everything you will need to know and learn.

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Raam Jeganathan
tech adoption

Document Automation: Key tips for a successful adoption

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(4 minute read)

Our last few blog posts have been exploring the implementation phase of your document automation journey. This article is the final one of the implementation series, and it focuses on a major topic for all technology solutions: adoption.

Adoption is probably one of the most demanding and vital parts of implementing technology, let alone legal technology. Many projects will fail if they cannot achieve adoption within the organisation. If the new tech is shelved and underutilised, the company will never see the benefits of the product. Many people can be resistant to change when a novel way of doing things is proposed, especially if there is a steep learning curve involved. But don’t worry! We have compiled a comprehensive list of the best practices to assist you that we have seen countless clients adopt over the years.

The best practices that we will review will help ensure that users feel engaged and comfortable with their new document automation software. Most importantly, it will allow your new document automation solution to unleash its full potential. 

Below you can find our top ten tips for adoption:

  1. Interoperability;
  2. Training,
  3. End-User;
  4. Content;
  5. Network of Champions;
  6. Success Criteria;
  7. Clear Objectives;
  8. Metrics,
  9. Rewards;
  10. Obstacle Resolution

1. Interoperability

You need to ask two very important questions about your new software.

Does your new software integrate with other tools or programs in your current technology stack? 

Does your new software integrate with CRM tools or other document management facilities? 

Adoption of technology can substantially increase if the new solution can be incorporated into existing tools. As we mentioned in one of our previous blog posts, when considering the different types of integrations you may come across in the document automation market, you should be looking at receiving data from one of the tools that you already use internally. This tool could be used to fill out the questionnaires; or send completed questionnaires and the relevant data to your CRM system (like Salesforce), document management systems like iManage; or sign the document remotely with an e-signature platform like DocuSign and Adobe Sign. We recommend that you check out the different integrations we offer at Avvoka that allow you to integrate Avvoka into your existing internal stack. 

different integrations

2. Training is paramount

Getting familiar with the product is vital for your software adoption strategy. This statement is also true for document automation. A successful training programme will usually introduce the new tool to different units of the business in stages. Sessions should follow the typical user journey you would like your colleagues to adopt (hands-on webinars, workshops and online ‘classrooms’ are great options).

For example, at Avvoka we offer automation training for our clients. One key differentiator is that our platform is intuitive and easy to learn, so there is a low barrier of entry, and the knowledge can be democratised and easily scaled within the organisation. With just one hour of training, most users will be able to grasp the document automation essentials. You can experience this yourself with the Avvoka Academy, our free automation workshops which are open for anyone that wants to learn how to automate a document!

Training

3. Keep your end-user in mind

Early sessions with different practice groups, business users or departments will make it easier to achieve a smoother transition. When users feel they have been included from the start of a project they are relevant to, the organisation is rewarded in the long run.

end user

4. Content is key

Create helpful guidance materials for your users. Using various forms of media helps to engage a broad variety of different learners. In our experience, summarised “one-pagers” and instructional videos with voiceovers work best. At Avvoka, we have a wide range of training materials to help with the onboarding process. We have catered our content for both our Avvoka Academy attendees as well as our clients.

Legal education

5. Build a network of champions

These people will act as your “super-users” in various parts of the business. Ensuring that different units of the business have specialists who are well versed with the new software creates an environment where users can confidently use the software backed with a strong support system

6. Establish your success criteria

Have clear KPIs to measure the success of your new product. For example, how much faster does the new software compare to your manual process? If these performance indicators are not recorded in advance, it will be impossible to assess the performance of your new product and hence the value it is supposed to bring to the organisation.

Benchmarks and comparisons serve as hard evidence that will inspire other people within your business to adopt the new software you’ve chosen. Success brings success!

success criteria

7. Set clear objectives and milestones

We all get caught up with day-to-day tasks. We recommend that you set practical but firm deadlines which force your users to put time aside and try something other than their typical daily tasks. Setting effective targets is essential in a pilot or proof-of-concept process. Your colleagues need to get familiar with the new product and start adopting it in their usual workflow.

The stress of delivering other projects often frustrates the testing and adoption of new technology. But if you send out early emails and hold briefing calls/meetings to educate people on the project and timelines, your project will be more likely to succeed.

team and deadlines

8. Metrics and follow-up

Metrics offer a good insight into your project’s progress and serve as a backbone to your business case. Does your software have a “dashboard” to view who is using the software and who is not logging in at all or engaging with it? Tracking engagement is not a finger-pointing exercise, but it is a way for you to spot and train people who may be lagging behind. In our experience, follow-up sessions or drop-in clinics allow users who may not have had the best experience initially to get a better grip with the technology in a reliable environment.

Metrics and KPIS

9. Everybody loves rewards

Generally, adopters of a product with great user experience will become advocates of the same. We recommend rewarding these early adopters to incentivise those that have not had a shot yet. Company or business-unit wide “shout-outs”, greater responsibility, or even “hall-of-fame” programmes that visibly reward those using the new tools and showcasing their personal wins are great approaches to incentivise users to continue using new tech.

rewards

10. Be ready to resolve any obstacles

Like all organisations, conflicts and blockers often arise. Barriers to adoption must be resolved early, during the proof-of-concept or feedback phase. Will resistant users require more targeted and personalised training? Would it be worth checking in with users in different business units at regular intervals? Who needs to be reassured, convinced, or involved? These are critical questions that need to be addressed regularly to ensure that the adoption of any new tool is optimised.

resolve obstacles

Continuous improvement

Once you’ve launched your chosen software and ensured adoption, you will probably wonder what is next and how to keep it all going. Below are three expert tips that will guarantee that you regularly improve, hone, and tweak your process to assure you get the most out of what you’ve invested: 

document automation continuous improvement
  • Keep your finger on the pulse: Periodic catch-ups, webinars and check-ins, especially with end-users and their direct managers are essential to keep up-to-date with how stakeholders feel about the new product. Being alert will help you evaluate any bottlenecks or gaps in understanding and deciding whether any revisions to the current process is needed. 
  • Stay in touch with updates: Technology evolves quickly. By staying up to date with the latest trends and software updates, you can continue to evaluate the company’s needs against what the tool provides. 
  • Implement and iterate: Once you have completed the previous steps, you should have a clearer understanding of how your team feels about the tool you have implemented. Through the strategic deployment of changes to your process, and identifying any blocks or bottlenecks, you will find the perfect fit for continuous improvement. It is also important to keep iterating and adapting your process to suit your business’ shifting needs. 

Interested to know more about document automation? Then check out our ultimate guide, which contains everything you need to know about document automation, planning and executing a document automation project, and how document automation can help your business work more efficiently and get to “yes” faster. 

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Macarena Valenzuela
rising trends in legaltech

Technology: Breaking down how to select the perfect Document Automation solution

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(2 minute read)

The legal tech landscape and document automation

Legal tech encompasses many different types of technology. There are technologies that can automate contracts, manage entire suites of documents, act as a knowledge repository and do a whole host of other things! Narrowing in on document automation, there are tools that solely focus on document automation, and tools that make document automation a part of their overall offering, often pushing another capability as the overall product’s unique selling point.

In this post we will review :

What do I need to ask?

When picking a technology, it is difficult to choose one due to the sheer number of technologies available. We have a set of questions you should consider when procuring a new tool:

The most important questions

  • How easy is it to automate my document? This is the most critical question you should be asking. Most platforms you see will tell you that the automation is ‘easy’ or ‘no-code’ – but both terms can be a bit deceiving. The easier the tool is to use, the quicker and easier it is for people to learn how to automate. Therefore, the more documents you will end up automating. As such, a live demo or even a free trial are optimal methods to try and get as hands-on as possible with the technology; and if a company are willing to offer this, it’s a sign that their tool could be the right one for you as they are confident in delivering the value proposition.
  • Costs – Ask whether there be additional costs such as customer support, custom development or server maintenance fees. It is also important to note the technology’s pricing model. If you want to use the tool for the long haul, discounting by user group size is a key consideration.
  • Hosting – Ask if your document automation tool will be hosted by your provider in the cloud or whether the vendor will be making an on-premise installation. This is a notable security concern in the age of data that we currently find ourselves in!
Technology questions

Custom questions

  • Features – all tools will have different feature sets, but there are a few key ones to look out for you will probably need on your automation journey:
    • Loops – ability to dynamically add more answers to a question. E.g. Please add the name of the directors.
    • Formatting – custom numbering styles, tables, headers and footers, and so on!
  • Integrations – it’s vital that the document automation software you select can integrate into your existing processes. This saves time and efficiency, making it easier to add the new technology to your existing methods of working. Check if the tool has a modern API, and ask for examples of integrations that have been already done. Common ones include pre-populating a questionnaire from another system or taking data out from signed documents.
Metrics and KPIS

Self-serving your automation

You need to ask who will be automating your documents. You have two fundamental choices:

  1. outsource it (to the tech vendor, or a consultant); or 
  2. learn to do the automation yourself. 

Outsourcing

Outsourcing offers a quick initial setup as the external contractor will already know how to use their automation tool of choice. Therefore, they could start automating documents as soon as you have prepared the document for automation. However, there are a few downsides.

Outsourcing can be very expensive with day rates reaching £1,000 per day. In addition, it can be very time consuming to make small adjustments to the automation. If you want to make a quick change to the automation at short notice, you will have to join the queue for automation to be done. This is before considering the additional cost.

Learning to automate

Conversely, learning to self-serve your contracts has multiple positives. It is cost-efficient as after you have the licences and the know-how to automate, you can add as many templates as you want, for the same price. Moreover, the knowledge of how the document was automated is retained within your organisation, which means it can be very quick to make changes.

Negatives

There are some drawbacks to consider, but these are quickly overcome with time and experience of self-automating. Automation takes time to learn. Even the most intuitive tools will take a couple of hours to understand. Hence, there will be slower initial results.

Recommended approach

In our experience, we think there is no doubt that learning how to automate yourself is the best way to go. You will save money, quickly apply changes, and be able to spread the knowledge across your organisation. Self-serving documents puts them in the hands of those who know them best!

Contract automation technology

Interested to know more about document automation? Then check out our ultimate guide, which contains everything you need to know about document automation, planning and executing a document automation project, and how document automation can help your business work more efficiently and get to “yes” faster. 

Read more from Avvoka: 

By:  Raam Jeganathan
legaltech leaders Interview Series (1)

LegalTech Leaders: The Art of the Possible and Legal Education

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(4 minute read)

Interview with Dr. Anna Donovan

“The art of the possible”: What does our transforming legal services ecosystem mean for our existing legal education system and regulatory frameworks?

Keywords: students, law, technology, blockchain, legal, innovation, education, legal education, community, transformation, AI

Dr. Anna Donovan:

Anna Donovan

Dr. Anna Donovan is a law tech education pioneer and a lawyer admitted in both England & Wales and New York. Since 2014, her work lecturing at UCL and revolutionising legal education for the 21st century has earned her UCL Laws’ Excellence Award for Legal Teaching in 2015, 2017 and 2018, the UCL Provost’s Education Award in 2018 and the UCL Education Award in 2020. Anna is also firmly embedded at the bleeding edge of the legal tech ecosystem as a panel member of LawtechUK, a co-founder of UCL Art Futures, and a fellow at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies. She has also recently published her new book, Reconceptualising Corporate Compliance, Responsibility, Freedom and the Law.

We caught up with Anna to talk about the contemporary disruption of the legal services ecosystem through technologies such as blockchain, AI and no-code automation tools, as well as the role that education and regulation should play during this exciting transformation.

Let’s end the debate; what is the difference between LawTech and LegalTech?

Lawtech and Legaltech

Great first question! Whilst a historic distinction, the two terms are now broadly synonymous, LawtechUK defines lawtech as the technology used in law and the delivery of legal and court services. It spans a spectrum of applications and possibilities, including handling and resolving disputes, contract creation, management and analysis, regulatory compliance, paperless trade, digital documents and e-signing, process automation, research and information, marketplaces and advice facilitation, matter and practice management, risk management and predictive intelligence.

I. Changing the mindset: Transforming the legal ecosystem through legal education

Legal Education

Do law schools adequately prepare students for legal practice and the increasing influence of technology? Should preparing students for the realities of tech-enabled legal practice be universities’ responsibility?

We should first acknowledge that law school in the UK is slightly different from other jurisdictions, such as the US, which have a greater (although by no means exclusive) practical focus. In the UK, those studying for a law degree do not always go on to practice law and a key responsibility of a law faculty is to help a student to develop a particular kind of thinking, rather than prepare them for practice per se. 

In particular, a key concern of a legal educator should be to encourage rigorous critical thinking, analytical skills, and a curiosity about the big questions that law raises. Considering this, it is too strong to say it’s the sole responsibility of a law school to prepare students for applying technology in practice. 

However, lawtech has a truly transformative potential. Not just for the delivery of legal services but how we think about law. It can, and is, transforming how we can meet society’s needs, be that for individuals or the business community. In this way, lawtech raises a considerable number of interesting, challenging and increasingly pressing questions that are absolutely right for academic inquiry. Questions that range from regulatory theory and design to corporate governance and the application of property rights and contract law. My personal opinion is that this raises an important opportunity for universities to introduce lawtech into their curriculums (as some are now starting to do) so that students, who are our lawyers, academics and policy makers of tomorrow, can think deeply about these questions. 

The exciting opportunity for legal education is that there are numerous ways to introduce these debates on lawtech. At the moment, we tend to see discrete lawtech or innovation modules being offered, although an increasing number of innovative initiatives are continuing to emerge.  However, there is great potential to integrate lawtech debates as part of core modules (such as exploring within a company law module the questions that decentralised autonomous organisations give rise to).  In this way, we can encourage analysis which recognises that lawtech is not simply an adjunct to traditional legal disciplines but something that needs to be considered within them.

How have you managed to integrate technology and innovation in the curriculum at UCL?

At UCL, we have developed a number of initiatives to help our students learn more about lawtech, and to be curious about what broader questions of legal innovation look like.  For example, we developed a “Law, Innovation and Public Policy” (LIPP) module as well as offering our students various extracurricular activities about lawtech, such as our Laws Perspectives course on legal innovation.

The title of “Law, Innovation and Public Policy” was very deliberate. Drawing on our earlier discussion, lawtech and innovation are not simply issues concerned with the automation of legal practice, but they raise deeply important policy questions. As such, we need to support our students to develop as critical thinkers who recognise the interconnectedness of these questions, as well as the opportunities and challenges that they present. We need people who are acutely aware of, and deeply passionate about, the role of law in society to support innovation and also to protect against some of the risks that might emerge. To help with this objective, the module was structured in a very specific way – to reflect the need for rigorous theoretical understanding as well as an appreciation of how these questions can arise in practice – to recognise where tensions and opportunities might emerge. Therefore, the module was split into two parts, the first addressing substantive issues of law and theory, with the second seeing the students develop their own projects, supported by mentors from practice. 

We also have a number of extracurricular activities to help students that are interested in lawtech and innovation. This year, we launched a final year course as part of our “Laws Perspectives” programme, which explores innovation in legal services. Much like LIPP, it focuses on the innovation mindset, of developing a curiosity about innovation, rooted in the core objectives of the law and legal services. For example, if a goal of legal practice is protecting societal, business and individual interests how can we think differently to realise this objective in a more effective, accessible and efficient way? Achieving this goal often requires a different mindset to just saying “this is the way we’ve always structured contracts, how can we make the process a little bit cheaper or faster?” It requires a new way of looking at legal delivery and design, who we collaborate with and how we structure legal matters. It is an exciting transformation in the way we approach legal services, and it is important to help prepare our students for these opportunities.

At UCL, we are also a member of the global community Legal Hackers, which was initially born out of Brooklyn law school, to become a global movement. The initiative is comprised of both student and non-student members, bringing together people who share an open-source mentality of looking at what’s going on in the world and working out how we can contribute. Legal Hackers ask themselves how they can come together, share information, and move to action. It’s been great having the students join this global community. Open-source thinking is something that I believe is imperative to embed as a norm at the education stage, namely encouraging students to think in a community-based way, so that this is an approach that they can take forward into their careers. Aside from its immediate benefits, this mindset contributes significantly to the resilience our students need in a changing and dynamic legal practice environment.

Problem solving

What parts of the technology and innovation law curriculum at UCL tend to stick most with students?

Two things stand out. First, our students have been very quick to embrace the community-based and open mindset I was talking about earlier. They immediately recognise the intrinsic (and extrinsic) value of collaborating in an interdisciplinary and very genuine way, of true collaboration. I think they realise not only the potential that this brings for innovation but also for the quality of their own experience at work, in whatever field they decide to pursue.

Secondly, we have also seen how keen our students are to explore the art of the possible in legal services vocations. Many people with an interest in law thought they could only become a solicitor or a barrister, and that was it. Certainly, when I graduated, this was the fairly binary choice. We now have people building new firms, exploring (and creating) new markets, and developing their own path.  That’s tremendously exciting to see and be a part of. 

By thinking in these new ways, students discover that there is actually this wonderful open space for them to explore now. There are all of these different roles from legal engineer and legal designer to entrepreneur. There are so many opportunities to be supported through that journey and we help give students the confidence to explore that. This is one of the reasons we are so excited to be a partner at the Barclays Lawtech Eagle Lab, not only is it great to be involved in such an important initiative for the sector but it helps to show our students what is possible in this space.

Our students recognise that the UK is a global leader in the sector and if we are going to continue to create exciting jobs and do important work it is essential that we come together as a community. As trite as it is to say, for our studentsit’s not just thinking outside the box; it’s recognising that there doesn’t have to be one. That’s how transformative lawtech can be. If we adopt the right mindset then we can truly transform the delivery of legal services. This is what makes it such an exciting time for the sector.

What is LawWithoutWalls (LWOW), how are you involved with it and what makes it special?

For those who don’t know about it, LawWithoutWalls (LWOW) is an initiative developed by the University of Miami. It’s a programme designed to bring together students from the leading law and business schools around the world to think about the challenges and opportunities that exist at the intersection of law and technology. 

I was actually a participant on the first year of the LWOW programme after I left practice. I’m qualified in both New York and England & Wales, so I have always had an interest in international legal practice. LWOW is a global programme focused on innovation, technology and making a difference so it was a perfect fit for me.

LWOW

LWOW brings together groups of students supported by mentors (from academia, industry, and practice) to work for three months to develop a solution to a challenge or opportunity often arising at the intersection of law and practice. These projects span a wide range of issues from legal education and industry challenges to social enterprises. Every year it is incredible to see what the teams come up with in such a short period of time.  The teams usually comprise of four students, supported by a similar number of mentors.  At the start of the programme each team is given a broad project that they have to narrow down and develop a viable solution to. When the students present their projects at the end of the program, I never cease to be amazed at what they come up with. If you bring people together who have a common goal, an open mind and support them with the right network of people, the ideas that they generate are incredible.

One of the interesting aspects of LWOW is that sometimes there are teams that have similar or even the same topic.  However, the way that each team approaches the problem and the solutions they create are completely different. Over the years, we have seen such a wide range of projects on LWOW. We’ve had projects looking at helping the immigration crisis, redesigning law schools and creating legal chatbots to support the delivery of in-house legal functions. It’s just such a unique opportunity for students to explore their curiosity and develop a broad range of skills. They learn how to work in a multidisciplinary team, how to work across jurisdictions and how to undertake thoughtful and rigorous research. It really is a valuable model for collaboration. 

As you can imagine, it is a very competitive process to be accepted into LWOW at UCL. Those that are successful experience an incredible journey both in terms of their skills but also the contributions that they want to make to the sector. It’s a unique learning opportunity and a brilliant network of people. It’s been running for over ten years now, and it’s wonderful to see the community grow, with people returning year after year. Amongst the mentors, we often talk, collaborate and think about the ways that we can make a difference outside of LWOW.

II. Frontier Technologies

You’re internationally renowned as a leading authority on the intersection of blockchain and the law. What key emerging trends do you see in that intersection?

You will no doubt have seen that the UK has taken several critical steps in supporting the widespread adoption of DLTs.  For example, the UKJT’s Legal Statement provided important certainty on the legal status of cryptoassets and smart contracts.  The UKJT has also recently published its digital dispute resolution rules. In addition, the Law Commission is undertaking two important projects on smart contracts and digital assets.  

This increased legal certainty has been complemented by efforts to provide greater technical certainty and capabilities.  For example, the UK Legal Schema that was developed within the LawtechUK Sandbox, which provides a universal structured data format for digitalised contracts.  Creating this uniformity of approach provides a critical foundation for widespread adoption and development.  All that is to say that in the UK at the moment we are developing the legal and technical certainty necessary for greater investment, innovation and deployment in this field.   

In terms of trends, we are seeing a number of interesting applications emerge.  DeFi or ‘decentralised finance’ is obviously one key area, supported in part by the composability of the applications that are being developed.  That is, the ability for DeFi products (or aspects of them) to interact with and build on each other. For this reason, an analogy is often drawn to lego bricks, reflecting the ability for each component to connect with another.  

blockchain

One area I am particularly interested in (hence my role as a co-founder of UCL Art Futures), is the way that DLTs can support the creative industries.  The creative sector is at the heart of the UK’s competitive advantage and DLTs present significant opportunities for creative innovation as well as a mechanism for protection, curation and preservation (see for example DACS’ and Verisart’s launch of Bronzechain).  There are a number of really interesting initiatives in this space already, with significant scope for further innovation to come.  What I find particularly interesting is the possibility not only for shaping existing markets but also how (much like with smart phones) new markets might be created in ways that we don’t currently envisage.  Needless to say, the legal services community has a critical role to play in this development, by supporting these new and emerging relationships in a way that protects fair and equal collaboration.

What has LawtechUK got planned for lawtech information and education in 2021?

We are looking forward to launching the LawtechUK Hub, which will provide the community with a central resource where they can explore, learn about and be inspired by lawtech activities.  The Hub will provide access to information about LawtechUK’s work and how to get involved with it, together with an interactive ecosystem map sharing information about lawtech startups and interviews with community trailblazers. Importantly, the Hub will offer accessible short courses, which have been developed by expert practitioners, on the core technologies that are relevant to lawtech.     

LawtechUK wants to work with a range of organisations towards a common purpose. Avvoka for example, does a considerable amount in the legal education space with the Avvoka Academy and its other initiatives (like your guide to document automation), and we very much believe that a rising tide lifts all ships. I love the approach that Avvoka takes by sharing knowledge to support understanding and adoption. It is this approach that helps to develop market and consumer confidence, which is critical in supporting new paths for further innovation. 

Much like the law itself, education is an enabler of innovation and a core focus of our work is on how to support transformation through legal education.  One of the things that has always been inspiring about the lawtech community is how everyone shares the vision of working together to help improve the delivery of legal services and I am excited to see what the next year brings!

Legal Innovation

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Macarena Valenzuela
LegalTech Leaders

LegalTech Leaders: Simmons & Simmons ¦ Wavelength

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(4 minute read)

The secrets of great legal service design, and who and what it takes

Interview with Erika Pagano and Drew Winlaw

Keywords: legal, lawyers, multidisciplinary team, legal engineer, women in law, legal design, legal education, law careers, law firms, businesses, in-house, law students, lean thinking, legaltech trends

This week we had a great discussion with Erika Pagano and Drew Winlaw, a dream team hailing from Wavelength, the legal engineering team at Simmons & Simmons.

Drew Winlaw:

Drew Winlaw

Drew co-founded Wavelength, which has unquestionably changed the face of the legal profession and the way that legal services are delivered globally. It is a pioneering legal engineering business. Drew’s leadership has resulted in the whole legal services market using far more technology, data science and design to improve and transform how legal expertise adds value to businesses.

Drew is a leading proponent and expert on transformational change in the legal services sector. Before he started revolutionising law firm management, he practised as a commercial lawyer, and prior to that worked in several manufacturing businesses focusing on data and scheduling issues, and was also the legal and compliance manager for Booking.com (one of our amazing clients). In his work, Drew draws on lean philosophies and uses smart legal technologies in his design of innovative legal services and systems.

If you want to know about how to create great legal service designs, and who and what it takes, Drew is your man.

Erika Pagano:

Erika Pagano

Erika is a lawyer, innovator, and educator, shaping the future of the legal profession. She is also a speaker and facilitator to legal teams and law students, focusing on applied design, creativity, strategy, culture creation, teaming, technology, and cross-border initiatives.

Erika has a passion for problem-solving, culture creation, teaming, technology, and cross-border initiatives. She is Head of Legal Innovation and Design at Wavelength Law and Guest Faculty at IE University. Previously, Erika was the Director of LawWithoutWalls and Lecturer at the University of Miami School of Law.

Erika is a regular speaker, published author, and award-winning innovator. She sits on multiple boards (Awesome Foundation London, University of Miami School of Law Alumni Board, LawWithoutWalls Advisory Board, Georgetown University Class of 2008 Committee, and others). She is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Miami.

Basically, we’re super lucky she agreed to have a chat with us.

I. The Wavelength model

What’s the manifesto of Wavelength at Simmons & Simmons?

Drew:

The manifesto is evolving, but it’s centred around the theme of making law and legal processes:

  1. understandable;
  2. sensible; and
  3. data-driven.

A lot of the things that we do come back to those three things.

Essentially, introducing elements of transparency into businesses that currently are just tremendously manual and very heavy. There’s so much that we can do in that area as creative thinkers.

We’re not trying to transform from the outside and sort of “bash our way in.” We’re trying to transform from the inside; understand what’s going on around us and sensibly introduce incremental benefits that occasionally bring to our attention the opportunity to do amazing things. But in most of the work we do, we need to work very closely with the way things are already done and just take things step-by-step. This is because legal services are a component of a wider ecosystem, and it simply isn’t possible to change everything at once.

Erika:

A simple way to explain the Wavelength manifesto is that we put a team of multidisciplinary people together to think creatively about how the experience of law can be better. Whether you’re a lawyer, whether you’re a business that relies on lawyers or whether you’re a consumer of legal documents – which, you know, most of us are at some stage in our lives, if not every day.

Wavelength

How do Simmons & Simmons and Wavelength cross-pollinate?

Drew:  

I think an important thing for Wavelength is that we’ve maintained our culture, multidisciplinary approach and our operating model but can now benefit from the firm’s world-class international platform. The relationship between our team and the rest of the firm is very synergistic – it allows us a great route to spread the benefits of legal engineering around the world and Simmons has a real market differentiator – together we can do things that probably cannot be done by any professional services firm in the world.

The end goal for us is to reimagine how legal advice and legal services are delivered completely. By that, I mean a completely joined-up offering. This offer draws on the skill sets that currently exist within Wavelength and the rest of the firm.

Simmons partners refer us to work with clients directly, and we do work for those clients,  sometimes in a fairly self-contained way. We also identify new clients and introduce those to the legal teams within Simmons. But I think the really exciting things come when we’re jointly delivering work and together identifying the need, and jointly coming up with new approaches.

Is Wavelength like a separate practice area in Simmons & Simmons?

Drew: 

Organisationally we are, but in practice, we deliver solutions in a very joined-up way.

We have all the facilities at our disposal to join firmwide matters at very short notice to help achieve amazing outcomes. So, suppose that Simmons & Simmons is advising a client on a litigation matter and some complex information or data needs to be analysed or investigated. Wavelength can join that matter straightaway and immediately spin up the required legal data engineering support, or legal design support, or policy and strategy support.

Wavelength manifesto
A simple way to explain the Wavelength manifesto is that we put a team of multidisciplinary people together to think creatively about how the experience of law can be better.

Erika:

I think there are four main ingredients that make this all happen:

  1. Curiosity. Folks are naturally curious, and lawyers especially are naturally curious. The curiosity element is fantastic because it means that people want to know, that they want to understand what this is all about, and that they’re open-minded to it.
  2. Drew was talking about how you know it’s easy for us to slot into different projects. Often, the best brainstorming happens through conversations with colleagues where you discover the pain points they are experiencing. How might we be able to help? Other times, colleagues see work that we’ve done on a particular project. They think, “Oh, I might be able to adapt something similar to this project I’m working on right now.”
  3. Then that third ingredient kicks in, creativity. It’s about getting people (our colleagues across the firm, across the business and within Wavelength, even) to think creatively about how we apply the things we do and collaborate together.
  4. I think that the fourth element it’s actually not collaborative but client-related. 100% of what we do is client-facing which is exciting because it means that we are face to face with our clients hearing about their priorities and their issues. That allows us to be part of the conversation as we navigate how to solve them in new, exciting, and different ways.

II. Legal Design

Legal design
listening is vital (like in so many things). In legal design, you’ve got to listen to what your end-users and different stakeholders want carefully. Often it’s the things that they’re not saying.

What’s your view on the popular LegalTech vendor’s catchphrase “designed by lawyers, for lawyers”?

Drew:

It’s quite a difficult question because you’re generalising about lawyers who are a cohort within which there is a spectrum of understanding about data and the power of data. There’s also diversity in amenability to new ways of working. I think “designed for lawyers bought by lawyers” emphasises the need for lawyer involvement in solutions with legal subject matter expertise at their core.

It’s impossible to make a solution for the legal market without the involvement of lawyers. But I do think it requires a lot more than just lawyers. It requires people with different skill sets and different ways of thinking to challenge the way things are and bring new approaches. Through our multidisciplinary teams, we achieve that. Our teams are composed generally by a data scientist, a solution owner, and then a set of legal engineers in between. We have a team with skill sets that straddle the state of science and the law, and I think this is key.

What makes good, impactful legal design?

Erika:

Great question, because the concept of legal design means many things to many people. And the way that we like to see legal design is that it looks at three different factors, which are:

  1. Communication, because better communication means more efficiency, understanding, equality, and inclusivity.
  2. Empowered information, because information, when crafted in the right way, delivers more value and a better outcome to the folks supplying and receiving the information.
  3. Culture creation, because design transmits values to end-users and stakeholders, whether through a document, system, or process. We think through how good legal design helps that end, either through shaping culture, creating change, or embedding a brand.

With that in mind, I think there are a few other elements that make a perfect legal design.

  1. Listening; listening is vital (like in so many things). In legal design, you’ve got to listen to what your end-users and different stakeholders want carefully. Often it’s the things that they’re not saying. Usually, it involves looking at what the data shows. Sometimes, the consumer testing data will conflict with the opinions that folks are volunteering, so it’s up to us to test that out.
  2. Open-minded creativity. As you can imagine, there’s a lot to be said there.
  3. The third element is having the courage to be okay with iterating. We say we love iterating, especially in the legal design and legal innovation spaces. Iterating is great, but the reality is that there’s a real emotional component to moving on from an idea that you thought was best and didn’t quite work. So, there’s a sense of bravery and courage you need to embark on this new frontier.

III. Legal Engineering

What’s the difference between being a lawyer and being a legal engineer? When does someone stop being a lawyer and start becoming a legal engineer? What traits do those with the potential to be great legal engineers typically possess?

Drew:

People who work in the legal engineering field do not necessarily need to be a qualified lawyer. Generally, but not always, a grounding in law can be helpful to provide an understanding of legal principles. Of course, every person who studies law will be grounded in the essential institutions, the role of contract, tort, and the importance of understanding about risk and risk management.

I think great legal engineers can come from all walks of life, and all stages of their career. In terms of what I call an “entry-level legal engineer” type person, it would be somebody who’s done some legal study. And there is undoubtedly a role for a lot of those people in this industry. But there are also roles for people who have 20 or 30 years of experience behind them and do want to make a difference to the industry and want to challenge the things that they’ve learned or they’ve had to do in the course of private practice or in an in-house team to improve things. There are just so many things that need to be improved. We need an army of legal engineers to help bring this profession into this century. That’s the critical thing. The boundary between a lawyer and a legal engineer is just the extent to which you decide that you want to rely on somebody else for the legal subject matter expertise. You keep the understanding of the principles and the architectures that are necessary to solve these problems.

Legal engineers
I think great legal engineers can come from all walks of life, and all stages of their career.

We leverage a version of the lean methodology at Avvoka. What place does “Lean Thinking” have within large commercial law firms?

Drew:

On the point about Lean thinking, and whether there’s a place for it in commercial law firms, I can’t think of, anywhere, any process, anywhere in the world where lean thinking doesn’t apply. Lean thinking is completely universal in its application. It’s universal, because it has at its heart, the elimination of waste, the elimination of duplication, and in general the elimination of things that don’t add value to the end client.

This thinking does exist in law firms; it is just not called “Lean”. Lean thinking started in the manufacturing environment and from my experience sometimes people working in the professional services environment aren’t so comfortable with parallels between what happens in industry and what happens in professional services. But I see the parallels or the links between those things very intensely. That’s because of my previous experience in manufacturing and analysing processes that occur in factories and also in very fast-growing businesses, like Booking.com was when I worked there. I think any organisation that embraces Lean should see incredible benefits. These benefits will be applied to enough people who share that understanding and desire to improve things continuously, remove the hurdles, remove the duplication, and waste.

One of the most exciting stages of lean training is when somebody who’s an expert at their job realises that what they do is part of a more extensive process. That can be pretty surprising for somebody, and that is not self-evident in the beginning. But it can be quite a revelation for some people. This understanding leads to a higher degree of empathy about people who contribute earlier in that same process and how behaviour in one part of a process can have significant effects on people who deal with outputs further downstream. So, I think it’s an incredibly valuable methodology.

In many law firms, the way that Lean is packaged Begins like this: “Let’s have a look at the process. Let’s map the existing process and see whether there are any well-understood patterns of work within the process that can be eliminated or automated.” The discussions that arise from talking through the steps in a process map are fundamental to applying lean thinking in a sensible way.

Lean training
One of the most exciting stages of lean training is when somebody who’s an expert at their job realises that what they do is part of a more extensive process. That can be pretty surprising for somebody, and that is not self-evident in the beginning.

IV. Legal technology, education and women in law

What’s the role of legal education in the context of legal technology? Should universities be doing something different, and how can they keep up to date?

Erika:

I think legal education faces a critical role in shaping the future of our profession. Especially with LegalTech, law schools are finally starting to wake up and recognise this as not only a real thing but also as an opportunity. LegalTech is an opportunity for students to have a wide range of new jobs and to have thriving careers. Especially in the US system, law schools are often judged on things like their employment rate for recent graduates. I think they’re starting to see this as a great avenue and a worthwhile avenue to sink time and budget into training students because they can have healthy, long, exciting, and profitable careers in this area.

I think it’s also for law schools to think differently about their curriculum. A few years ago, just a handful of schools touched on innovation and technology in the legal environment. Fortunately, that landscape has improved. You’ve got all kinds of pure legal tech and innovation courses, and also multidisciplinary courses that bring lawyers, law students, and business together. For example, I’m entering a course at Oxford that brings together law students and computer science students, which is fantastic. In my legal innovation course at IE University, students learn from folks across a wide variety of disciplines, from classic legal to femtech, data science, crisis management, and more. It’s so encouraging to see that there is support from the educational sector, and I hope that continues to grow.

Legal education
I think legal education faces a critical role in shaping the future of our profession. Especially with LegalTech, law schools are finally starting to wake up and recognise this as not only a real thing but also as an opportunity.

Erika, you are a highly-respected female leader in the legal sector. Do you think there are enough women involved in LegalTech? If not, what can be done to increase the number of women in the field?

Erika:

Thank you. That’s very nice for you to say that I am a female leader in the legal sector! That’s only because I have great women role models and a tremendous support network. What I have achieved wouldn’t have been possible without that and allies. For example, people like Drew who are supportive and understand that this isn’t an easy journey and that we still got much work to do in the area.

I don’t think that there are enough women involved. What I would love to see in general is not just the inclusion of women, but going into a more holistic way of thinking about diversity. A good friend of mine, Alexis Caught (he’s a real leader in the legal inclusion space), said to me that “equality should be available to everybody.” And I think that’s so true, no matter how you identify. So, for example, no matter what your orientation is, no matter what your background is, and we’ve all got work to do. It’s a daunting task, but we can all help make even incremental change, even just by educating ourselves, listening to the conversation and changing some of our preconceived notions. Just because I’m a woman in the profession, that doesn’t mean I know everything about what women in the profession have experienced. They’re always opportunities to grow and be a better ally on that front.

Inclusion in law
What I would love to see in general is not just the inclusion of women, but going into a more holistic way of thinking about diversity.

V. Future Trends

What’re you focussing on for 2021, and what do you expect the most significant innovations in legal services delivery to be this year? More of the same from 2020, or a course change?

Drew:

I don’t think that there will be a significant change from the existing direction of travel, but the pandemic has accelerated digitalisation efforts, or at least raised more awareness about the value of them.

For in-house legal teams, this means more thought and more budget available on legal front doors and how to manage the incoming demand into a legal department. It is for them to reflect what kinds of services are available to the business, what kinds of tools can be made available, what kind of automation tools are sensible and can be implemented with the appropriate guardrails from a risk perspective, and how you manage workflow in a more designed way.

I think there is a desire to move away from email and track changes in Word. This trend is being more universally recognised. Some people are pushing hard to change that so that it is not the default behaviour. But this change is going to take some time…

What does the future of law look like from your perspective?

Erika:

Oh, this is an exciting one. When I started law school, back from a fascinating life and career in Shanghai, I thought I would become a maritime lawyer—I’m not joking! Then I thought, well, maybe I’ll become a prosecutor, or perhaps I’ll become a trial lawyer. And then I had this “revelation moment” with the exposure to legal innovation, and I thought “oh my God, this is the thing”.

For me, legal innovation is the confluence of all of the amazing skills that I love and have developed and am passionate about. I hit it lucky at the right time and was able to create a career in it. I say that because this was over ten years ago. I don’t know what the next ten years are going to look like yet.

What I do know is that, in terms of the future of the profession, is that I hope that we continue to see a more significant push for equality and inclusivity and accessibility. I do hope that we see a broader value placed on multidisciplinary teams. I hope that we see folks who have quote non-traditional legal skills, really valued in the market and included on teams because they are the ones who can help bring in those experiences that’ll transform our marketplace. That’s what I think the future of law looks like.

Future trends in law
What I do know is that, in terms of the future of the profession, is that I hope that we continue to see a more significant push for equality and inclusivity and accessibility.

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Macarena Valenzuela
Partnership and collaboration vector concept metaphor

Implementation: Seamless Workflows with Integrations

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(4 minute read)

One of the most important things that you should consider when looking for a software provider is what integrations they offer, as well as how you can potentially integrate.

Why? Well, no one wants to use a document automation platform that doesn’t integrate with their existing CRM. This would mean having to copy and paste the information from, for example, Salesforce directly into the platform – increasing the risk for mistakes, which you were most likely aiming to minimise in the first place when you embarked on your document automation journey. In order to encourage the adoption of your document automation solution, you should be prioritising integrations with your existing systems.

This article is going to focus solely on integrations, including:

By the end of this article you’ll be confident when speaking to vendors about integrations, as well as understanding what the integration process and rollout will look like.

What are integrations?

You’ve likely heard the word integrations thrown around a lot, especially as you’ve set out on your document automation journey, but it is best to take a step back and think about what an integration actually is. Put simply, an integration means to unite one piece of technology with another and typically to transfer data between them.

Breaking it down even further, you can think of an integration as different technology platforms speaking with each other. This normally happens in one of two different ways:

  1. One of the systems pulls data from another;
  2. Or the system pushes data to another.
what are integrations?

What’s the difference? If system A pulls data from system B, that means that system A is the one that can now manipulate and use the data in some way in their system. This might be done by populating the questionnaire with a customer’s information from system B’s CRM tool, or creating new users and adding them to documents. On the other hand, when system A pushes data to system B this is likely for system B to use the data. For example, pushing a completed document back in to your document management system once you’ve signed the contract.

What’s important in both scenarios when looking at pushing or pulling data is that either system can be the one that triggers the transfer of data. This flow of data is something that you should be thinking about when you are looking at the integration options from various providers, as well as what you would need from an integration internally.

When considering what types of integrations you may come across in the document automation market, you should be looking at receiving data from one of the tools that you already use internally to fill out the questionnaires, sending completed questionnaires and the relevant data to your CRM system, or integrating with an e-signature platform like DocuSign and Adobe Sign. For example, you can check our the different integrations we offer at Avvoka that allow you to integrate Avvoka into your existing internal stack.

Different types of integrations

APIs, No-Code, and Webhooks – oh my! You might be a bit overwhelmed at the thought of integrations and the various options available, but we’ll try and make them as simple as possible for you.

What’s important to remember is that regardless of the terms used, an integration at its core is the transfer of data between two different systems. Each method is just a different way of accomplishing that transfer.

  • An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of methods that allows others to access different parts of an application. This might mean you can add users, create documents, or download documents without having to access the application itself. What’s important is that some software systems APIs are more extensive than others and will allow you to achieve more, so it’s important to look at what functions the API actually allows to ensure that it meets your integration needs.
    • If they do have an API, what comes next? Typically either your vendor’s software developers or your own will programme an interface that acts as a middleman between the two systems. This means that it calls the different functions from the document automation solution’s API based at pre-defined timings. Typically, you are merging together two APIs at this stage to have them communicate.
  • Webhooks, like an API, are something that you can leverage for third party integrations. This time, instead of the middleman interface calling the document automation provider’s API, it is listening for calls or ‘notifications’ from the platform instead. Webhooks will send a message to your chosen URL based on different actions. These actions might include when a document is signed or created. This means that rather than your API interface constantly checking for every document created and its status afterwards, it is able to just wait for the notification.
    • Typically what happens after the notification is that you might leverage the API to download the signed document, for example, after the webhook that notified you it had been signed. Webhooks are also great for integrations with tools like Slack, to send messages every time the status of a document changes.
  • No-Code integrations refer to integrations that have already been set up and pre-configured. You won’t need the middleman interface that you do with webhooks or an API, and you can typically provide your third party account details directly to the system’s platform. This is like when you can link your Instagram account directly from another tool. To be able to do that, you didn’t need to build the integration first.
different integrations

What you should be looking for

The integrations you’ll need will largely depend on your existing software tools and how you plan to implement your chosen document automation tool at your business. Here are a few considerations to make when deciding which integrations to implement:

  • The tools already in use at your workplace – which tools do you already use? If there is a CRM tool relied upon across your organisation, it will be important to integrate that with the document automation tool. Picking a tool that fits in seamlessly with the software you already use will ensure you’re not adding any additional work for your employees when you are meant to be saving them time. 
  • What you’d like to get out of your document automation platform – are you interested in integrating with an AI tool for additional insights? Or maybe you’re looking to have a more seamless workflow, rather than having to bounce between different tools. Your needs will determine whether you need any integrations!
  • What data do you need transferred between systems? This is an important question, as it underpins how your integration will work. Just because your chosen solution has an API and so does your existing DMS, this does not mean that they are going to integrate easily if you decide that you want to include the metadata from your document as well. Ideally, you will have considered what data you need to be integrated before looking for a solution to ensure you know that it can be easily transferred between systems.

Now if you have decided to include some integrations, it’s important to consult with your document automation team: 

  • Do they support integration? A big one. If a provider can’t integrate with your essential tools, you’ll likely have to look for different software. 
  • What is their current testing strategy? Will your team ensure that the integration successfully works before completing the project.
  • How will the integration work? Will it be seamless? Ensure you are on the same page as the software company by asking lots of questions and having them walk you through how the integration will work. 
integrations, what to consider

Rolling Out Integrations

Once you have asked your necessary questions and are ready to develop and roll out your integrations with your document automation provider its important to you are ready to do so. We’d recommend:

  • Having a plan – as we keep mentioning, it’s important to make sure that you are clear on what data you need to be sending as well as which way the data may flow. You’ll want to make sure that you and your vendor are both clear on what you expect to happen
  • Map out the expected user flow – do you want individual users to be able to access the integration? Where should they input their log in details? How often should the data be sent to your CRM system? These are important things to think about when defining the user workflow and touch points with the integration. It’s useful at this point to ensure that you are also communicating with those using your internal systems to make sure you are clear on their expectations
  • Agree a development timescale and process – you and your vendor should be clear on what the development process will look like. Note that this will vary depending on who is undertaking the development of the middleman systems if you are using their API or webhooks
  • Ensure you test often – try and imagine every way that the integration might be used, and make sure that you test for every outcome. What’s worse than no integration at all is likely an integration that doesn’t do what you expected it to

Summary

To sum it all up, the most important thing that you can do when planning your rollout as well as initially looking for a vendor is to understand what you’d need in terms of integrations. To make sure you are prepared you need to confidently be able to say what data you expect to be transferred between systems, whether that’s a single list of options for a questionnaire answer, the metadata attached to the document, or something else entirely.

No two APIs are built the same, so while it’s good to be on the lookout for a solution with an API its more important to understand how you expect the workflow to be executed once your integration is developed, and to ensure that your document automation system’s integration options can handle that. This is also a conversation that you will likely need to have with your existing vendor’s integration team as well.

Finally, just because a vendor doesn’t list your chosen internal tool as an integration that they offer, it is still worth discussing with them to see if you can leverage something like their API or webhooks to achieve that integration.

integrations and the API

If you want to find out how you can get started with document automation, check out The Ultimate Guide: Document Automation 2022 – Our very own e-book where we provide expert legal tech advice about everything you will need to know and learn.

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Amy Conroy
implementation

Implementation: Kickstarting your Automation Journey

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(4 minute read)

This week’s blog will help you kickstart your document automation journey.

Highlights include:
?  Choosing which documents to automate first.
? How to decide your overall automation strategy and aims.
? Why you should use standardised data points.

We will also give you some insider tips on how to plan a flawless document automation implementation. Keep reading to find out more.

Implementation 101: Template consolidation ? 

You are raring to get started on the implementation of your automation project. You want to start with the automation of your documents now that you have gotten your hands on your document automation tool. You decide upon the employment agreement and eagerly open your template bank, only to be met with twelve different types of employment agreements. You then ask yourself one of the most common questions in document automation – ‘should I keep these in separate templates, or merge them?’ 

Merging multiple templates is often called ‘template consolidation’ or ‘template rationalisation’. It involves taking your entire universe of ‘Agreement X’ variants and consolidating them to the lowest number of templates that makes sense. 

When you are thinking about the implementation of your document automation project, you should consolidate documents wherever possible. This doesn’t mean merging your employment agreement and your termination letters into the same document. Instead, similar documents should be kept in the same template, and this template should be automated to accommodate the document variations so that the end-user is guided into creating the perfect document. As a rule of thumb, documents sharing around two-thirds of the same provisions (or could be if they were re-drafted) should be housed in the same template.

Let’s look at a practical example. 

I have the following template agreements in my folder:

  • Employment Agreement – with bonus scheme
  • Employment Agreement – standard
  • Employment Agreement – with a probation period and share scheme
  • Hong Kong Employment Agreement – basic
  • Consultancy Agreement

Assuming these all contain standard clauses and cover the same topics, you would create one master ‘Employment Agreement’ with a selection of provisions that could be dropped in.

contract automation

Automation ?

Now the fun part of the implementation – automating! How you get started will depend on which software you have selected (see our guide here). However, some tips apply across all tools:

? Plan your implementation and automation

Should I template all the documents at once, one-by-one, or in groups? In deciding, you may want to consider the possible use cases your tool may cater for.

Now that you have identified the documents to template, you need to decide on an automation strategy. You have several options here. You could spend the next few months templating and testing, then release the templates all at once. On the other end would be to template only one document type at a time. Alternatively, you could take an approach which straddles the middle. There is no one-size-fits-all. Ultimately, the choice depends on the business drivers behind automation and the selection of particular templates. That said, we have learnt from experience that delivering templates in groups poses the fewest obstacles.

  • One-by-one
    • Positives:
      • The whole team is focused on delivering a template in a single sprint, ensuring high quality in minimal time.
      • Automating one template at a time is best suited for when there is an imminent business need for a flagship contract to be up and running as soon as possible.
      • The team can identify any workflow issues in their overall templating approach early and apply them to subsequently automated documents.
    • Negatives:
      • Focusing on one template for too long can lead to idle time for other teams and disengagement with the project.
      • Different contracts are owned by different legal and business teams.
  • All templates at once
    • Positives:
      • All energy is directed to the templating process rather than being spread between rolling out and conducting training for completed templates, while still automating others.
      • This approach may allow you to plan resources better as you know your legal and business teams will be deeply involved for a few months before handing over to the end-users.
      • Planning for training may be simplified as the entire business can be trained at the same time.
    • Negatives:
      • There is a risk in progressing all templates together. If an issue is spotted after going live, you will need to go back to all templates to fix them. Depending on the magnitude of the error, rectification could take from anywhere from days to weeks.
  • Groups
    • Positives:
      • By confining templating work to a group of documents initially, you are conducting a rollout on a smaller scale, such as within one unit. This will allow you to plan better for subsequent rollouts to other units.
      • You can focus on delivering a handful of contracts in one go, thus creating a functional suite of documents for end-users and gaining competency in your automation tool.
      • User Acceptance Testing is more easily managed at this scale, helping to ensure higher quality templates are released to the end-users.
    • Negatives:
      • Care has to be taken in choosing the first group to work on, as you may end up being too focused on it due to a large volume of documents or complexity of consolidation.
      • Multiple work streams will be formed as different groups will be at different stages of implementation, such as templating, rolling out, or training. You can read more about a typical implementation timeline here.

?  In what order should I automate my documents?

Now you have selected your documents and your approach to automation, there is one final thing to decide on before you start implementing your document automation project – which documents to tackle first. We recommend beginning by only picking a group of three or four documents to template. Some factors to consider:

  • ‘Readiness’
    • All projects, automation or otherwise, need early success stories to build engagement levels. You can streamline your project if you have contracts that have already been rationalised, and drafting instructions exist (or could easily be created). Using such contracts will give you the ability to quickly deliver a handful of automated templates at the beginning of the process, thus buying the time and confidence you need to work through the larger documents.
  • User group – how many users will be using this template?
    • An NDA is a classic example of a ‘group one’ contract type, but you should consider that NDAs are used by the whole business and the implications of needing to train and rollout the document to the whole business at once. That said, this may allow each business area to get used to the system with a simple generic document while their core business documents are being automated, which helps generate more engagement due to their success with the NDA. 
    • Consider what you want to achieve in terms of user engagement at the planning stage. If you want the political buy-in of multiple user groups, ensure the first group documents are not confined to one business area like NDAs and basic commercial contracts like assignment agreements. An alternative but still valid strategy would be to first automate the documents of a particularly receptive business group and iron out any early issues before tackling more challenging areas of the firm.
  • Complexity
    • The best mix for your first set of documents is a group made up of mostly simple contracts and one more complex agreement. Ideally, you would get the simple documents functional fast for quick PR wins, but the complex agreement will help assure the more cynical among the group of the capabilities of your automation tool. You can learn more about Avvoka’s simple yet powerful automation functions here.
Plan your automation

?How much should I automate?

There’s a temptation to make the perfect template, with every single word and possible option, automated. While the ‘automate everything’ approach will work in some cases, it usually leads to inefficient templates that are hard to maintain. Start small, keep it simple and aim to automate 60% of your document and then iterate. You will be amazed how much time you could save with even just five to ten key questions that lead to large parts of the document conditionally dropping in. 

For each section, you should weigh up the complexity of automating that section versus doing it manually. A great example is the recital sections of documents – these can be some of the most fiddly aspects to automate – but is it any quicker than just typing it out in the document? If this leads to you typing into the questionnaire what you would too in a word document, it may be ultimately be more efficient to leave that part unautomated.

?Think about the end-user

When you are implementing your document automation project, keep in mind who will be answering the questions to create the document. Will it be the commercial team? New joiners? Legal only? Always word the questions in a way that makes sense to a user. Nothing will bring inefficiencies back into your automated process quite like ambiguity and confusion in the question. 

A great example is something as simple as:

Please select the governing law of the contract.

  • English law
  • New York law
  • French law

Where is the deal team based?

  • London
  • New York
  • Paris

These two will both result in a change to the jurisdiction clause, even though they are phrased differently and aimed at different audiences. 

End user

? Use standardised data points

Another important part of automation you should consider before the implementation of your automation project is to identify replicated data points across your document, and standardizing them wherever possible.  This will save you from having to write repeated questions for the same condition or data point, massively improving the end-user’s experience by saving their time. After all, no one wants to spend an hour answering fifty different questions when the same data can be collected in five different questions. You can read more about the benefits of automating with standardised data points here.

What do we mean? Think about it this way. At the beginning of your document, you see that the company name can become a placeholder that the end-user can type in. So, you create your [company name] attribute. Later on, you see square brackets around [full company name], and you create a placeholder called “full company name”. Now, your user will have to enter the data for both [full company name] and [company name] as answers to two different questions. 

By standardising your data points, you can avoid that repetition and ensure the highest accuracy for your documents. Thus, before you jump into automating your documents, you should identify common pieces of data that will repeat and pick a standard name for each placeholder. With practice and time spent familiarising yourself with the data points in your document, you are much more likely to condense your questionnaire and end up with fewer questions automating various aspects of your document. 

standardized data points

If you want to find out how you can get started with document automation, check out The Ultimate Guide: Document Automation 2022 – Our very own e-book where we provide expert legal tech advice about everything you will need to know and learn.

Read more from Avvoka: 

By:  Yap San Zhi
Expert approved vector concept metaphor

Document Automation Approvals – Getting your Project Green-lit

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(3 minute read)

Last week our blog covered how to nail your legaltech and document automation rollout. This week’s post focuses on one of the biggest blockers for LegalTech projects: getting the necessary internal approvals. We all know how hard it is to get everyone on board with a new and innovative idea.

This article reviews :

Approvals

You’ll need to get any document automation project signed-off by the right people. 

At Avvoka, we know that every company will be different and will need different approvals. The exact approvals, and approvers, can vary depending on the project budget, scope, jurisdiction etc. Ask around internally to find out who you need to seek approval from. Usually, they will fall into the following areas:

  • Budget approval – the preliminary approval you will need to gain is likely from the budget holder, or head of your finance department. It’s vital you clearly communicate your project’s aims, the potential ROI, and timeline. 
  • Information security – do you have an in-house information security team? If so, the chances are they will need to sign-off that the technology you plan to use is safe.
  • IT – there will be some overlap with the information security team. In general, you will need to ensure that the planned technology will ‘fit in’ with everything else you currently use.
Manage approvals
Every company will be different and will need different approvals.

Stakeholders

A stakeholder is anyone impacted by the project or that has an interest in the project. The key stakeholders will vary depending on your type of business, whether the stakeholder is a legal document automation project or a commercial one. They will almost certainly include the approvers listed above, but the group is also far broader than this. Common stakeholders typically include some of the following: 

  • End-User: The person that will be working with your new document automation tool. Their primary concerns will be the effect on their long-term role and how it will disrupt their current workflow in the medium-term. The critical thing to do to reassure them is to bring them into the decision making process early. Highlight the benefits of the tool, but also listen to any concerns they might have. Typically people are worried about short term-disruption and the long-term impact on their job.
  • Project manager: This could be you! The project manager role will be dependent on your company. It is whoever is in charge of managing the budget, timeline and scope of the project. The project manager will often act as the liaison with the software company. The Project manager’s key role is keeping stakeholders informed of progress and managing their expectations.
  • Finance/Budget holder: As noted above, they hold the keys to the budget for your organisation. It’s essential to convince them that the document automation tool’s implementation will represent a good return on investment worth the money. We cover creating a business case below, and there will be a separate article on ROI coming up soon!
  • IT director: The person in charge of technology at your business. It is vital to ensure you reassure them about the need for document automation, critical use cases unique to the firm, and how much money implementing the tool will save you in the long run. They will be interested in the budget, but will also have broader interests. How does this tool fit-in with the broader IT stack, do we have capacity to implement it, what is the architecture like etc. These are points your third-party partner can help you with, ensure you’re getting enough documentation from them.
  • Internal Communications: If you have an internal communications team, they will be responsible for helping ensure that the rollout is a success. As noted above, communication to the stakeholders is key – ensure you are communicating with them at every stage of the process and especially in the run-up to the release of the product in your company. Managing expectations, clearly articulating benefits, and training materials are all key communications that needs to be managed along the way.
  • Legal sponsor: Unique to in-house or law firm document automation projects, you will want to get a senior lawyer involved in the project as one of the key stakeholders. They will help you work with smaller teams and help push the software’s release amongst their teams. It will be vital to get feedback from legal teams on how these documents should be automated, so it’s a great idea to involve the relevant people as early as possible.
  • Commercial sponsor: A role unique to in-house automation projects rather than law firms. You should include stakeholders from each part of the business using the automation tool. These systems need to work for everyone, and there is no point implementing a tool that the legal teams love, but the business teams don’t – and vice versa. 

Involve people early – all the best document automation projects that we have seen, have engaged key people in the process early. There is no point engaging a key stakeholder group once the decision has already been made, or at a point where it is difficult to go back.

stakeholders
Involve people early in your project. This will help you managing approvals.

Budget approval and creating a successful business case

Budget, budget and budget – implementing a document automation project can be significantly cheaper than it previously was, but the chances are you will still need to get budget sign-off before you can start your automation project. 

A successful business case is one which is well thought through and clearly articulated. To give yourself the best chance of success, try and make sure you:

  • Identify the problem – it sounds obvious, but all business cases need to start with the issues. Which documents are taking too long, which documents are error-prone, which documents do you need more visibility over.
  • Different problems for different people – a document automation project will solve different problems for different people. A junior lawyer might benefit from the time efficiency, but the senior lawyers in the team might want to see the overall data patterns. The commercial teams might not care too much about the clause library, but will be very interested in how fast the documents can now be turned around. Be aware of how the project will impact (positively, and negatively) on each group.
  • Data on the existing problems – how long does processing take at the moment, how often are errors made, how long does it take to produce reports on these contracts now? If you don’t have the data right now, start to track it, even if it is only rough estimates. It’s better to have a rough ‘finger in the air’ idea that a process takes 3 days, that no idea at all.
  • Select the right documents – almost all documents can be automated, but not all documents should necessarily be automated – start with the quick wins. Select documents that are ready to be automated (good templates) are used in high-volume and need some degree of customisation for each use. We like to start with documents that are a couple of levels above an NDA. Think: Terms of Business, Engagement Letters, Licence Agreements. More on how to select your documents in future articles.
  • Estimate your ROI – all of the above points feed into this. ROI is absolutely key. Compare the data you have gathered about your existing process, to the process you hope to put in place. Ask your potential document automation tool for some example efficiency stats on projects like yours. Then compare the cost of doing nothing against the possible cost of any solution. If you can demonstrate your implementation will cost £2,000, but you will save £200,000 – then it’s a ‘no brainer’!
A successful business case is one that is well thought through and clearly articulated. This will help you get the necessary approvals.

Interested to know more about document automation? Then check out our ultimate guide, which contains everything you need to know about document automation, planning and executing a document automation project, and how document automation can help your business work more efficiently and get to “yes” faster. 

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By: Avvoka

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