Document automation

3 February 2022

House styles – why are they important in law, and how can LegalTech help?

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Innovation, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology .docx, Article, Document automation, House styles, Legal Tech, LegalTech, metadata, Numbering system, word formatting

(5 minute read)

Often companies have certain “house styles” to look and feel like their branding; you see it in their logos, communication materials, documents and more! But for in-house legal departments and law firms, how does this apply to the presentation of their contracts?

In this week’s blog post we will look at why legal departments (both in-house and law firms) have a house style and how they adhere to it across their precedents using LegalTech:

1. What is a house style?

A house style is a standard set of formatting rules regarding the presentation of documents, including (but not limited to): font, font size, logo placement, numbering and list bullets, alignment indent, headers and footers, formatting such as bolding/italicising/underlining etc. House styles ensure your brand is at the forefront and remains consistent by standardising layouts.

For lawyers, drafting conventions can also encompass general rules on wording, such as:

Notation of long dates – e.g. “within three business days” vs “within 3 business days”.
Terminology – e.g. “Contract” vs “Agreement”.
Expressions used – e.g. “as set out hereinabove” vs “as set out in this agreement”.

A firm’s house style can reflect its culture. For example, some will prefer traditional elements with a serif font (e.g. Times New Roman) and minimal branding, whilst others might include their logo and corporate colour palette for contemporaneity.

2. Why are house styles important?

Using house styles properly will ensure a standard method of presentation with a consistent look and feel across the contracts our clients interact with, supporting and strengthening your firm’s brand. Also, using house styles makes it easier to amend parts of the document.

Adhering to a uniform house style can contribute to an organisation’s reputation, just as a lack thereof can undermine it. Inconsistencies in formatting, syntax, or structure can implicate a lack of internal organisation or even a careless drafter. A robust set of styles is also vital for ensuring the numbering system (and corresponding cross-references) functions correctly for legal documents.

Lack of attention to detail is not what clients expect when paying premium hourly rates. For both law firms and in-house legal departments, there is a risk that poor document layout may undercut the gravitas of the drafted contract.

3. How are house styles implemented?

A) Without Tech: Companies usually have an internal policy guidance document for employees to refer to – setting out the house style rules that can range anywhere between 5 and 50 pages. In practice, human error can get in the way of perfectly formatting the document to make it house-style compliant when managing the layout manually.

B) With Tech: For many organisations striving to improve their service delivery and avoid the margin of error, they turn to legal technology to automate their house style rules. Advanced document assembly software eliminates the need to manage a house style when all contracts are generated using the tool. As a result, the user would not be able to change the layout (at least not unconsciously).

4. House styles and document automation

Automation is about doing tasks quicker and better. Automated contracts allow you to generate and draft contracts more rapidly and in a way that ensures perfection, every time.

As you can read in one of our previous blog posts, there are many reasons and potential benefits for law firms, in-house legal and commercial teams to implement document automation. However, a common “worry” of some clients when automating their documents is that their formatting and house styles will not be preserved. Also include this is understandable since some cloud solutions are not able to properly support house styles, but that with Avvoka that is not an issue because house styles are preserved.

Avvoka understands the importance of styles and is able to retain them accurately from Microsoft Word, including all the necessary features to implement a robust house style. Importing a .docx into Avvoka will retain the style’s name and associated properties relating to each paragraph. This helps to ensure that after you generate a document in Avvoka from an automated template, your downloaded .docx file looks and feels exactly like the original precedent you uploaded.

Furthermore, upon uploading the .docx to a template, Avvoka will store all xml metadata related to styles allowing the possibility of storing multiple house styles on the system. Each paragraph inside the Avvoka template will have a saved style name associated with it. When a user then downloads the .docx. from Avvoka, the system will match the saved styles from the initial upload, with each individual paragraph now contained in the document. It will be stored within a new tag in Avvoka called avv-docx-style.

If you’d like to see how Avvoka can consistently retain your house style, please get in touch!

Read more from Avvoka:

By: Rebecca Preen

19 January 2022

5 Trends we would love to see take off in the legal sector in 2022

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Article, current issues, Document automation, LegalTech, new trends

(4 minute read)

Yet another tumultuous year has come to a close with its many ups and downs. As we bid goodbye to 2021, we look forward to 2022 and the promise of new beginnings. Fresh ideas, novel innovations… This is what we would love to see in the legal sector in 2022! This article will review some of the trends and developments that are already disrupting the legal sector and that we expect to see take off and keep developing further this year:

Increased accessibility to justice through legal technology
More innovative ways in serving clients
An increased focus on eco-friendliness
Decreased working hours for lawyers
A data-driven approach to lawyering

1. Increased accessibility to justice through legal technology

The legal machine is one steeped in tradition. With archaic processes seemingly set in stone, it is certainly one tough nut to crack! Approaching the legal sphere as an outsider can be daunting, especially for individuals who cannot financially afford legal help. However, in recent years, the legal sector has embraced change and reinvented age-old processes to accommodate legal outsiders.

Individuals can now connect with lawyers online through various pro bono websites like ABA Free Legal Answers and Pro Bono Net, saving them time and money while staying safe during an ongoing pandemic. eDiscovery solutions have also made their way to the forefront of change, helping law firms reduce billable hours by automating the discovery process, aiding clients in saving money.

Document automation has also been utilised to decrease the gap to justice. One example would be automated court document assembly. It helps unrepresented individuals access key court precedents and detailed information to generate their very own court documents. One such example of such a platform is the automated court document assembly available at the CJC in Singapore. At Avvoka, we also strive to aid individuals through our document automation platform. No technical knowledge is required to automate documents on Avvoka, meaning that anyone can automate if they so choose. We also conduct free online academies that teach you how to automate documents. To find out more about document automation, do take a look at Document Automation: The Ultimate Guide.

With such promising developments in technology, in 2022, we hope that law firms and courts will continue to evolve and simplify processes for individuals, granting them better access to justice.

2. More innovative ways in serving clients

With 2020 came the beginning of the pandemic, shifting many operations online across the legal sphere. As a result, firms were forced to consult with clients behind a screen and update them on the progress of their cases remotely. To help with this sudden change, many law firms have leveraged collaboration solutions to lighten their workload.

Some collaboration solutions like Trello allow you to curate a dashboard for clients that can be updated in real time, keeping clients informed and updated on a matter without the need for emails. Avvoka is also one such collaboration solution that allows lawyers and their clients to annotate contracts remotely. When parties deliberate, changes made to the document by either party are always tracked and saved, ensuring that no unvetted edits can be made. Documents are also locked to the opposing party when the other party is editing the document, ensuring that privacy is preserved during the negotiation process.

We hope that in the coming year, more and more law firms will understand the value that collaboration solutions can bring to their legal operations and improve their relationships with clients. To find out more about the benefits of collaboration solutions, do check out our blogpost here!.

3. An increased focus on eco-friendliness

The threat of climate change and global warming seems to get much more intimidating every year. And it is no secret that the legal sector is one of the worst offenders in terms of paper usage and wastage. In between chunky documents that have to be printed for court appearances and those that always insist on printing everything that they can get their hands on, lawyers certainly love their paper.

We hope that in 2022, law firms and in-house teams will move towards a paperless way of doing business, in a bid to help combat climate change. A positive start would be digitizing old and new records into a document management system, eliminating bulky physical files. E-signatures are also another eco-friendly way of approaching negotiations. Utilising e-signatures means printing less paper for the physical signing of documents. E-signing online also helps to reduce your carbon footprint especially if the documents were initially supposed to have been sent overseas via freight or airmail.

4. Decreased working hours for lawyers

With 2021 came what many have dubbed “The Great Resignation”, a wave of workers who have left the workforce entirely, and lawyers are no exception. In Singapore, there was an over 30% spike in the number of lawyers who quit in 2021. Many reasons cited have been longer working hours due to the pandemic and a stressful law firm environment that is unconducive to maintaining relationships outside of the law firm.

As such, our hope for lawyers in the coming year would be reduced working hours so that lawyers are able to have a better work-life balance. To aid in this journey, we hope that law firms will turn towards more legal technology solutions to help take the weight off lawyers’ shoulders.

Law firms could consider automating their contracts, for instance, saving them valuable time in drafting documents. Document automation involves taking existing precedents and converting them into questionnaires. These questionnaires can then be filled to create a document or multiple documents. This will allow you to quickly and accurately generate documents from your precedents. Document automation also allows you to mass-generate documents from a single template, saving you loads of time.

Legal chatbots could also be employed to aid clients 24/7, providing clients with on-demand legal information even after office hours. Such changes could alleviate the heavy load that many lawyers carry.

5. A data-driven approach to lawyering

In 2022, we hope that law firms will move towards a more data-driven approach in managing their contracts. Valuable information can be extracted from each new contract drafted and it would be beneficial to translate this information into something that can aid in future drafting.

One such way that this can be done is through contract playbooks which basically function as a comprehensive guide on how to draft a particular type of 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.

Data can be obtained using various data analytics tools. For example, Avvoka’s Clause Heatmaps that were featured in the National Technology Awards under “Data-driven Product of the Year.” Heatmaps accumulate previous negotiation data from that particular contract precedent. It then outputs a visual representation of which contract clauses are marked up the most by counterparties, using a traffic light colour system. Clauses that get marked up the most are shown in red and clauses that usually prove uncontroversial are marked up in green. This allows lawyers to see what clauses are edited the most so that they can make changes to their base precedents. AI solutions can also be used to extract valuable information if you so wish.

To wrap things up, we can’t wait to see what 2022 will bring! We hope that the legal environment will continue to push itself forward through the adoption of innovative technology and modern work practices to better the relationships with clients and improve the work-life balance of lawyers.

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: Joanna Lim

16 November 2021

The Top 5 Benefits of Collaboration Solutions

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Article, collaboration, current issues, Document automation

(4 minute read)

In this current climate, with workers split across cities, counties and countries, shifting to a remote-working arrangement have become necessary for many companies. Even in a post-pandemic world (touch wood), many are predicting that a hybrid work-from-home model will become the norm. As such, with the decline of face-to-face communication, the need for improved online communication is vital. Navigating these shifting sands is by no means an easy task and this is where collaboration solutions come in handy.

In this week’s article, we’ll be discussing the Top 5 benefits of collaboration solutions and why you should adopt them! In summary, they help with:

We will also be mentioning some great collaboration solutions and platforms that our team has been using during the remote-working world, including a very special bonus section at the end!

1. Clear Communication of Ideas

Probably the greatest difficulty most businesses face with remote-working is facilitating clear communication between employees. If emails are the main mode of communication, miscommunications can easily happen with email ping-pong – sending emails back and forth often causes ideas to get lost in translation. Attached documents are victims of this as well. It is easy to lose track of which document is the most recent version, increasing the possibility of an unfortunate employee editing the wrong document.

With the introduction of a collaboration solution, a ceasefire can be called to the endless assault of email ping-pong. Employees can communicate and discuss ideas on one central platform, making it easier to keep track of the discussion. Individual discussion groups can be created as well to ensure that discussions remain targeted. New additions to the team can also be onboarded quickly on projects by reading through important conversation threads, instead of being forced to trawl through old email threads. Some tools like Slack can come in handy for this.

In addition, utilising a collaboration solution specifically for documents helps to ensure that a document that an employee edits will always be of the most recent version. The Avvoka platform is one such solution that allows users to collaborate and edit documents real time on the cloud, ensuring that each user has access to the latest version of a document. If a document version ever has to be rolled back, this can be easily done as well, as Avvoka keeps track of your document versions and allows you to restore previous versions if you need to.

2. Improved Tracking of Tasks

While working from home, it can be difficult to keep track of what everybody is currently working on. With collaboration solutions, this process effectively becomes a breeze. Clickup and Asana are great tools to help with this. Some collaboration solutions allow you to view you and your other colleagues’ workloads at a glance. Some also allow you to note the stage your colleague has progressed their tasks to. This provides a visual aid to see who may be swamped in tasks and needs a little more assistance to ensure that the project proceeds smoothly.

Deadlines can be set for tasks as well, so that if a deadline is approaching, you will be notified of it, keeping you at the top of your game so that you don’t miss anything!

3. A Reduction in Errors at Work

Keeping track of standard operating procedures in a remote-working environment can be quite challenging. As a result, it is possible that you may forget to do something important.

Well, don’t fret! With collaboration solutions, you can set up workflows that allow you to ensure that you don’t miss a thing. For example, if you need the Head of HR to approve a particular document before it is sent out, you can set up a workflow that reminds you to do so every time this particular document is drafted. This is something that the Avvoka platform allows you to do. In fact, on the Avvoka platform, you can even choose to block the sending of documents before approval is obtained, leaving no room for error! Read more about workflow automation with Avvoka in our previous blog post.

4. Boosting Productivity of Employees

With the possibility of a hybrid work from home system on the horizon, it can be difficult for employees switching between working from home and in-office work to keep track of their stored files.

Left a document in your hard drive at work? Well too bad, you’ve got to go back to the office to download it and bring it back home with you. With collaboration solutions like Avvoka, this is no longer a problem. Avvoka is cloud-based and allows you to access the platform anytime and from anywhere. Storing your documents on the cloud allows employees to access them with ease, whether they are in the office or working from home! Documents can also be sorted into folders on the cloud, saving employees time sifting through their hard drives in search of one particularly elusive document. Google Drive is also a very well known solution if you are looking to store documents on the cloud.

5. Improving Relationships with Clients

Using collaboration solutions also helps to improve client satisfaction. Many clients often have burning questions about your company or services and won’t hesitate to drop a quick email to have their queries answered. With a collaboration solution, these questions can be viewed with ease by all members of the team, giving everyone a chance to chime in before the final reply is sent off.

Some collaboration solutions, like Trello, also allow your clients to view progress boards or dashboards that you have specifically curated for them, allowing you to keep your client updated with the progress of projects or services without firing off multiple emails! This improves communication between the team and your clients. It also saves your client the added email asking how their project is progressing, because they get a clear view of everything.

In the case of negotiating with clients, collaboration solutions can also be handy to ensure that both you and your client have the smoothest and safest experience possible. On Avvoka, when parties negotiate, changes made to the document by either party are always tracked and saved, ensuring that no unvetted edits can be made. Documents are also locked to the opposing party when the other party is editing the document, ensuring that privacy is preserved during the negotiation process.

In sum, collaboration solutions are a tool that can prove extremely valuable to your company. They don’t just improve your internal processes but also your external relationships with clients, keeping your online workspace tidy and efficient. So what are you waiting for? Try out a collaboration solution today!

Bonus!

Even while separated, there are still ways for teams to bond online! One way is by designating breaks for team members to chat so that they remain connected on a more personal level. You could also encourage a games night/morning, so that team members can start or end their day on the right note!

Here are some games that we recommend:

Jackbox.tv games (purchasable on steam)
- Various fun minigames including trivia that you can play with your team.
Skribbl.io
- Your colleague will be prompted to draw a picture and the rest of the team will have to guess what it is.
Gartic Phone
- An online version of broken telephone or the telephone game.
Codenames
- A fun word guessing game that splits your colleagues into two teams.
Scattegories
- Score points by naming unique things within each category your colleagues are given.

Read more from Avvoka:

By: Joanna Lim

3 November 2021

Mental Health and stress in the legal profession: How to cope with it and how technology can help

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Adoption, Article, Document automation, LegalTech, ROI

(3 minute read)

Mental Health is a silent but complex issue and there is still a lot of stigma surrounding it, especially in competitive industries like the legal industry. In the face of the pandemic, these problems have become more evident, with a sharp rise in people feeling anxious or depressed. This is exacerbated by a bottleneck in mental health services, where long waiting lists make it harder for people to access the help they need.

October was “Mental Health” month and this week is “National Stress Awareness Day” in the UK, so we thought that now would be a good time to reflect on this very real and very important issue.

As such, this week’s blogpost will focus on:

What is stress and how to identify it?

Stress is the body’s response to pressure. When we experience a pressurising event our bodies produce stress hormones which trigger a fight or flight response. In its healthiest form, stress can be helpful and can aid in our motivation to accomplish things. Once that stressful event has passed, our body’s stress hormone level returns to normal. However, this is not always the case. Periods of prolonged stress might leave you feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope, giving rise to mental or physical health issues. If you would like a helpful breakdown on the concept of stress, have a look at this page.

Identify and understand the stress signs so you can properly manage stress.

Everyone reacts to stress differently, but here are some common symptoms to look out for to identify if you are unhealthily stressed: difficulty concentrating, mood swings, difficulty relaxing, feelings of being overwhelmed and low self-esteem. The mental health foundation has a particularly useful resource to help you further identify signs of stress and manage it successfully.

Why Lawyers?

Protectivity conducted a survey into stress in the UK. It was reported that 63% of legal professionals suffer from stress on a daily basis, making the legal profession the second most stressed profession in Britain after HR. A report from the Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society of England and Wales highlighted that this was particularly prominent in young lawyers with over 93% reporting that they are stressed at work and almost 25% saying they felt extreme stress.

There are many potential reasons why lawyers are quite high up on this list. It has been suggested by the CEO of Avoteca, Ana-Maria Drăgănuță Briard, in her LegalTech podcast Legal Tales that this culture of overworking finds its roots in legal education. Law students are pressured to perform well and are expected to pull all-nighters just to get their work done. This then translates to the legal industry where working excessive hours is seen as a badge of honour. Furthermore, due to the circumstances of this culture, many legal professionals are trained to be high achieving perfectionists. This intense ambition can lead to great stress amongst lawyers as they attempt to maintain their high standard of work and also massive disappointment when their concerted efforts fail to achieve the results they want.

Why is stress an issue?

If a legal professional is extremely stressed, they are unlikely to be performing at their peak.

The Path to Lawyer Well Being Report from the American Bar Association states that: “well-being is an indispensable part of a lawyer’s duty of competence”.

On an individual level, managing your stress is extremely important for your own well-being. Physically, prolonged stress can lead to a weakened immune system and a higher chance of you falling sick. Mentally, long-term stress increases the risk of mental health problems like anxiety and depression.

On an organisational level, managing your employee’s stress is imperative to ensure that your employees are motivated and putting out their best work. If a legal professional is extremely stressed, they are unlikely to be performing at their peak.

This means that they are more likely to make mistakes that can ultimately put their clients at risk. The poor mental health of your employees can also lead to an increase in widespread sick leave and decreased productivity which will ultimately affect long-term profits.

Tips to decrease stress

When it comes to mental health and stress control there is no one-size-fits-all cure. What may work for other people may not work for you. However, there are some common activities that may aid you in relieving stress like exercise and spending time with those important to you. In a Protectivity study, 53% of people reported that watching TV/Films helped them to reduce stress, with 20% citing exercise and 32% suggesting that taking a bath or a shower helped them to relieve stress.

The Mental Health Foundation has many free publications designed to help people manage their mental health. This includes a guide on how to manage and reduce stress. The guide helps you to identify the causes of your stress so that you are able to review and modify your lifestyle to include activities that reduce stress. Activities that they recommend include: eating healthy, exercising, sleeping well, mindfulness, taking time out for yourself, and not being too hard on yourself. The Stress Management Society also has some great resources to help people deal with stress.

Mindfulness is one of the best stress mitigation tools, helping you lower your blood pressure and strengthening your immune system

It has been found that Mindfulness is one of the best stress mitigation tools, helping you lower your blood pressure and strengthening your immune system. In fact, a 20-minute Mindful break can boost your brain cognition by 70 per cent! What’s great about mindfulness is that you can start right now! All you need is just a few spare moments. For example, simply taking a series of deep breaths while you’re at your desk can help you recharge. You can also take it a step further with guided meditations. If you are new to meditation, you can try the app Waking Up or check out the Mindful.org website. Mindfulness is a mental skill that can be developed through training – consistency is key.

Virtual therapeutic experiences have also been developed to help ease the stress associated with the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic. They are free to use and only take up 20 minutes of your day to help you relieve anxiety and stress.

Organisations can also help employee mental well-being by adopting the Mental Health First Aider initiative. Many law firms have implemented this initiative, aiding in removing the stigma surrounding mental health in the legal industry and empowering professionals to confront issues which might be affecting their well-being.

It is also of paramount importance that professional help is sought when needed. You are not alone, the Mental Health Foundation reported that around 12 million people consult their GP due work stress and related mental illnesses. Talk to your doctor about how you are feeling, the sooner the better. They will be able to give you proper advice and refer you to a treatment that is right for you as well as to further help. If your stress is work related then the Mental Health Foundation has a really helpful page that may be of interest to you. If you feel comfortable enough to do so, you can also speak to your supervisor/manager to see if they can help you in managing your workload. A survey by Willis Towers Watson showed that 75% of the U.S. employers ranked stress as one of their biggest health and productivity concerns.

Importance of raising awareness about mental Health – How to get involved

Raising awareness about mental health is extremely important for a number of reasons. First, it helps to combat the stigma surrounding mental illness so that fewer people will feel pressured to suffer in silence. Second, awareness can also aid in early detection and intervention of issues concerning mental health. With an increase in awareness of these symptoms, people are more likely to seek help and take action to ensure their own mental well-being.

There are many organisations that provide assistance and raise awareness about mental health issues, like Rethink Mental Illness, Mental Health Foundation, Anxiety UK, Mind, Stress Management Society, and Samaritans. They organise different campaigns and events that you can get involved with, they also provide a multitude of support and resources that you can use. If you want to help them with their mission, you can always support them with a donation.

If you are interested in the subject, a great podcast to listen to in your spare time is Legal Wolf, which is dedicated to talking about mental health. It includes interviews with professionals who discuss their jobs, complexities and mental health-related stories. The podcast also discusses the stigma of mental health around the world, and what’s being done to challenge it. In one of these episodes, our Head of Growth, Giles Thompson, converses with Inez Brown and host Steve Lawlor about Mental Health within the legal profession.

How can Technology help?

At Avvoka, we believe that technology can have a positive impact on stress, especially in the legal industry. For example, automating repetitive aspects of work can help to alleviate lawyers’ workload, giving them more time to work on other important tasks so that they can leave the ‘office’ at a sociable hour. As such, technology can help transform the way that lawyers manage their ever-growing work-load. Collaboration technologies can also help with the growing calls for an increase in flexibility in work.

There are also technologies specially designed to help with mental health. Liminal VR is one of such progressive initiatives. It is a fun, engaging and affordable tool that aids in reducing anxiety, elevating your mood and even reducing pain. It is currently used in many schools, workplaces, hospitals and residential aged care facilities. It uses virtual reality technology to deliver immediate positive changes.

Mental Health-related technology solutions can provide timely and affordable support.

There are many other technology-based solutions and apps that can help with mental health. Sanvello, for example, has been nominated by Verywellmind as the best app of 2021 for reducing stress. The app provides users with cognitive behavioural therapy tools and encourages mindfulness and meditation.

Calm is another app that is great for meditation. Other apps like TalkSpace are online therapy platforms that connect users with licensed therapists at budget prices through an easy-to-use app. One of the biggest benefits of mental health-related apps is that they are easily available, affordable and accessible to people. This is especially relevant due to the long waiting lists for mental health services due to the pandemic. In this way, technology solutions can provide timely and affordable support.

Read more from Avvoka:

By: Caitlin McCabe

Illustration vector graphic cartoon character of trophy winner

18 October 2021

I want to get involved in LegalTech, what’s next?

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Adoption, Article, Document automation, LegalTech, ROI

(3 minute read)

There is no doubt that LegalTech is disrupting the legal scene. Are you interested in LegalTech but don’t know where to start? This week’s blog post will be focused on aspiring legal techies that want to get started in their legaltech journey. If you are looking to get involved in legaltech then the following guide should help you. Good luck!

In this blog post we will give you our top tips on how to get into legaltech, including:

Disclaimer: If you haven’t already, make sure that you apply for our Campus Ambassador Scheme here!

Work experience

If you are looking to get some work experience first, rest assured that there are work experience placements and internship opportunities available in LegalTech. The industry it’s on its rise, which means that these experiences often come with real responsibility and exposure to many different areas of the LegalTech business. You can find many of these opportunities directly with the companies, so make sure you check their websites and social media regularly. If you don’t know where to start, we advise that you first understand the space and different vendors out there, Legal Geek has a very comprehensive Startup Map that can help you to get situated.

Generally, the type of work you will be doing will be very diverse and fast paced. Not only will you learn a lot about LegalTech itself but also you will gain an invaluable insight into the legal service industry. A great way of finding companies with open roles is through LinkedIn. Many organisations will post about their business and recent developments, keep an eye out for updates around expansion of the company. Work in Startups and Legaltech Jobs are also good platforms to get started with your search. If you are looking for a fast-paced environment, start-ups are a good place to start. They are especially busy and the likelihood is if they are in a period of growth any extra assistance will be greatly appreciated. Don’t be afraid to send a message to the people that work in your chosen company asking about open opportunities.

Campus Ambassador Scheme

If you are at university or doing a postgraduate qualification, an exciting way to get involved with LegalTech is taking part in a Campus Ambassador Scheme. You will gain a deep understanding of LegalTech, industry experience, mentoring sessions, as well as an invaluable chance to expand your professional network. At Avvoka, we have just opened our applications for this year’s Campus Ambassador Scheme. Here is what some of our previous ambassadors had to say about the programme:

“Working with Avvoka showed the varying opportunities in the legal field. Perhaps the standout highlight was receiving feedback from peers about how much they had learned from the Avvoka Academy and the subsequent interest in legal tech they had developed” – Jacob, University of Nottingham.

“ ‘Shouldn’t be missed,” my journey was quite fun. I have been interested in legal tech for 2 years and this scheme helped me to share my passion with my colleagues. I experienced a legal tech solution for the first time and helped my friends embrace that technology. Today I’m more confident and I know what I want to do after graduating. Thanks to Avvoka.” – Rebecca, University of Sussex.

Interested to know more? What are you waiting for? – sign up here.

Networking

If you haven’t networked much it can seem like a scary and awkward process. However unnatural it may seem, it is very important. If you are genuinely interested in LegalTech then striking up a conversation with someone in the industry that shares the interest will feel more natural. The LegalTech network is very encouraging to anyone who takes a keen interest in the space. You can join groups such as the Legal Tech Talent Network or O Shaped Lawyer Group, if you show that you are enthusiastic and eager to learn someone will be willing to help! The more you do it, the easier it will get. Getting started is the hardest part.

Expand your Knowledge

An obvious way of getting involved in LegalTech is to expand your knowledge and skills in the industry. At Avvoka, we felt that there was too much ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’ when it came to legal tech companies and so we developed the Academy. We give attendees free access and hands-on training on the platform, helping anyone from law students to GCs automate a document. We have also created an Avvoka lab, which gives you the opportunity to access new features and functions before anyone else and give feedback to our developers. So not only do you get to witness the future of LegalTech before anyone else, you also get to help shape it!

The future of LegalTech is no-code, as we explain in a previous blog post, there is no need to learn how to code to get involved in LegalTech. Almost half of the team at Avvoka cannot code! However, if it is something that you are interested in learning to code won’t hinder your chances of success. Platforms such as Coursera and edX give you the opportunity to learn how to code for free. We do believe that lawyers or anyone with a background in law would be incredibly good at learning to code.

You could even participate in a hackathon! They are events in which multidisciplinary teams collaborate with the help of technology to develop prototype solutions. It can help you to see how LegalTech can make a difference in areas such as access to justice. Additionally, attending the LegalTech Vacation Scheme hosted by Law School 2.0 is a great way to prepare yourself for the integration of technology into the legal profession and engage with practical opportunities to expand your knowledge and skills.

There are also many informative blogs that will help you generate an understanding of LegalTech such as our Avvoka Angle, Artificial Lawyer, LegalITInsider and LegalTechHub. Or if you prefer podcasts a few include, The Wired Wig, Technically Legal and LawNext.

Understand the types of roles available

The roles available in the industry are diverse and varied. It is important to gain an insight into what roles are typically available in LegalTech so that you have an idea into what area you can and want to specialise in. On one hand, to build the products engineers, designers and project managers are hired. On the other hand, marketers, salespeople and business developers are hired to sell the product. There are also some other legal tech and innovation related roles available in law firms and in-house legal teams. You should be ready to understand what each of these roles entails. We recommend that you check out the excellent Legal Tech Careers Guide by Lawtomated.

Learn the Language

Learning to speak the LegalTech language is a great way to strengthen your ability to get involved in the industry. It can be understandably confusing to get started if you don’t understand the jargon used in the field. You can check out one of our previous blog posts for a glossary that can help you understand document automation jargon better!

We hope all these tips will motivate you to get started in your legaltech journey, and remember that you can apply to Avvoka’s Campus Ambassador Scheme to get first hand knowledge about how a legaltech company works in our insight day, applications are now open!

Read more from Avvoka:

By: Caitlin McCabe

21 September 2021

Migrating from Legacy Technology, Is It Worth It?

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Adoption, Article, Document automation, legacytools, LegalTech, ROI

(3 minute read)

The legal experience was first modernised with what we now call “legacy” legal technology, which mostly consisted of Microsoft Word plug-ins to help in billing and document management. Though it’s been around for decades, it’s no longer the only solution to achieving efficiency in the workplace. Legal tech is on the rise, and legacy tools can only bring organisations so far due to their high barriers to entry, costs and complexity. Firms are then faced with the dilemma: to change their legacy tools and migrate to newer tools, or stay stuck in the past.

In this week’s blog post we will evaluate some of the common objections to making the change from legacy legal tech to newer tools. We hope that by the end of it you will understand some of the benefits of trying out new tools. If you are ready to make the change, make sure you don’t miss our top tips for a successful adoption!

Objection 1: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Probably the most common objection to changing legacy tools and adopting new tools would be that firms don’t see a need for change. If it’s not broken, why fix it? However, this inertia is what holds firms back from reaching their true potential. Firms that claim their current legacy tools meet all their business needs haven’t even broached the surface of what technology can really do for them.

In the world of document automation, some problems of these legacy technologies include high barriers of entry due to the need for specialist training, or a heavy financial commitment to hire and maintain a team of automation experts. Most of these problems can be solved by newer generation tools that tend to be more intuitive and user friendly. By eliminating the need for coding knowledge, newer tools empower larger groups of people to take charge of automation making the whole process scalable through the organisation.

At Avvoka, we’re able to seize opportunities for future growth by leveraging our technology in ways previously unforeseen. With traditional document automation tools, the time-intensive nature of using these platforms means only the main transaction precedents could be automated. These meant under 10% of a company’s or law firm’s documentation. Avvoka expands the universe of documents that can be automated because now users (like lawyers) with no coding experience can automate their documents. Avvoka can not only automate, but also manage the entire lifecycle for all kinds of documents, no matter how complex – be it a 2-page NDA, or a 200-page loan facility agreement (which we’re currently working on under our project with the Loan Market Association, LMA.Automate)

Objection 2: No time to retrain

Admittedly, it is difficult to get excited about retraining members of your organisation to use a new tool. However, when new tools are as intuitive as ours at Avvoka, this is not a hard task. We’ve shelved the code-based automation found in common legacy tools, so you work with a visual tool in plain English. In fact, it’s so easy to use our system that you could master automation in just 90 minutes at one of our Avvoka Academies! Our philosophy is to put control of document automation back into the hands of the people who actually authored the documents, and thereby democratise the process and reduce friction between teams.

Remember, you can waste valuable time trying to work with legacy tools if you can’t understand the system yourself, and have to revisit automation specialists or legal teams to instruct you. After all, no one knows your documents better than you do – so you should control every aspect of its creation! If organisations refuse to open the door to explore potential solutions, they’ll never come across opportunities to find options that might better suit their needs than their current tools.

Objection 3: Can’t afford the change

When you weigh up the pros and cons, it’s not only the financial aspect that you need to review. There is also the time factor, efficiency and opportunity costs of legacy tech against new tools. After adding all up, it becomes evident that the latter is worth the investment.

First, because the need to know how to code is a massive time and financial cost associated with legacy tools. It’s costly to maintain a specialist document automation team, especially because legacy languages are niche and experts are hard to find. Relying on external specialists to automate documents also means that underlying templates are hard to maintain if those individuals ever leave.

Secondly, the costs of maintaining legacy applications, systems and infrastructure create a huge logistical and financial burden for an organisation to bear. New generation tools, like Avvoka, are online softwares which means everything can be handled on your browser with ease, and little to no logistical support needed.

Finally and most importantly, think of the opportunity costs in not achieving your full potential. As mentioned above, there’s a whole universe of transactions that our new technology can help you with. Why play in the little leagues forever?

In short: why not assess how new technology can better serve your firm’s interests? You have the opportunity to seamlessly transition to more intuitive platforms that will surely bring you a great ROI. Are you ready to try a new tool? Then don’t miss our tips to nail your legal-tech roll out!

Read more from Avvoka:

By: Uttara Gautham

7 September 2021

LegalTech: Barriers to Adoption

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Adoption, Article, Document automation, LegalTech, ROI

(4 minute read)

It is not uncommon to find many legal service companies exploiting the full potential of technology. Legal Tech has fundamentally changed the way law firms and in house counsels do business. These advancements have certainly been promising and COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for the adoption of LegalTech. However, there are still significant barriers that the industry faces.

In this week’s blog post we will discuss:

Main Legaltech Barriers to adoption

Mismatched expectation from reality

Many times a product’s true potential will only be revealed during the trial phase and the LegalTech industry is no stranger to this. Take Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an example. It has become quite a hot buzzword in recent times and many tech solution providers have used AI in order to upsell the potential of their wares. A survey conducted by the American Bar Association in 2020 found that nearly 35% of respondents cited accuracy of AI as a barrier to adoption. Whereas only 7% of respondents implemented AI tech tools in their business. Many experience fear of investing time and money in the wrong technology. One of the biggest challenges to the adoption of advanced decision-making technology is the black box challenge, not knowing how a piece of software such as AI arrives at the outcome.

resolve obstacles - - legaltech barriers

If you are unsure about technology, many firms offer demos, free trials or pilot options. This enables you to assess how the technology works, if it fits your existing working culture and how impactful it can be for you and your colleagues. At Avvoka, we also offer free document automation academies which give you the chance to freely try the technology and even offer feedback on it with the Avvoka lab.

Cost

Cost is a very real hindrance that limits any new venture. A survey conducted by the SRA reported that for those adopting legal tech 50% cited the most significant barrier was a lack of capital to invest. The cost can be divided into two sections, namely frontend and backend. For the former, this consists of expenditure paid upfront before a project begins. This is the process of procuring, evaluating, and implementing new technology that comes with a significant investment of money, time, and even opportunity cost. For the latter, this points towards the sustenance of new interests. Where cost is accounted for by new teams and resources that will manage and support these infrastructures.

If you are looking into a document automation project but are concerned about the costs we recommend that you estimate your ROI. You can do this by comparing your current process data to your expected data post automation to show the potential ROI. 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’! As well as ROI consider the fact that some LegalTech investments produce benefits such as: reducing inefficiencies, minimising errors, reducing risks and improving efficacy.

Unsuccessful onboarding process

When investing in technology most expect to reap the benefits immediately without a proper onboarding process. However, training is inevitable and many projects fall at this hurdle if adoption is not achieved within the organisation. Sometimes this is due to lack of engagement and communication in the onboarding process and not the tech itself.

A strong onboarding plan is vital for your software adoption strategy. We recommend that when considering adopting a Legal Tech solution you ask about the onboarding process and support on offer. For example, training is vital when adopting new technology. An onboarding strategy is most likely to succeed if the training is offered in stages. In our experience, having helpful guidance materials using various forms of media helps to engage a broad variety of learners. We have a wide range of training materials catered for clients on hand to help with the onboarding process. You can find more of our top tips for successful adoption in one of our previous blog posts.

Lack of time and incentives

Lawyers are very busy people and sometimes they do not have time in the day to dedicate to learning how to use a new tool. A recent study indicated that there is a real fear, especially among trainee lawyers and associates that it will take too much time to train to use a new tool. It is, therefore, easier for them to continue working the traditional way even if it is inefficient. According to the American Bar Association study in 2020 only 22% of those surveyed strongly agreed that they had received adequate training on their firm’s technology. Lawyers have also reported a lack of incentives to train on new technology. Training is not always encouraged by those higher up nor made compulsory. As a result of this, it tends to slip through the cracks which then drives disengagement in the technology.

However, there are many efficiencies and time-saving opportunities to be gained through adopting LegalTech. Document automation for example is all about efficiency, it helps users to create documents faster and ensures that they are created perfectly each time. No more square bracket tinkering! Some tools can even mass generate many different types of documents at once which is invaluable for big deals! The short term pain of having to set aside time to train on the technology leads to long term gain of efficiency.

Cybersecurity and privacy

It comes as no surprise that this concern is on the list given that lawyers are trained to consider the worst-case scenarios. Over the past few years as more companies digitalise there have been a number of high publicity data hacks. For law firms, the stakes are higher. The nature of litigation consistently deals with sensitive and confidential information. Any data breaches of such nature will be detrimental to the firm’s credentials as well as the clients they serve. Hence being risk-averse to adopt technology comes naturally for most law firms.

For Legal Tech vendors ensuring the security of information is paramount. Security and privacy concerns are taken very seriously and worked on tirelessly to protect. Many vendors will adhere to the industry best practices for design and development. Avvoka has bank-level security and has received ISO 27001 certification. New features are thoroughly tested and the security policies are constantly improved as the threat landscape changes. You can read more about the steps we take every day to ensure information remains safe here.

Fear

Fear of what the future holds can paralyse and create resistance to change in any industry. Pre Covid-19, law firms reported one of the best years for income. So many might be thinking why fix what isn’t broken? However, just because it may not appear to be broken doesn’t mean it can’t be elevated. 50% of participants reported in a 2020 SRA survey that a lack of staff expertise to assess and implement technology acted as a significant barrier to adoption.

Fear is in most cases is led by a lack of understanding over the consequences and benefits. People fear what they don’t know. To overcome that fear investigate and get comfortable with different legaltech solutions and the legaltech space in general. You can also attend a demo or ask for a free trial or pilot period to make sure you really understand how a certain technology works and whether it’s a good fit for your organisation.

How to overcome these barriers to legaltech adoption?

Business Strategy

Those adopting LegalTech need to have a strong business model and innovation strategy to go with their new tools. Just using or investing in a tool won’t automatically equal success. The investment needs to be carefully selected in light of the firm’s strategy so that it can improve its offering, efficiency and increase profit margins. When LegalTech is adopted in line with a clear strategy and understanding of what technology is on offer, time and money are not wasted on ill-fitting poorly adapted systems due to rushed decisions.

Communication

Communication to all of those involved is imperative throughout the whole process. Firms could use lawyers at all stages more actively in the entire process from procurement to onboarding. This will ensure that the tool being adopted is a good fit and benefits are clearly understood. Narrowing in on document automation, a previous blog sets out the questions to be asking yourself and fellow team members when selecting which tool is the right fit for your business.

Training

The training process can be made more digestible with achievable goals set alongside a training schedule. It may also be a good idea to make the training compulsory. This will ensure that all of those who should be using the technology have the time set out to train. Some firms are setting aside “innovation hours” which count towards billable hours as well as innovation awards and targets to hit. At Avvoka, we offer automation training to all of our clients. With our platform being intuitive and easy to learn most users are able to grasp the document automation essentials within an hour. You can experience this for yourself with the Avvoka Academy which is free and open for anyone who wants to learn how to automate.

Why is it important to overcome these barriers?

In a 2020 study conducted by the American Bar Association 67% of lawyers believe that they are “required to stay abreast of benefits and risks of technology as part of their basic competency requirements”. Clients are demanding more efficiency and starting to place caps on billable hours. Meaning that lawyers are having to find new ways to manage and process work. Investing in the correct LegalTech now can help firms to outpace their rivals in the long term.

Law firms of all sizes have been urgently trying to embrace LegalTech due to COVID19 having learnt valuable lessons amidst the troubles. Actively staying engaged in what LegalTech is available and appropriate won’t leave them scrambling the next time the world changes overnight. All businesses are adopting technology and keeping up to date with what the market has to offer to improve processes, become more effective and produce a superior service. What are you waiting for?

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: Caitlin McCabe and Sean Woon

10 August 2021

E-signatures in the age of Coronavirus

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Article, current issues, Document automation, gig economy

(3 minute read)

In the digital age, the rise of e-signatures has come as no surprise. They are faster, more secure and more convenient than traditional, wet signatures. In a time of coronavirus, their usage has only skyrocketed. With lockdown, planes grounded and trains grinding to a halt, e-signatures have become the most convenient method to finalise deals. Due to this increased demand for e-signatures, the digital signature market is set to generate over $25 billion in revenue by 2030. Against this backdrop, in this week’s blog post, we will review:

1. What is an e-signature?

An electronic signature, or e-signature for short, is a method of authenticating a legal document. As long as jurisdictional regulations are adhered to, an e-signature should have the same legal force as a traditional signature. Examples of such regulations are the NIST-DSS in the USA or ZertES in Switzerland. More information on the legality of electronic signatures across international borders can be found on DocuSign’s eSignature Legality Guide.

In the European Union, the regulation that governs e-signatures is called the eIDAS Regulation. It defines three types of e-signatures:

Electronic Signature: An umbrella term for all electronic signatures in general

Advanced Electronic Signature: This category of electronic signatures must meet four specific requirements:
- The signature is uniquely linked to the signatory;
- The signature is capable of identifying the signatory;
- The signature is created using electronic signature creation data that the signatory can, with a high level of confidence, use under his sole control; and
- The signature is linked to the signed data in such a way that any subsequent change in the data is detectable.

Qualified Electronic Signature: This category of electronic signatures has the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature. It is an advanced electronic signature and as such, must satisfy the same requirements as above. However, there are two additional requirements that make validation far more stringent:
- The signature must be created by a qualified electronic signature creation device.
- The signature must be backed by a qualified certificate for electronic signatures. This has to be issued by a trust service provider that is on the EU Trusted List and certified by an EU member state.

2. Which type of e-signature should I use?

In the previous section, we listed 3 types of e-signatures which are all legally enforceable in accordance with eIDAS. So, which one should you use?

Look at your countries’ legislation

You should check the legislation of your country to see what type of e-signatures are accepted for the contract you are intending to sign. Regulations differ from country to country and as mentioned above, DocuSign’s eSignature Legality Guide will come in handy. For English readers, you can also refer to this practice note by the Law Society.

In general, simple contracts can be executed by a regular e-signature. For common law countries, the formation of a valid contract consists of 4 requirements, one of them being “acceptance”. E-signatures are more than enough to satisfy this requirement of “acceptance”. However, complex contracts may require a more secure form of e-signature.

How secure do you need your transaction to be?

As can be seen from the previous section, qualified electronic signatures are the most secure of the 3, followed by advanced electronic signatures and regular electronic signatures. Both qualified electronic signatures and advanced electronic signatures have complex checks and balances, unlike regular electronic signatures. Hence, the more secure your transaction is, the more secure the e-signature method you choose should be.

Balancing security with ease of signing

It might sound practical to choose the most secure signing method every time a transaction is completed. However, qualified electronic signatures, for example, require a very stringent method of validation. The signature will have to be created by a qualified e-signature creation device and backed by a qualified certificate. If only a regular electronic signature is required for your transaction, choosing a method with more checks will just be an extra hassle for your business partners or counterparties. Hence, you will have to balance the security of your transaction with the ease of signing by your counterparties or business partners.

3. How do I begin my e-signature journey?

You can start off by using e-signature service providers like DocuSign and AdobeSign that support both advanced and qualified electronic signatures. In an interview with Obelisk Support about the Practical and Commercial use of electronic signature technology, Giles Thompson, Head of Growth at Avvoka, remarks that due to the pandemic, he has “seen an increase in live-collaboration on documents using commonplace cloud offerings, like Office 365 and Google Docs.” As such, he “predicts that requests to negotiate contracts via online portals will become as ubiquitous and benign as being asked to sign a document via DocuSign or AdobeSign.”

You could also choose to negotiate and sign your documents on a secure platform like Avvoka which has its own signature tool that supports e-signatures. Avvoka is an end-to-end solution that will help you with the entire life cycle of a document, from drafting to execution and even analytics. The Avvoka platform functions as a document automation platform, allowing you to automate your standard-form documents. Once you are done generating your documents, you can use the Avvoka platform to securely negotiate and collaborate with counterparties. Upon completion of negotiations, the Avvoka sign tool can be used for e-signing by you and your counterparty. The Avvoka platform also ensures that the document cannot be altered in any way after it has been signed.

However, if you prefer to use DocuSign and AdobeSign, Avvoka has developed integrations with both DocuSign and AdobeSign. These integrations are “no-code”, meaning that it is extremely easy for users to link them with their Avvoka account. This provides users with a smooth end to end experience from contract creation to signature.

4. Why should I use e-signatures?

E-signatures are easy to use

The e-signing process is really simple and easy for counterparties to use. Take the Avvoka platform for instance. On the Avvoka platform, all you have to do is upload your document and add a counterparty’s email address. This will send an email to the counterparty containing a secure link to the Avvoka platform. All the counterparty needs to do is type their name and the signing process will be complete!

E-signatures allow contracts to be finalised with speed

With e-signatures, you no longer have to fax or ship documents over to your counterparty. All you have to do is log on to a portal and sign, allowing your time-sensitive documents to be executed with ease.

On occasion, multiple signatories may be required to sign one document. Normally, you would print the document, sign it, scan the signed document and send it off to the next party – rinse and repeat. This was the case for Vermont’s Department of Information and Innovation, which needed to process roughly 240 vendor contracts a month with an average of 4 signatures per contract. Well, with the introduction of e-signatures, the department shortened its contract approval process by at least 75 per cent!

How is this possible? Well, with e-signatures, documents can be signed from wherever you are in the world. There’s also no longer a need to pass the contract around like a hot potato as signatories can sign the document in their own time.

E-signatures are more secure

Upon the generation of an e-signature using an e-signature provider, “sign data” will be created. This “sign data” typically contains information like the geolocation and IP address of the signer, and the timestamp of the exact time the contract was signed. This can be used to validate the authenticity of the signature. In an interview with Government Technology about E-signatures saving Vermont Time and Paper. Vermont’s Chief Information Security Officer Kris Rowley stated, “It’s probably even more secure than sending something in an envelope for somebody to sign — you don’t know who signed it on the other end. This way we have a fair degree of certainty as to who signed it because we can track it electronically.”

Utilising e-signature software will also ensure that the document can no longer be tampered with after the document is signed. The Avvoka platform does this by locking the document after signing is complete. For an added measure, the Avvoka platform also keeps track of who has made changes to the document.

E-signatures allow for international documents to be signed with ease

In a time of coronavirus, it has become almost impossible to travel to another country without having to quarantine at a facility. The costs of quarantining are not cheap and come out of your own pocket. This is also assuming that you can even travel to the destination of your choice, with many countries closing their borders to visitors completely. As such, travelling just to get a document negotiated and signed may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Even in the absence of coronavirus, plane tickets and hotel fees still have to be paid for. E-signing allows you to cross country borders for free from the comfort of your own home. International agreements can be executed with less cost involved for all parties, regardless of time zones.

Platforms like Avvoka also aid in the negotiation of international agreements by keeping track of changes made to the document and allowing users to leave comments on the document for discussion purposes.

E-signatures reduce mistakes made in signing

E-signatures can help to eliminate human error in signing documents. Maybe you forgot to add a date below your signature? Or maybe you signed your document in a hurry in the wrong section of the document? The horror! E-signatures can prevent that from happening, saving you potential costs in fixing these processing errors.

E-signatures help you to reduce costs and are more eco-friendly

Utilising e-signatures means printing less paper for the physical signing of documents, reducing the costs of paper waste. Packaging and shipping costs can also be saved if the documents are typically sent to counterparties through mail. As such, e-signatures also have an added benefit of being more eco-friendly.

In addition, storage costs can also be saved. With e-signatures, you can store your agreements digitally, eliminating any extra costs associated with storage facilities.

5. Get started with e-signatures now!

With the digitization of business comes the digitization of the signature. Especially in a time of coronavirus, e-signatures are gaining traction and rightfully so. They are far more secure than traditional signatures and improve productivity in businesses – saving you time and money while reducing processing mistakes.

Anyone can make the switch to e-signatures too, even the least tech-savvy of us. They’re “techno-dinosaur” friendly and can be used and implemented with ease. So, what are you waiting for? There’s no time like the present to start your e-signature journey and save time for the things that truly matter in your business.

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: Joanna Lim

29 July 2021

Document Automation – Learning the Jargon

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Article, Document automation, ROI

(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:

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:

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!

Read more from Avvoka:

By:  Raam Jeganathan and Macarena Valenzuela

13 July 2021

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

eliotbenzecrit Automation, Avvoka, Legal Tech, Software Updates, Technology Article, current issues, Document automation, gig economy

(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).

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.

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:

It becomes a ‘test case’ for future rulings in lower courts – therefore creating pressure for thousands of companies to follow suit, and if so:
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.

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.

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!

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By: Krishna Swaminathan