LegalTech

APIs computer

How can a document automation API turbocharge your legal practice?

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(3 minute read)

APIs aka “Application Programming Interfaces”, are an essential part of modern software development and are highly used in the document automation space. In this article, we’ll strive to explain how an API can be leveraged to streamline your document automation and boost your efficiency.

In this blog we will discuss:

  1. What is an API?
  2. How can APIs help with document generation?
  3. Avvoka Use Case: API forms
  4. Join Avvoka’s API Academy to learn more

What is an API?

API stands for “Application Programming Interface”, which is a set of definitions and protocols for building and integrating application software. In short, an API can help your software interact and push or pull information to or from other databases or software.

To make the concept more familiar, you can think of an API using the well-known waiter analogy. Imagine you are dining in a restaurant  – you wouldn’t want to go directly into the kitchen to place the order yourself, would you? Instead, you would need the help of a waiter. 

The waiter (the API) acts as your intermediary between the diner (the user) and the kitchen (the web server). You tell the waiter your order (API call), and the waiter requests it from the kitchen. When your kitchen’s ready, the waiter will provide you with your order.

How can APIs help with contract generation?        

Now that we are familiar with what an API is and what it does – how are they relevant to contracts? In short, APIs are very relevant to contracts, as their use can supercharge their accuracy, speed of creation and analysis of their terms.

  • Drive document creation

First, APIs can help speed up the document creation process. With a single API call, you can generate a document from an underlying template. Moreover, using a mix of APIs and webhooks, you can select the exact time when a document needs to be created. For example, a new customer entry in your CRM tool can automatically trigger the creation of a corresponding contract for them.

In Avvoka, you can drive the creation, negotiation, e-signature, and analysis of your documents from another application. Once the document has been completed on the Avvoka platform, the document can be extracted and sent back to your team.

  • Leverage your existing database

First, the use of API can help speed up the document creation process. With a single API call, you can generate a document from an underlying template. Moreover, using a mix of API and webhooks, you can select the exact time when a document needs to be created. For example, a new customer entry in your CRM tool can automatically trigger the creation of a corresponding contract for them.

In Avvoka, clients can continue interacting with their existing internal systems, with the data sent directly to the Avvoka platform, avoiding rekeying, retraining and errors. Document recipients can then interact with a whitelabelled version of Avvoka to fill out any information they need to complete the document, with their accounts being automatically configured.

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generating documents, turbocharged with APIs
  • Beyond automation

Lastly, an API can be used beyond document automation, to extract commercial data from completed or in-progress documents. Sharing data can be a two way-street with APIs – you can also leverage the commercial data you gain after each document creation. Further, you can use the API to send your documents directly to your preferred CLM tool.

With Avvoka, you can send this data directly into your existing business-as-usual reporting tools. Moreover, you can update internal document  storage tools (like SharePoint) with the finalised document and any associated metadata, aiding search and retrieval.

If you want to hear more about Avvoka’s API capabilities, you can take a look at our public API documentation which can be found here.

API

Avvoka Use Case: API forms

One of our successful use cases powered by APIs is creating self-service portals for our clients through forms. Using API forms, we can facilitate making available the Avvoka questionnaire directly into a client’s website.

Without accessing the Avvoka platform via its typical UI, users can generate a new document by completing the questionnaire from an external webpage. This form can be easily located on a client’s website, without the user having to create an Avvoka account. Moreover, it is also possible to customise the forms in the client’s colours and logo.

The core benefit of using an API form is facilitating an easy user experience, without losing any of Avvoka’s core functionality. The Questionnaire is still customisable, allowing the user experience to be signposted using images, hints, links and explanatory texts. Different input methods can also be chosen, such as dropdowns, predetermined lists, dates, currencies and more. Moreover, the client still benefits from features such as workflows, for example, if a questionnaire response triggers an email reminder or internal approval.  You can even use a related document function to create more than one agreement depending on the answers provided in the questionnaire.

For example, our clients have leveraged Avvoka’s API forms capabilities to:

  • Create a contract e-shop, where their clients would buy contacts and generate documents.
  • Create a self-service portal, where their employees can create documents by simply answering the form embedded on their website. 
  • Supplier questionnaires: Improve your procurement process with your suppliers making it easier for them and for you.
  • HR: candidate screening questions or information needed to provide an offer letter and/or an employment agreement.
  • Automate procedural forms that businesses enter into regularly:
    • KYC documentation, information security and vendor due diligence forms;
    • New account opening forms;
    • Multi-jurisdictional questionnaires (for gathering local counsel advice on large-scale matters).
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Join Avvoka’s API Academy to learn more

Are you interested to know more about how APIs work, and how they can be applied to streamline your document automation?

Avvoka is hosting an API Academy, built for professionals in Law, Tech, Sales, HR and anyone interested in learning how using document automation APIs work and how they can be leveraged. During the Academy, we’ll walk you through how APIs work, explain the key concepts and outline the benefits of using APIs in document generation. Moreover, the Academy also has a practical session, where you can learn how to send your first API call.

Interested to learn more? Then don’t miss the chance to join Avvoka’s API Academy here.

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Read more from Avvoka:

Andrada Constantinescu

Tiny people with clock, checklist and target

Legal technology: how any lawyer can supercharge their practice

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(5 minute read)

With the entrance of Legal Technology and a new generation into the legal profession, the future of the legal profession is about to change. This blog post will be focusing on the generation driving this change and the future of legal work.

In this blog we will discuss:

  1. The Legal Technology Industry
  2. As an aspiring or qualified solicitor, why does this matter to me?
  3. What is legal technology?
  4. What’s document automation?
  5. The difference between legacy tools and no-code tools
  6. Return on investment: how can document automation affect legal practice?
  7. As an aspiring solicitor, ask yourself the following questions:
  8. A career in legal technology

The Legal Technology Industry

Legal technology is becoming an increasingly decisive contributor to the every-day functioning and success of global law firms. With hordes of new competing tools swaying market trends daily, its presence and relevance in the legal industry is now rarely questioned.

As an aspiring or qualified solicitor, why does this matter to me?

The first key reason is that recently, especially considering remote working circumstances brought about by covid-19, most law firms are seeking to alter their internal practices/boost their offering by using technology. In fact, “56% of law firms in Europe indicate that their need for legal technology solutions has increased as a result of the covid crisis and 65% report that their investment in legal solutions will stay the same or increase moving ahead”. Any aspiring solicitor worth their salt should be able to highlight their target firm’s involvement and speak to the market trends. Secondly, legal technology offers exciting alternative career paths to those who are unsure whether the private practice route is for them.

What is legal technology?          

Most browser searches will respond with broad phrases such as “tools that provide aid to firms in legal practice”. However, it’s important not to bottleneck the various categories of these technologies and the niche services they can deliver. While their functionality is particularly useful for law firms, the majority of legal technology software can be applied to any business that handles documents.

There are two main providers of technology: law firms and private companies. Law firms often choose to invest internally by building their own version and brand of legal technology. These technologies normally address specific issues for the firm internally, however, they’re typically then limited to the tool’s functionality alone. Moreover, some firms have attempted to commercialise their internally developed tools for the external market, beyond their own clients. On the other hand, private companies must ensure their tool offers a wide range of functionality. This will ensure that their software is sufficiently adaptable to a broad range of law firm needs so, in the eyes of the firms, they’re the better investment. For example, at my firm, Avvoka, our product team diligently incorporates client feedback into its roadmap to ensure the tool is always serving current market needs.

It’s impossible to comprehensively list the different categories of legal technology, let alone the specific tools within each category. For instance, within the realm of contract drafting, we might typically see tools, such as Avvoka, that assist in document automation, negotiation, eSignature and storage. This article will focus on document automation, as this is crucial in facilitating the first step of any transaction: contract creation.

What’s document automation?

Picture a contract precedent, currently sat in a Microsoft Word document. At least twice a week (and likely much more often in a large firm), a lawyer inputs fresh data into the contract (e.g., company name, company number) and then must add or exclude standard clauses based on the details of the transaction. This work is exactly why document automation technology was developed as it allows this process to be completed more efficiently. For example, the Avvoka platform turns contract precedents into simple online questionnaires, allowing firms to future proof their valuable knowledge bank and expedite the process of executing documents based on already automated templates.

The difference between legacy tools and no-code tools

There’s an entire market of private companies that offer software, such as document automation, as a service (SaaS companies). These companies typically fall into two common categories: legacy tools and no-code tools. Legacy tools have been around for decades and use coding to integrate their software and automate documents. No-code tools, such as Avvoka, are newer on the scene. They allow any users, regardless of their technical expertise or coding knowledge, to upload and automate documents on their platform with minimal training. While legacy tools have a well-established market presence, their high barriers to entry, costs and complexity, all because of the requirement for coding syntax in their templates, have created ample need for the newer tools.

Return on investment: how can document automation affect legal practice?

The broader benefits of technology adoption are clear as, according to the artificiallawyer.com, “63% of ‘technology leading’ firms have reported profitability increases over the past year, compared to only 46% of other firms that have put less emphasis on tech adoption”.

Firms that choose to take the plunge with document automation will be looking for a return on their investment. This can be delivered in various ways.

Firstly, by replacing the manual task of redrafting old contracts with a simple questionnaire, lawyers are creating contracts faster and more efficiently. In fact, on Avvoka, a single questionnaire can generate not just one, but hundreds of individually tailored documents at a time. This is possible where lawyers set up related documents, such as an engagement letter and a subsequent non-disclosure agreement, so that common data is populated throughout the various documents despite only being entered once. Importantly, this doesn’t mean less money for lawyers on the billable hour. It’s quite the contrary, since more efficiency equals higher deal turnover and client satisfaction, this leads to a greater return of investment and more room for new business.

Secondly, lawyers will improve their efficiency by reducing their occasional (but inevitable) human errors. This is accomplished by restricting access rights to documents, applying visibility conditions to documents so that unnecessary information is discarded and applying approval workflows to documents, so that senior team members can have full oversight of what’s going on in a deal.

Thirdly, lawyers will be able to analyse their work more efficiently and, consequently, reduce their time spent on undisputed areas of work and easily extrapolate what’s becoming market practice in negotiations. Avvoka’s clients can leverage our clause heatmaps that allow users to pinpoint which clauses have been marked up most heavily – shining a spotlight on potentially the most contentious clauses needing to be considered.

Finally, once adopted, lawyers’ improved efficiency and relief from repetitive work will free them up to do what they were trained to do (ie, exercise their legal minds for higher value work). These benefits have a domino effect on the internal workings of firms, including an improved mentality towards work and a renewed focus on legal practice.

As an aspiring solicitor, ask yourself the following questions:

Has my target firm developed its own technology?

Has my target firm partnered with/adopted a legal technology provider?

If so, what benefit is this to the firm itself?

If so, what benefit is it to the firm’s clients?

How might I evidence my deeper understanding of technology to my target firm?

Why will my understanding be an asset to my target firm?

A career in legal technology

The disruptive nature of the legal technology market means there are exciting and high-intensity jobs on the horizon, with new roles being created every day. It also means that employees (irrespective of seniority or tenure) work with high responsibility and can undertake genuinely influential work. If this is something that resonates with you, a career in legal technology might be worth considering!

The Campus Ambassador Scheme is a great way for undergraduate or postgraduate students to get involved in legal tech, gain practical industry experience as well as expand their professional network. Applications applications for this year’s Campus Ambassador Scheme at Avvoka are closing soon, so hurry up and apply to secure a spot! Here is what some of the previous ambassadors had to say about the scheme:

“I really enjoyed the scheme! I love how the people at Avvoka take their time and effort to help us students with our professional development. I felt personally attended to and cared for. I’m looking forward to working with Avvoka again in the future.” – Maiya, University of Groningen.

“The campus ambassador scheme is the core topic of any interview I undertake. The transferable skills and insights into the changing legal profession are unmatched and highlight you as an adaptable and forward-thinking candidate for any role! I cannot recommend applying more!” – Fin Edwards, Nottingham Trent University.

(This article was originally published on LawCareers.Net)

Read more from Avvoka:

Finley Edwards

Generation Z

Next generation of lawyers and the call for legal tech

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(3 minute read)

With the entrance of a new generation into the legal profession, the future of the legal profession is about to change. This blog post will be focusing on the generation driving this change and the future of legal work.

In this blog we will discuss:

  1. The Next Generation of Lawyers
  2. Future of Legal Work
  3. Legal Education and the Next Generation of Lawyers 

The Next Generation of Lawyers

The entrance of new generations of lawyers into the legal profession has stirred up a lot of discourse on what this means for the future of law. New generations are digital native and have had access to technology since they were young. This new generation of lawyers are not as enamoured with the ‘usual’ way of doing things and instead are much more tech minded. This flexibility in their mode of thinking and working due to both generational differences and being fresh in the workforce, spell interesting developments for the future of law. They are a generation ripe for disruption of the legal profession.

Future of legal work

The future of legal work will always have space for the human lawyer (rather than a vision of an AI lawyer filled landscape). It will be less about eradication and more about augmentation. However, the manner in which the next generation of lawyers will carry out their work and tasks is ripe for change.

For instance, the reality of work for lawyers, particularly associates, often involves odious amounts of document drafting with mass amounts of documents – a process that is repeated from one transaction to the next. This task of document drafting and analysis is often the purview of junior lawyers and the mind-numbing nature of the task often spells trouble, eroding the enthusiasm of young lawyers in getting more involved in the more interesting aspects of their work. However, with document automation, the bulk of document drafting can be handed over to a machine which not only reduces time but makes the process more efficient.

Avvoka, for example, allows associates’ to leverage their time better by automating the document generation process, converting documents into a simple-to-answer web form. Documents can be automated with ease due to Avvoka’s commitment to no-code automation, granting associates the ability to automate their documents on their own without any technical knowledge. After the automation process is over, associates only have to answer their simple questionnaire to generate their desired document. 

The next generation of lawyers will find themselves more and more familiar with tools like Avvoka rather than the manual method of document drafting and review that is still prevalent in most law firms. As document automation tools cover more of these repetitive tasks, the next generation of lawyers will see more of their time freed up, allowing them to concentrate on more strategic high-value tasks.

With the new generation’s penchant for technology and flexibility, there will be a great disruption in the types of tasks that lawyers carry out and the method in which they carry them out. As such, the future lawyer’s tasks will be focused on more strategic aspects while automating any routine tasks that can be automated.

Legal Education and the Next Generation of Lawyers

With the rise in the discussion of legal tech and the future of law, there has been an increase in courses, seminars and the like on legal tech, indicating an increase in interest on legal tech from younger lawyers. There have been a lot of discussions on how to equip the next generation of lawyers with the skills to navigate this future.

The typical law degree is focused on legal theories and its application to real life. However, there has been a growing number of digital courses on legal tech that are now available to law students. Though these courses can wildly differ in terms of who is offering them, who they are applicable to and the curriculum, they all hinge on the assumption that legal work is changing and that the people doing it should have access to necessary skills to navigate this change.

Though some of this change is driven by traditional universities offering digital courses relating to legal tech or modifying their current curriculums, there has also been a lot of change driven by non-traditional institutions of learning. 

Law School 2.0, for example, is geared towards both legal students and practical lawyers to provide them a hands-on opportunity to develop and learn more about legal tech and design thinking. Legal Geek mentorship is also another great example as it aims to connect mentors to mentees, with a focus on underrepresented groups in the legal industry. Law Without Walls (LWOW) focuses on the intersection of law, business and technology uniting law and business students through innovative problem solving.

There are various similar programs beyond these springing up which are all similarly  focused on the main idea that the legal industry is ripe for a change and this change will be driven by future lawyers who should be equipped for this.

Some of these courses are also offered by legal tech vendors who are invested in the future of legal work. Avvoka, for example, offers the Avvoka Academy courses. This is targeted not only towards first year law students but also experienced GCs – allowing a broad spectrum of people to gain practical knowledge of document automation and the changing world of contract management.

The Campus Ambassador Scheme is also a great way for undergraduate or postgraduate students to get involved in legal tech, gain practical industry experience as well as expand their professional network. We have just opened our applications for this year’s Campus Ambassador Scheme at Avvoka. Here is what some of our previous ambassadors had to say about the scheme:

“I really enjoyed the scheme! I love how the people at Avvoka take their time and effort to help us students with our professional development. I felt personally attended to and cared for. I’m looking forward to working with Avvoka again in the future.” – Maiya, University of Groningen.

“The campus ambassador scheme is the core topic of any interview I undertake. The transferable skills and insights into the changing legal profession are unmatched and highlight you as an adaptable and forward-thinking candidate for any role! I cannot recommend applying more!” – Fin Edwards, Nottingham Trent University.

As the role of legal tech in the legal profession increases, we can also expect to see an increase in the number of courses and resources focused on helping the future generation of lawyers grapple with legal technology in their roles.

Conclusion

Overall, it is clear that there is going to be a generational shift in the legal profession. Law firms will likely see an increased call for legal tech as younger lawyers demand innovation and flexibility in their roles. The role of legal tech is only going to become even more prominent in the future and new generations will definitely have a huge hand in that.

Read more from Avvoka:

Olewuenyi Chioma

4470588-2000x1538

A Student’s Guide to LegalTech

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(3 minute read)

There is no doubt that the legal landscape is rapidly changing and LegalTech has been a key disrupter on the scene. This blog post will be focusing on aspiring lawyers and legal techies who want to get a head start in the industry.

In this blog we will discuss:

  1. What is LegalTech?
  2. Why should I care? 
  3. How can I get involved? 

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

What is LegalTech?

Legal technology offers solutions specifically targeted at law firms and in-house lawyers to alleviate pain points and enable them to provide better legal services more efficiently. Often these solutions are directed at the most time-consuming and mundane tasks such as automation and contract lifecycle management, freeing up time to focus on the higher-value tasks. You can read more about the LegalTech market and where we predict it might be going here.

Significant developments in recent years include tools that perform due diligence checks using Artificial Intelligence and tools that improve access to justice. DoNotPay, AsylumConnect, and Legal Defence are brilliant examples of how tech is being applied for good causes. The barrier to legal advice has often been set too high, and the legal market will likely resolve this by leveraging automation and machine learning to bring legal advice to more people.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Why should I care?

The global economy is becoming increasingly digitalised and businesses are changing in response, the legal sector is no different. The LegalTech industry is massively disrupting the legal market and innovation is critical to all law firms’ success. Clients are demanding more for their money and the most successful law firms hold their clients as their central focus. Legal technology and particularly, document automation, can expedite the speed and quality that work can be provided to their clients. Law firms that implement LegalTech tools have a clear competitive advantage over the non-adopters in the market in that they can deliver a high standard of work at a fast pace and lower cost. 

Technology solutions are now making law firm’s routine tasks easier and more efficient for everyone. From online data rooms, to document automation, technology is infiltrating the way lawyers work and streamlining all areas. Law students and trainees are expected to have an awareness of the challenges that law firms face and the solutions that LegalTech provide.

How can I get involved?

Most undergraduate degrees do not have specific modules on LegalTech meaning that the responsibility is mainly in students’ hands to learn more about the industry. Here are a few of our top tips on how to get started:

Join a LegalTech society at University

One fantastic way to explore the LegalTech industry is by taking part in student-led societies, like the King’s IT and IP Law Society (KIIPS), the Queen Mary Legal Innovation Society (QMLIS) and the UoM FinTech and LegalTech Society. From panel discussions to mentoring sessions, there are plenty of opportunities to gain insights from leading professionals in the LegalTech world. If your university doesn’t already have a LegalTech society, perhaps you could find some like-minded peers and start one!

Expand your knowledge

To get to grips with the world of LegalTech, the best place to start is expanding your own knowledge. Fortunately, there are a myriad of different ways for you to do this. A great way to expand your knowledge is trying it yourself at our Avvoka Academy. At the Academy you’ll be given free access to our platform along with a training session, allowing anyone from students to GCs to learn how to automate a document. We have also created an Avvoka Lab, giving you access to the latest updates and allowing you to give feedback to our developers.

Law School 2.0 hosts a LegalTech Vacation Scheme, giving students the opportunity to understand how technology is used in the legal profession. It’s a great way to expand your knowledge and skills in an extremely applicable way. Although the future of LegalTech is no-code, picking up a coding course will always be a great thing to have on your CV. With platforms such as Coursera and edX offering free coding courses, it is available to anyone.

trends in legaltech

Finally, an easy way to find out more about LegalTech is reading other blogs like this one! To name but a few of the many out there, you can find the Artificial Lawyer, LegalITInsider and LegalTechHub. If you prefer podcasts a few include, The Wired Wig, Technically Legal and LawNext.

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:

“I really enjoyed the scheme! I love how the people at Avvoka take their time and effort to help us students with our professional development. I felt personally attended to and cared for. I’m looking forward to working with Avvoka again in the future.” – Maiya, University of Groningen.

“The campus ambassador scheme is the core topic of any interview I undertake. The transferable skills and insights into the changing legal profession are unmatched and highlight you as an adaptable and forward-thinking candidate for any role! I cannot recommend applying more!” – Fin Edwards, Nottingham Trent University.

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

Legal Education
Work experience

If you are interested in gaining some work experience in LegalTech, rest assured that there are plenty of work placement and internship opportunities available in the industry. 

Due to the industry flourishing, often these experiences come with a lot of responsibility and exposure to all areas of the business. Work in Startups and Legaltech Jobs are good platforms to get started with your search. If you are looking for a fast-paced environment, start-ups are a good place to look. They are especially busy and the likelihood is that 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.

Attend events and network with others in the industry 

Networking can seem like a daunting and awkward process at first but it is really important. If you are genuinely interested in LegalTech then striking up a conversation with someone in the industry that shares your passion should feel natural. The LegalTech network is very friendly and encouraging to all who share a keen interest in the industry. Getting started is the hardest part, the more you do it the easier it will get! You can join groups such as the Legal Tech Talent Network or O Shaped Lawyer Group,or even attend conferences such as LegalGeek, if you show that you are enthusiastic and eager to learn someone will be willing to help! 

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:

Caitlin McCabe and Sam Warner

Tiny people testing quality assurance in software

The power of no-code automation with Avvoka

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(4 minute read)

To all of the lawyers out there, we get it. There’s never enough time in a day to fight through an ever-growing pile of important work that needs your full attention. Whether that’d be an infinite number of contracts waiting to be drafted or an urgent negotiation call you have to attend, it’s without a doubt that lawyers, too, can benefit from the power of technology.

The SRA revealed that just over a third (37%) of law firm respondents said they were currently using legal technology, with a further 24% planning to do so in the future. As demands for LegalTech solutions grow year after year, it’s crucial to uncover the benefits and myths of legal automation.

In this week’s blog, we will discuss the following:

  1. What is legal automation?
  2. Benefits of automation: Is automation for me? 
  3. When should I automate?
  4. Dispelling automation myths
  5. What’s a successful project?

What is legal automation?

Simply put, we can break down the role of a lawyer into advice and processes. Contrary to what many believe, legal automation doesn’t replace a lawyer, but, in fact, it assists them with their processes.</p id>

Legal automation, by definition, involves the use of software to automate and progress tasks that are common to a legal function, such as:

  • Document drafting and review
  • Workflow, e-signature process, managing approvals, risk and compliance
benefitsofautomation:isautomationforme?

Avvoka is one prime example of a legal automation solution, as it encompasses the end-to-end lifecycle of a contract.

Benefits of automation: Is automation for me?

It’s without a doubt that many law firms and corporates adopt LegalTech to achieve digital transformation and efficiency. This section considers the significant benefits you can gain by using document automation solutions like Avvoka.

1. A reduction in errors at work: Placing your complex contract drafting process in the hands of a document automation solution allows you to take greater control over the information you input in your contracts. With Avvoka, end-users can interact with a user-friendly placeholder functionality that pre-populations any information you feed into the relevant parts of the documents. Say you’ve had a typo, no problem! You can easily revert back to your list of answers and ensure that new changes are reflected all throughout the document in a matter of clicks and seconds.

no-code automation

You can take a step further with Avvoka’s workflow automation tool to create a series of automated actions that replace your manual processes. Instead of physically approaching your supervisor to sign off your work, your document can be designed to bring in an ‘approver’ as part of your approval process. Beyond an approval process, you can also utilise such automation to trigger the creation of related documents when a specific answer is provided by the end-user.

We understand that a part of a lawyer’s responsibilities is to ensure that your work is error- and risk-free, and Avvoka is there to guide you through that process.

2. Boosting employees’ productivity: Spending countless hours on mechanical contract drafting and reviewing can sometimes be frustrating and repetitive. Avvoka takes your complex contract drafting process to the next level by transforming it into a much more streamlined and efficient process. With our range of smart automation tools, your legal teams can cut drafting time by up to 88%. End-users of pre-automated templates simply need to answer a questionnaire to produce a bespoke contract. It’s as easy as that!

To read more on how your lawyers can derive ‘softer’ benefits of automation, follow our article on ‘Financial metrics and document automation.’

When should I automate?

If you’re at the stage of wondering, ‘how do I know I am ready and should automate?’, ask yourself the following 3 questions:

  1. Do I have documents that are repetitive to draft and have lots of standardised wording or drafting options?
  2. Is document drafting causing me risk & compliance issues?
  3. Are my legal team overstretched and under pressure to do more repetitive drafting in less time and at less cost?

If the answers to your three questions (above) are ‘yes’, you are by no means capable of maximising the full potential of Avvoka’s document automation solution.

Here, you can read our ‘7 tips on preparing your documents to be “automation ready”.

document automation

Dispelling automation myths

Finally, we wanted to end this blog post by debunking the common myths of document automation. Now you don’t have an excuse to give document automation a try! 

  • Myth 1: I need to know how to code to automate
    • With no-code automation platforms like Avvoka, you can automate any document without any coding knowledge. Our solution was designed to place ease and comfort in the hands of the lawyers and allow them to be the ‘author’ of their own automated contracts.
  • Myth 2: Too much time will be spent on training my team and me for automation
    • Newer automation systems are designed to be user-friendly and easy for users to pick up. Beyond our visually intuitive interface, our Customer Success team is always available to guide your team through every step of your automation journey, allowing you to leverage the full potential of document automation.
  • Myth 3: Automation will take me too long and cost me more time than it saves
    • Certain levels of hours and thoughts may be required to organise a list of documents and design the automation. However, automating your contract lifecycle will ultimately save you time in the longer term.
  • Myth 4: Storing data in the cloud is not secure.
    • Your data may be more secure in a cloud than in a localised system. As an ISO 27001-certified company, we understand that data privacy and confidentiality are of utmost importance to our clients’ businesses. 
  • Myth 5: My documents and processes are not suitable for automation.
    • Any documents and processes can be automated. There’s no debate that any team can benefit from the power of automation.
  • Myth 6: Automation tools aren’t able to handle the complicated processes that my company carry out.
    • Handling ever-more complex processes is now a priority for many different automation platforms. Avvoka’s work with LMA.Automate alongside leading law firms and corporates is a testament to how modern and efficient automation tools can, in fact, work with the most complex documents.
  • Myth 7: Small businesses like mine don’t need the automation software
    • Small businesses that are already short on resources benefit significantly from an automation system.
signing contract

What is a successful project?

There are various indications of a successful automation project. These include:

  • Doing more in less time: Being able to produce a greater number of documents much more quickly and easily is one tangible sign of the success of document automation. Your team can reuse the time that is freed up to deliver more important tasks and take up higher-value legal work.
  • Delegate drafting tasks: A successful automation project should give juniors control of bigger matters with the reassurance of automated guidance and safeguards being built into automated precedents. Part of the automation project helps to accelerate their understanding of contractual mechanisms.
  • Contributing to the bottom line: By saving time, you reduce costs and inefficiency, leading to a stronger profit margin in your business unit. You can further protect your company’s strategic interests by completing urgent matters in less time, helping to meet client deadlines.
trends in legaltech

Check out our Ultimate Guide for Document Automation to find out more about how Avvoka can help your team.

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 Jun

trends in legaltech

Legaltech trends and drivers for change

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(5 minute read)

Are you keeping up with the rapidly evolving legaltech trends in the industry?

The use of technology has started to show its impact in all areas of law. Key players in the industry have started to take note of this. As a result, there has been an increase in investment in legaltech. Gartner has reported that there has been a record 1 billion dollar investment in legaltech in 2022. Gartner has also assessed that by 2025 the investment in legaltech would have tripled. With these strides in the adoption of technology in the legal industry, it’s time to look at the current trends in legaltech and some significant factors that are pushing for their adoption.

We highlight some of the prominent legaltech trends in the industry that have gained the most popularity.

  1. Document Automation
  2. Data Analytics
  3. Accessibility
  4. Artificial Intelligence
  5. Standardisation
  6. Drivers for Change

1. Document Automation

Paperwork forms a major part of a lawyer’s day. According to a McKinsey & Company study, 25% of this time could be automated with the right legal tech solutions. So, it’s understandable that one of the first areas for automation is in relation to documents, contracts and the like. Keeping with this trend many services have been developed to manage documents. These include document automation services, contract lifecycle management services, document database management, etc. Beyond the legal space, document automation also finds use in banking, pharma and other sectors. 

legaltech trend - Contract automation technology

One of the major benefits of document automation is that it reduces a lawyer’s direct involvement with the paperwork. This allows lawyers to focus on more complex and high value tasks. For in-house teams, the responsibility of document creation can be shifted directly to business users. This reduces the involvement of and burden on lawyers while ensuring an error free creation process. Avvoka is one such platform which allows users to automate simple documents as well as complex documents easily. Check out Avvoka’s Ultimate Guide for Document Automation and Document Automation- Learning the Jargon for more information. 

2. Data Analytics

Data analytics forms a big part of all data driven industries. In document intensive fields including the legal industry, the demand for such data based analytics is gaining popularity. 

legal technology - data analytics
Tiny business people with magnifier work with data analysis on computer. data analysis soft. Pink coral blue vector isolated illustration

Legal analytics tools can aid in finding relevant cases in every area of practice. So a lawyer doesn’t have to sort through all of them manually. These tools can also aid in litigation by simplifying legal research.  Data analysis can also enable law firms to better understand their own operations. Accordingly, they can decide on deployment of resources and cost controls. 

Avvoka also provides data insights based on the documents generated and contracts negotiated on its platform. You can easily surface all the key information contained in your documents and create comprehensive custom reports in just minutes. With functionality like Heatmaps users can track clauses that are receiving pushback, track what’s becoming market in certain sectors and with certain clients. This enables users to create better precedents and quicken the closure of their documents.

3. Accessibility

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the legal industry to fast track the adoption of several technological solutions. These include online courts, e-notarisations, e-filing, online dispute resolutions etc. Courts have adopted live video or live audios for remote communication post the lockdowns resulting from Covid-19. With this there have been rising concerns of ensuring accessibility and access to justice through these mediums.

Legal technology - electronic accessibility

Many countries are now incorporating online hearings as an option available for all types of cases. There has also been an adoption of online dispute resolution models. These models use predictive judgments and have been found to increase access to justice and reduce the burden on courts. Additionally, many of these online models have been designed to ensure that they support accessibility for all including the impaired and disabled.

4. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence takes different forms. It ranges from machines that can imbibe cognitive abilities to processing of large data sets (machine learning). Both these forms of AI are used in legal practice. However, machine learning that allows for creation of predictive tools is finding high prominence. Prediction analytics can be used to assess the likelihood of particular outcomes by analysing historical data to identify trends. This can be used to predict case outcomes and has the potential to replace some traditional forms of dispute resolution. 

legaltech trend - artificial intelligence in law

For instance, Motor Accident Claims Online is an online tool launched by the Singaporean authorities that uses artificial intelligence. With this, people involved in motor accidents can get free preliminary assessment of the likely allocation of fault and award of damages. This can potentially avert litigation and lower the burden on courts.

While there hasn’t been a drastic uptake of artificial intelligence it is definitely a trend that creates the most traction. It will also have an overall industry wide impact once there is proper integration with legal systems and processes. 

5. Standardisation

Standardisation is commonly used for low-risk, low-value contracts that can be distributed at scale. They are also used in other contexts to improve efficiency, transparency and best practices in a certain industry. Standardising the main boilerplate provisions in different industry contracts can be an easy win. This would allow legal teams to focus the time they spent in drafting and negotiating on the material and bespoke parts of the contract. Standardising certain contracts (like SaaS Agreements, Master Service Agreements or Option Agreements) that tend to not vary significantly from one case to another is also an option that will maximise efficiency.

standardisation - legaltech trends

The oneNDA is one such initiative harnessing standardisation. It has already been downloaded thousands of times and has hundreds of adoptees. The published directory with over 600 entities having signed up with welcoming arms shows that the appetite is there for standardisation around basic contracts. At Avvoka, we are offering an automated version of the oneNDA through our end-to-end platform, combining standardisation and automation to fully optimise available resources.

Check out our blog on the benefits of standardisation in the legal sector for more details.

Drivers for Change

While many law firms and established in-house practices have made strides in the adoption of legal technologies, law is still a field entrenched in tradition. Because of their old ways, the legal industry not surprisingly prevented the uptake of technology. This refusal to adopt technologies is a huge hindrance. For an industry wide shift to take place industry bodies and even governments can be a factor in accelerating the adoption in the industry. These initiatives will enable widespread adoption of technology and transformation in the industry.

industry wide communication and change - legaltech

The Singaporean government through its ministry of law has launched one such initiative. Their aim is to accelerate an industry wide adoption of multiple leglatech initiatives. Digitalisation is a key enabler in transforming the legal industry. They have hence developed an industry-wide matters management and collaboration platform. The platform supports Singapore law practices, particularly small and medium-sized practices, which often face tight resources, in their digitalisation transformation. 

LMA

Another example from our very own platform is its association with the Loan Management Association (LMA). This was introduced to improve the efficiency of the loan market and encourage the adoption of beneficial technology. LMA.Automate is a secure, cloud-based platform powered by Avvoka software. It is hosted by Allen & Overy. The platform offers an end-to-end solution with a focus on the automation of LMA template documents. It also provides functionality that can cater to the entire document lifecycle including negotiation and collaboration as well as documentation execution and comprehensive data extraction and reporting.

LMA Automate collaboration with avvoka and allen and overy - legaltech trend

We have listed the prevailing legaltech trends in the industry. Also highlighted are some industry-wide initiatives that encourage the uptake of legaltech. What are some of the legaltech trends you would like to see being adopted through industry wide initiatives?

Read more from Avvoka:

The case for document automation – the next step in a law firm’s progression
Could outdated technology be costing your firm?
Discover the Benefits of Standardisation in the Legal Sector
7 tips on how to prepare your documents to be “automation-ready”

By: Anushka Sinha
contract-automation

The case for document automation – the next step in a law firm’s progression

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(3 minute read)

Introduction

1. Cloud vs on-premise

2. Safety of the software

3. User friendliness

5. Analytics capabilities

6. Integration with existing software

Conclusion

We’ve all heard the story: machines will one day render a lawyer’s job obsolete. Artificial Intelligence has long been thrown around as the be all and end all solution to legal tedium – contract review, drafting, and in some cases, even legal advice. Yet, few firms adopt it, with many citing concerns as to cost and accuracy. This isn’t surprising at all – there is no rush to detach the human element from legal expertise.

One must however, not be so quick to similarly dismiss legal tech as a whole. Lawyers did not simply go from press and print to electronic bundles in a day. Even today, lawyers will still find massive filing cabinets full of physical bundles a familiar sight in the office. Change is being gradual and starts with more basic processes. To that end, firms have started with making use of document editors (Microsoft word) and jurisdictions have long since moved towards e-filing and e-discovery systems. It is hard to find a corporate associate willing to negotiate a facility agreement without the use of redlines.

Lawyers are familiar with the use of precedent documents in the process of drafting. In the same manner, document automation through the use of placeholders and conditions allows users to customize a master “precedent” (template) that can then be used to generate many future documents. In other words, document automation provides a way for firms to not just future proof their valuable precedents, but also expedite the process of executing documents based on already automated templates. After all, if the practice of using precedents is already so commonplace, why not go an extra step to leverage its benefits even further?

But of course, the potential benefits of adopting simple software might not present sufficient cause for a firm to adopt it. Ultimately, the biggest hurdle to adoption legal tech is an inertia against change. After all, if a certain modus operandi has existed for generations and proven itself profitable, why rock the boat? This is where user friendliness, intuitive design, and integration with existing technologies come in. Picking a software that meets the above criteria will greatly smoothen the transition towards implementation of legal tech.

Here are some examples of how to look out for suitable software to help you with your first step into adopting legal tech.

1. Cloud vs on-premise

cloud

First off, take into consideration whether you would prefer a cloud-based software or an on-premise installation of software. A cloud-based software refers to a software that is hosted on the cloud that you can access via a web browser. On the contrary, an on-premise installation means that your software application will be hosted on-site in your own in-house infrastructure.

Cloud-based software allows you to access the software application anytime and anywhere as long as you have a web browser. However, it does mean that your data is not restricted to your own servers. If you prefer stricter control over your data, an on-premise installation would be preferable. However, this will mean that you will be responsible for maintaining the hardware, software updates and data backups.

As such, before purchasing a software, you should weigh the pros and cons of a cloud-based software and an on-premise installation. Some software, like Avvoka, allows you to choose between either option.

2. Safety of the software

When choosing a software, do look at the security certifications that the software has earned. For example, an ISO 27001 or a SOC 2 Type 2 certificate. Do also ensure that the certificates are up to date and have been renewed. These certifications should be renewed annually.

You can also ask for penetration test reports from the software owner to ensure that the software system is impervious to attacks. Penetration tests are essentially ethical hacking, a simulated cyberattack on the software system. Obtaining these reports will help you to determine whether a software system is safe enough for the storage of data.

security

3. User friendliness

Graphical user interface, application, Word Description automatically generated

4. Intuitive design

Visual automation example from Avvoka

Again, look for familiar functionality from commonly used software, such as drag and drop capabilities. Consistent usage of colour coding can be helpful here as well. For example, in Avvoka’s templates, a lighter green highlight over an entire section will always indicate a block condition, while a darker green highlight over lines of text will always indicate an in-line condition. Common placement of navigation tools such as options being nested in headers above documents or menus being placed in a sidebar can greatly ease a user into using the software comfortably.

If you have a chance to do a free trial, do take it. Get a feel for the software yourself and see if you can navigate the software with ease. If you can do so with basic instructions, it’s normally a good sign that the software has an intuitive design and will serve you well.

5. Analytics capabilities

It is important to choose a software that is able to collect data on your processes and activities. This will allow you to surface key data to determine how efficient your current processes are and will also allow you to direct your attention to areas that you can improve in future.

document automation

For instance, Avvoka has a custom report builder that allows users to surface data from documents. We also have a Clause Heatmaps feature that can be used to understand how precedents are typically marked-up across a companies’ whole document portfolio. Clauses that get marked up the most are shown in red and clauses that usually prove uncontroversial are marked up in green.

6. Integration with existing software

integrations

For example, Avvoka offers out of the box integration with iManage Work, and firms using iManage for a DMS can leverage their already established databases through an integration with Avvoka. Other integrations offered out of the box are Docusign, Adobesign, Salesforce and iManage Extract.

To conclude, while the move towards legal tech may seem daunting, firms may not have that difficult a time integrating a new piece of software into their daily usage. There are many benefits to reap from taking this first step with software like document automation tools, and finding the right software can make all the difference in a firm’s experience with the legal tech industry.

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 and Ashley Tong
Hole in bag. Coin falls out of the bag. Vector

Could outdated technology be costing your firm?

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(3 minute read)

Are you leaving room in your firm’s budget to invest in technology? For the majority, the answer is yes – nowadays, it would be tough to find a legal team that didn’t use some form of legal technology to assist with their day to day processes, whether to create and manage deal documents or simply send email correspondence. 

The question we should be asking next is – is your technology suite in need of an upgrade? Change isn’t easy, but is it worth sacrificing your competitive edge and consequently, profitability? Here are some of the ways your outdated technology could be costing you.

  1. Team Efficacy
  2. Siloed Knowledge and Scaled Costs
  3. Unhappy Clients

1. Team Efficacy

Problem solving

Your outdated technology should not be an obstacle to a productive work environment – but a study by ZenBusiness found that 50 percent of those surveyed said outdated tech had a moderate effect on their productivity, and over 16 percent said it had a major one. Where a transaction is slowed down by various roadblocks such as confusing email threads or documents in odd and inconsistent formats, this can lead to frustration and low morale in employees. 

Using comprehensive, end-to-end online solutions such as Avvoka eliminates many of the usual roadblocks found in typical transaction pathways, because every stage (from collaboration with colleagues to workflow and approvals management and even task allocation) can take place within the same platform, simply by inviting the relevant users to a document. Nowadays, more and more CLM platforms offer this end-to-end experience, which means you can ditch the hassle of having too many tools in your toolkit.

2. Siloed Knowledge and Scaled Costs

barriers

If your contracts are written and automated in code, you’ll inevitably shell out an unnecessary part of your budget to ensure constant technical support for the lawyers who can’t understand programming syntax, in the form of IT specialists. As the business grows, this raises inefficiency – now, you need an extra set of hands on every contract the firm handles. In contrast, newer tools are designed with a user-first mentality – so that no matter the technical knowledge, any user can design templates and generate contracts. Don’t believe me? Check out our Avvoka Academies, where we train professionals and students how to use our platform in just an hour. Upgrading to new, no-code tools means lawyers can take charge of their own contracts, thereby eliminating the unnecessary dependency and costs associated with specialist technical assistance.

3. Unhappy Clients

As the world grows increasingly tech-dependent, so do your clients. Outdated technology can not only cost your firm new business, but also be motivation for existing clients to leave. A Microsoft study concluded that more than 90% of consumers would consider taking their business elsewhere rather than work with a company that uses outdated technology, due to security concerns or simply for a better user experience. 

Maintaining your competitive edge means being able to offer more than just your legal expertise – a commitment to innovation and embracing change internally is a guarantee of your firm’s intention to provide efficient, transparent and cost-effective legal services (and most importantly, stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing legal market!)

If you’re curious for a comparison of your existing tool suite against our offering, get in touch for a demo!

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: Uttara Gautham
Tiny tired man reducing stress level

Discover the Benefits of Standardisation in the Legal Sector

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(4 minute read)

Standardisation in the legal sector is a trend that is every day gaining more adepts. In this week’s blog post, we will discuss what it is, what are the benefits, some examples (such as the oneNDA and SALI Alliance), and finally what is the role that document automation has to play with it. This blogpost will focus on:

What is contract standardisation?

Roughly 8.3 billion contracts are drafted worldwide each year. Typically they are expensive and time-consuming to draft. Contract standardisation is where one party sets out the contractual terms that will mostly be non-negotiable. Standardisation is commonly used for low-risk, low-value contracts that can be distributed at scale. They are also used in other contexts to improve efficiency, transparency and best practices in a certain industry. The oneNDA initiative and the Loan Market Association (LMA) documentation which will be discussed later in this blog are both excellent examples of this.

Standards are commonplace in many other industries such as pharma and automotive but they are yet to become the norm in the legal sector. In principle having many different versions of valid agreements or contracts is not an issue, considering much of the legal work is bespoke, but having a recognised standard would reduce the unnecessary tensions during the negotiation process. In this way, Jenifer Swallow, Director of LawTechUK proposes an interesting new model for contracting that includes in its core (i) principles of conduct and  (ii) model (or standardised) terms for contracts. Every day we are seeing more examples of standardisation, and undoubtedly they will keep growing.

Why should we consider contract standardisation?

Standarisation

To discuss the benefits of contract standardisation it is important to first set out a few of the current issues in drafting contracts facing the market to see exactly how standardisation can help to tackle these. 

  1. Efficiency: Currently the drafting process is not always efficient. Drafting and negotiating complex contracts can take a rather long time and due to the cost of this it can put companies of all sizes under significant financial pressure and stress. Standardisation can bring efficiency and saves time to focus on the more important areas of deals. 
  2. Risk mitigation and increased certainty: Standardising will mean that legal teams will know exactly what is on their contract terms, this also reduces the risks by having some of the essential terms always included in their contracts.
  3. Fairer position for all parties: Standardisation works for the many, not the few making the process fairer. Convoluted contracting in small and mid-size enterprises can take leadership time away from growth and more material company matters. Therefore implementing contract standardisation can create a neutral fair position for all parties involved in the contract. 
  4. New opportunities: Similar to the point above, standardisation can create new opportunities not only for companies but for the legal community. Taking time away from the drafting process and challenging that into the contentious issues at play can help to sharpen the focus of lawyers. It can also lead to new disciplines and further evolution of the law. 
  5. Better relationships among contracting parties: Typically, contracts are drafted from a place of mistrust to protect against all of the eventualities. Standardising contracts can help to build better relationships built around trust and mutual understanding which will ultimately be better in the long run for all parties to the contract. 
  6. Legal innovation and Technology opportunities: Contract standardisation goes hand in hand with innovation and technology. The value that can be harnessed from legal documents through adopting LegalTech is great. Designing documents and contracts to be smart enables the chance to implement a range of useful automation and analytics tools. One of the biggest advantages of standardisation and automation is that it allows organisations to be more data-driven, since they are able to draw data to help better understand what is happening in their transactions and across the market.

Due to all the reasons listed above, it is difficult to see the downside of standardising certain contracts  (like SaaS Agreements, Master Service Agreements or Option Agreements) that tend to not vary significantly from one case to another. Standardising the main boilerplate provisions in different industry contracts can be an easy win, that would allow legal teams to focus the time they spent drafting and negotiating in the more material and bespoke parts of the contract.

With the wave of innovation already becoming commonplace in the legal community it is time to take the opportunity to axe out some of the unnecessary bespoke draftings that can lead to uncertainty and cost delays. This will shift the focus of work onto the intricate matters that can facilitate growth and evolve the inefficient, complex, and unfair approach to contracting that has been traditionally in place.

Standardisation in the legal world is not new, some examples in the UK include model articles. These are provisions enshrined in law that apply on a default basis to companies and can be adjusted within certain parameters. Examples of sectors with a range of model contracts are: investment, advertising, banking and construction. In the EU, standard contractual clauses supply companies with a compliant default for transferring personal data internationally. ISDA is another example of industry standardisation.

Standardisation in the legal sector is a trend that we anticipate will keep growing, as Shilpa Bhandarkar from Linklaters proposes in her 2022 predictions “I think we will take steps in that direction through greater standardisation and automation. Initiatives like oneNDA and ISDA Create show what is possible when we collaborate, from a simple two-page NDA through to the much more complex derivative master agreements. I think (hope!) we will see more of that next year – which together helps the industry move forward to a more data-driven future.”

We talked to Electra Japonas CEO and Founder at TLB and Co-Founder at oneNDA. She shared the following thoughts regarding the need of standardisation in the legal industry:

Electra Japonas
Why is it then that in business, we all have our own version of contracts that are meant to do the same thing?

“USB, HDMI, USB-C: these are universal cable types used by all companies that manufacture electronic goods. Panasonic understands that having its own version of a cable does not give it a competitive advantage over Samsung; it would only serve to annoy the customer when they realise that the Panasonic DVD player they bought doesn’t fit into their Samsung TV. As a result, Panasonic uses the universal standard that makes its products compatible with its competitors’ products.

Why is it then that in business, we all have our own version of contracts that are meant to do the same thing? Is there any competitive advantage to having a contract that’s incompatible with the other side’s ‘standard’? One that when sent to the other side, requires an expensive process of adaptation through painful negotiations, enormous cost, damaged relationships and delayed revenue?

Now imagine a world where both parties are using the same standard contract. They both agree to enter into an agreement and use that contract as a basis. If the contract is simple, like an NDA for example, the parties agree not to introduce variation unless absolutely necessary. For more complex agreements, if one side has specific nuances it needs to cover it does so by adding a few lines to the standard in a clearly visible way. Negotiations are either eliminated or limited to that addition, rather than spending days on hashing out stylistic preference or working through hidden provisions that shouldn’t even be in there.

A better future for contracts does not lie in technology. It lies in waking up to the absurdities of our profession and taking the leap to change the way we work.

And the reality is that we, as a legal community, have the power, and arguably a duty to the businesses we work for, to make that happen. We don’t need anybody to tell us what to do or what standard to adopt. Any continuation of the current way of working is purely down to you and me. Let’s bring this madness to an end, together we can do it“

Current market examples of legal standardisation

legal standarisation
Loan Market Association (LMA)

The Loan Market Association sets out to improve “liquidity, efficiency and transparency in the primary and secondary syndicated loan markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa”. Since their establishment in 1996, membership has grown to now stand at 779 organisations across 65+ countries. LMA is widely regarded as the body that creates guidelines for the EMEA syndicated loan market. Documentation was produced after extensive consultation with law firms and loan practitioners to represent an agreed common documentation view. This is under constant review to meet the aims and needs of the market allowing lenders and borrowers to focus on the more important aspects of the individual commercial transactions. 

Some of the LMA documentation, to name a few, include:

  • LMA confidentiality agreements
  • Real Estate Finance (REF) documentation
  • LIBOR Facility Documentation
  • Intercreditor Agreements
  • Facility agreements
  • Security agreements
  • Corporate lending facility agreement
LMA

LMA.Automate is a project that the LMA has launched powered by the Avvoka software and hosted by Allen and Overy. The LMA’s Fintech survey demonstrated that there was a real appetite for end-to-end automation services. Some of the key benefits of automating the process of the production of a wide range of loan documents are:

  • Improved Efficiency 
  • Enhanced Capabilities 
  • Secure Control 
  • Intuitive User Experience 
  • Data Analytics

This is a perfect example of the LMA’s commitment to improving the efficiency of the loan market not only with standardisation, but also by encouraging members to embrace technology. 

oneNDA

The oneNDA initiative is in many ways a pioneer of standardisation, it was crowdsourced by some of the world’s leading contract law experts. It was designed to increase transparency, reduce legal work and speed up business dealings. The campaign was driven from a LinkedIn post in January 2021 by co-founder of the project Electra Japonas. Together with Roisin Noonan they started the project in February in 2021 and officially launched in August. It has already been downloaded thousands of times and has hundreds of adoptees. The published directory with over 600 entities having signed up with welcoming arms shows that the appetite is there for standardisation around basic contracts. This shows great support for the idea that not all legal work has to be bespoke and exhaustive. Recently, an M&A specific NDA has been launched, this contains the standard language of the original oneNDA whilst widening the use-case.

standarisation

OneNDA has also launched Claustack, a community for contract standardisation. Here, lawyers can collaborate on creating standardised contracts by running their own projects, providing feedback on other projects, or even uploading their own templates. The creations will be open source and available to the public for use. The benefits of this innovative project are undeniable in tackling the current contracting process. They are currently working on a new project the “oneDPA” – to standardise the Data Processing Agreement (DPA).

Additionally, having listened to all the feedback that users had provided since having launched, oneNDA has released a new version named “oneNDA v2”. This version allows for a little more flexibility such as space for additional language and expandable text fields whilst maintaining the standard language. 

At Avvoka, we are offering an automated version of the oneNDA through our end-to-end platform. This will help everyone that is interested in adopting the NDA to easily access the oneNDA while getting all the benefits of our end-to-end solution. Clients will be able to generate a draft by submitting a questionnaire, send it to the counterparty, and once agreed, e-sign it directly on Avvoka. Finally, they will be able to leverage key insights and analyse the data and trends contained in their NDAs agreements.

You can watch how the automated oneNDA works in Avvoka in this video below!

oneNDA
Noslegal

Contrastingly to LMA and oneNDA that focus on the standardisation of contracts.  Noslegal believe that standardisation can go beyond the contracts themselves. They have created an open course legal taxonomy project that is aiming to build a standardised categorisation system of legal work and related topics. Previous projects along these lines have been criticised for being too detailed and technical.  Therefore, they have set out to place a strong emphasis on simplicity over details and will not be tied to any legal system. It aims to work positively and in a complementary way to other projects.

Noslegal is a non-for-profit collaborative, open project that is supported by multiple law firms and technology companies. The benefits of this project are numerous for all types of businesses. It will give law firms the ability to describe product lines more succinctly which will aid better communication, marketing and training. It will also help in-house lawyers to classify work easier for internal reporting and benefit small firms seeking legal advice to understand the technicalities to name a few.

SALI Alliance

SALI (Standard Advancement for the Legal Industry Alliance) was formed in 2017 by an inclusive cross-industry group representing legal operations, in-house counsel, law firm professionals, technology companies, and other service providers. It is now publicly backed by CLOC. Its aim is to map out what lawyers do and create a shared taxonomy to describe it. In the beginning of 2020 they published the first Legal Matter Specification Standard (LMSS). It is written in modern, common language and defines legal matters. SALI believes that “a lack of a standard hinders the market, and limits innovation and creativity”.

The project will benefit all participants in the market but especially the consumers who will be able to clearly see what they are billed for. This is also a clear driver for the use of LegalTech as at the moment without a standardised way of classifying outputs it is harder to see the real benefits that tech adopters can achieve.

Bonterms

Bonterms is a new US startup backed by an expansive range of experts from the likes of PwC, Google Cloud and Toyota. Similar to the oneNDA project, Bonterms are creating and releasing standard contracts starting with an NDA for anyone to use. Additionally, with the aim to provide a new, structured way to negotiate contracts through cover pages. The predominant focus is to standardise as far as possible but still recognise the importance of modifications and adaptations where necessary. This is certainly a very exciting project to look out for as it takes shape.

Standardisation and Document Automation

Standards

A recent survey reported that for small to medium-size businesses the four most common types of automated documents are: sales agreements, employment contracts, NDA’s and data processing agreements. Showing there can be great scope for standardisation of these contracts. Legal teams were also reported to be the third most likely driving force behind the adoption of automation behind operations and sales teams. 

There is an immense opportunity for standardisation in the market. The appetite for standardisation of the NDA has been highlighted by the successful launch of the oneNDA campaign. Paving the way for other pioneers to create similar standard documents.

Standardising contracts opens the door for automation, which makes the process even more efficient and risk free. After contracts are automated they can also be analysed, allowing organisations to take ownership of their data and become more data-driven.

You can also start standardisation on a smaller scale, by standardising some of your most used contracts and documents. To start the process of standardising your own documents we recommend that you first consider your objectives and what your absolute non-negotiables are. This will help you to define your project as it moves along. Secondly it is important to aim to build the “perfect” template to optimise your precedent. You can also have some standard fall-back positions to be used when needed (for example by using features like Avvoka’s clause library or implementing contract playbooks). Always ensure to have your end-user in mind and attempt to keep the document as brief as possible only including the necessary details. Lastly, automating this already standardised document will enable you to make the whole process even more efficient, safer and consistent. 

Read more from Avvoka: 

By: Macarena Valenzuela and Caitlin McCabe
Tiny people testing quality assurance in software

7 tips on how to prepare your documents to be “automation-ready”

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(4 minute read)

As companies move towards adopting more cost-saving and time-saving methods of generating documents, the buzzword “document automation” will inevitably be thrown around. To demystify this term, document automation is essentially when you take the precedents that you already have on hand and convert them into questionnaires. You can then fill up these questionnaires to create a document or multiple documents. This will allow you to quickly and accurately generate documents from your precedents.

However, what exactly is the best way to prepare your documents for automation? Well, don’t fret. In this blog post, we will go over 7 handy tips that you can use to prepare your documents for automation!

  1. Choose the most appropriate documents for automation
  2. Ensure your documents are formatted correctly
  3. Merge your precedents as far as possible
  4. Have a naming convention for your “square brackets”
  5. Decide who will be assigned to complete the automation
  6. Think of your end user when styling your precedent questionnaire
  7. Think about your KPIs before you start automating so you can estimate your ROI

1. Choose the most appropriate documents for automation

Even though any document can be automated, it doesn’t mean that you should push all your documents through the automation pipeline! Automating documents takes time and automating a complex document that is used only once a year for instance may be more trouble than it’s worth.

When you are deciding which documents to automate, you should take into account the following factors. If your document ticks more than one of these boxes, it’s most definitely worthwhile to automate!

automate

2. Ensure your documents are formatted correctly

Next, it is important to ensure that your documents are properly formatted before commencing the automation process.

Some things that you should take note of are:

  • Page margins: If you have different page margins for different sections of the document, ensure that you have set the margins of your document up correctly. Depending on the data that will be inserted or removed due to the automation you have set up, text may bleed into additional pages with a different set of margins. You can easily fix this by inserting a “page break” to separate page margin changes.
  • Headers and footers: Ensure that your headers and footers are formatted to your satisfaction, especially if you are planning on automating either of them. The size of the headers and footers can significantly affect the appearance of the document, so do ensure that the text is appropriately spaced.
  • Numbering and cross-references: Ensure that your paragraphs are dynamically numbered so that when they are inserted or removed due to the automation you have set up, the numbering changes accordingly. Also ensure that cross-references are formatted correctly.
  • Document styles: Ensure that your document has consistent styling throughout. This will ensure that your text remains formatted to your satisfaction when changes are made to the document due to the automation. You can read more about house styles and formatting in our previous blogpost. 
prepare and check your house styles

3. Merge or consolidate your precedents as far as possible

Before automating your precedents, you should undertake precedent consolidation and aim to merge your precedents. For example, you may have different versions of an agreement depending on the country the agreement is applicable for. The agreement may substantially be the same, just that certain clauses vary based on the country they are tied to. As such, you should compile all the variations of the clauses into one document, indicating clearly which country they are tied to. If this is done correctly, when you finally get to automating the document, you will be able to set up your automation such that the clauses appear and disappear based on the country you select in the questionnaire. You will ideally only have one template to generate multiple agreements meant for differing countries. 

consolidate your documents

You should aim to merge all versions of one agreement to the lowest number of consolidated precedents that you can. Here is a handy summation of all the steps that should be taken:

  • Group your precedents and collate similar precedents together
  • Consolidate documents that share around two-thirds of the same boilerplate/common provisions
  • Identify the non-mutual provisions that need to be automated to drop in and out
  • Get to automating your documents

4. Have a naming convention for your “square brackets” or attributes

The term “square brackets” may be familiar to you, the symbols drawing up an image akin to “[•]” in your mind. It’s often used to denote a location in a document where bespoke text should be inserted. However, instead of simply inserting the symbols “[•]” into different parts of your document, you should consider naming your square brackets instead. For example, “Employer Name” and “Employee Name”.

Such named squared brackets are referred to as “Attributes.” They are essentially a data point in a templated document. For instance, “Employer Name” would be a suitable attribute name for the data point that collects the answer to a “Please provide your Employer Name” question in a questionnaire.

Having intuitive naming conventions ensures that the information to be contained within the square brackets is instantly identifiable. To aid you on your journey, on a platform like Avvoka, you are provided with tools to manage these attributes. Avvoka has an attribute store that allows you to see all the attributes in a precedent at a glance and modify them. Avvoka also has an attribute library that allows you to save commonly utilised attributes so that they can be inserted into your precedent at the touch of a button.

In addition, on a platform like Avvoka, using consistent attribute names across precedents allows you to generate “related documents” with ease and also allows you to generate more detailed “custom reports”. 

To explain further, the related documents function on Avvoka allows you to populate another document with the answers that you’ve provided in one document. This can be done as long as both documents have consistent attribute names across precedents – like “Employer Name” etc. This saves you loads of time in generating documents as you won’t need to answer the same questions twice! If you are interested, you can read more about generating suites of related documents in Avvoka in one of our previous blog posts.

automate your attributes

When compiling your precedents, do also take note of related precedents that share similar attributes. This will allow you to keep track of precedents that are often generated together so that you can group them into folders. This is particularly useful if your automation software allows you to generate multiple documents together.

With regards to custom reports, custom reports on Avvoka allows you to see at a glance the data that you have input into your documents. For example, you will be able to see all the answers that you have input in relation to the attribute “Employer Name”. Maintaining consistent attribute names across precedents will allow you to leverage Avvoka’s analytics to better understand the data in your contracts!

5. Decide who will be assigned to complete the automation

Before commencing automation, consider who will be assigned the task to automate your precedents. Some document automation software is complex and may require extended training to understand. 

prepare your documents

On the other hand, Avvoka is built to be an intuitive document automation software that even the least tech-savvy person can operate. However, if you want to get a headstart on automation, you can engage Avvoka’s professional services and we can help you with the rationalisation and automation of your precedents. If you plan to use our professional services, you will have to prepare automation instructions for the precedents to guide our team.

6. Think of your end-user when styling your precedent questionnaire

When styling the precedent questionnaire, you should keep the end-user in mind. The end user is the person that will be answering the precedent questionnaire to generate the document. Will the end-user be the commercial team? New joiners? Legal only? Always word the questions in a way that makes sense to an end-user. Nothing will draw inefficiencies back into your automated processes quite like ambiguity and confusion surrounding questions in the questionnaire. 

To help your end-users along, consider adding hints, sections and explanatory text (on Avvoka you can even embed images and gifs in the questionnaire to help guide whoever is answering). You should also consider the different rights that will be granted to the various parties answering the questionnaire and any approval workflows that will be required. 

DOCUMENTS

Depending on the end-user, questions may also need to be drafted with varying degrees of detail. If questions are to be answered by internal users that are already familiar with the precedent, questions with less detail may be appropriate. For example, a question text that just says “Company Name”. However, if questions are to be answered by external users, more detailed question text may be appropriate. For example, a question text that elaborates by saying “Please include the Company name” (Hint: please include full name e.g: Company A, LLC)” .

7. Think about your KPIs before you start automating so you can estimate your ROI

Before you commence automation, cast your mind back to your key performance indicators (KPIs) so that you can estimate your return on investment (ROI) upon automating your documents. Essentially, you should compare 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’!

end-user

Examples of KPIs would be the number of documents currently generated per year, the average completion time of a document and the average period of delay between a signature being requested and provided. Other “softer” KPIs include the quality and consistency of documents and reduced precedent maintenance. For more information, see our previous blog post in collaboration with our partner echo.legal on how relying on financial metrics as the sole justification for automation should not be the “be-all and end-all”.

In sum, it is important to prepare your precedents before getting started with document automation. Doing so will ensure that your generated documents are formatted exactly as you want them, following your house styles. 

Preparing your precedents will also allow you to consolidate and organise your templates, saving you loads of time during the automation stage. Finally, make sure you know what you want to achieve with your automation and always have your end-user in mind. Happy 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.

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By: Joanna Lim

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