In-house legal teams are trusted to oversee a wide range of activities at their company. Working in a commercial enterprise, the teams are tasked with providing legal services cost effectively. Top companies expect more. Teams are expected to contribute to the overall growth of the company.  

It is essential to have the right technology in place to work efficiently. Without the right technology, it is almost impossible to provide the precision expert service that their internal clients demand. Automated Document Management tools which include document assembly and lifecycle management features are must-haves for success.

In a best-case scenario, in-house legal teams work directly with every other team or department at a company. It’s been shown that involving the legal team from the beginning of any endeavor often ensures that the final product will be compliant with all relevant rules and policies, regulations, and laws. The need for lengthy reviews, rewrites, or product redesigns is eliminated.  

Automated Workflows and Approvals tools smoothly insinuate the legal team into all business processes. Such As:

Sales / Commercial Teams – Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is automated and seamless.  Automatically generated contracts which include language (even negotiated) that has already been vetted by the legal team, can automatically enter a process of review where sales managers can quickly review the terms. Should particular contract details require it, contracts can be sent to finance or compliance teams, and back to legal. Automated workflows take all the guess work out of determining the proper contract route, and ensures speedy review and finalization.

External law firms – Despite their broad mandate, it is often necessary for in-house legal teams to work with outside counsel on specialized matters, such as litigations or trademark registrations. There are several document management tools that support these kind of collaborations. External law firms that work on a number of matters may be invited to the company’s document automation Workspace. For those firms hired for short term projects, a Guest account may be more appropriate, or simply Sharing documents via a URL link. Communication tools such as real time chat functionalities help connect all the key decision makers no matter their location. Whether the documents are created internally or not, good document management software will allow documents to be reviewed in a similar manner, including entered into automated Workflows.

In-house legal teams generally work in enterprises seeking to increase profits through efficiency and cost effectiveness. But the days of simply being a (low)cost center are over. Automated Document Management tools, when leveraged wisely, help teams cut down time spent on repetitive tasks to focus work on complex legal matters which reduces the need for outside counsel.  

Document Automation tools also can help legal teams add value, directly contributing towards growth, such as helping legal teams reduce the length of sales cycles while simultaneously and automatically extracting commercial contract data to build strong analytics which allow legal teams to provide legal advice that is strategically aligned with company commercial goals.

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