Driven by technological advancements and growing aspirations for better work-life balance due to COVID, more lawyers are calling for flexible work arrangements. Margaret Minster, general counsel for legal tech company, Avisort, says lawyers are showing interest in going in-house partly for the agility, technology, remote-friendliness and business mindset.
The legal industry is transitioning from traditional law practice to a more sophisticated modern approach, and the minister says there is a lot of movement among lawyers as they become comfortable using technology for legal roles.
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“A lot of it came out of COVID when we all had to work remotely and learn how to work electronically more efficiently than simply hauling loads of documents back and forth from the office.”
The job market for lawyers has become incredibly competitive, but the minister says the adoption of legal technology to help internal teams attract skilled candidates has been important.
The minister, who joined Avisort in October 2021, says she was not a technical professional before joining the company.
“I was a lawyer in a law firm for almost 30 years. I was in-house as a chief licensing officer and general consultant for a home goods retail company.
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The minister says that lawyers are becoming sensitive to their employment demands. For example, Avisort clients express that legal professionals are asking about contract management tools and technology in their interviews.
“They want to be part of the business and strategic teams of their companies or law firms. They want to have some upside in stock options and know the legal tech stack because they don’t want to review traditional hard copy contracts.
If legal professionals are familiar with tech platforms, they may not want to go backwards and review contracts manually in a “basement storage room”, the minister says.
“It’s a very important factor to weigh in recruiting for new attorneys and paralegals who are more tech-savvy.”
The minister expects the use of technology in the legal industry to grow rapidly as the profession lags behind other industries and adoption of professional services.
“Clients are demanding that law firms and their in-house corporate departments perform at a high level, but very efficiently and quickly, and technology is the tool,” says the minister.
It’s also fun to use the technology, she says. “I use our platform every day to draft and sign contracts, and it is not as difficult as it used to be, which is appealing to many of us who use different apps. So, it makes it more enjoyable in my day to day practice.”
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Avisort is a contract intelligence platform that provides an algorithm that extracts over 60 contract clauses for clients and educates users on critical terms and automatic renewals. The minister says that signing up for an auto-renewal license can sometimes be too costly for a company, so if they know in advance about auto-renewal of an inactive product, the savings can be significant. .
A contract lifecycle management tool allows companies to work more efficiently and accurately in contract preparation, and she says knowing the intelligence on the back end of the contract can help companies make smarter and smarter business decisions. That’s how their contracts have performed in the past. Market to particular segment, and best practices.
The minister says many Avisort customers use the platform to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) because it provides a visual and “easy-to-understand” presentation of provisions that are relevant to various areas, including data privacy and security. are important for.
Avisort also offers a pre-signing workflow functionality that allows lawyers and legal professionals to collaborate with others to document and create contracts that can be sent for signing and synced to the platform’s contract analysis. Is. “It’s the whole lifecycle from manufacturing to management,” she says.
She adds that Avisort can be accessed from anywhere, which allows the platform to attract talent from across the globe. “We can work and collaborate seamlessly online 24/7. So, it frees up time and makes us more efficient and cooperative.”