I'm a big believer in walking before you run. The posts I have done most recently have all been about laying the foundations to accelerate from a good, stable base.
Now that it is time to go faster, the next quick win that I would look at is opportunities for self-service.
I mentioned in my last post that Cognito Forms is a great solution for matter intake. The forms look great, can be embedded in SharePoint or on external websites, and provide a very easy, intuitive way for business users to share the information the legal team needs to decide whether to open a matter and how best to help.
What’s less well-known is that Cognito Forms also offers document automation. It is better than you will often find in most contract and matter management systems, and is very capable of handling simple documents such as NDAs, through to quite complex documents such as agreements for purchasing or supplying services or goods.
It has strong workflow functionality, which means you can choose anywhere on the spectrum from just gathering the information and sending it to the legal team so they can generate the document, through to full self-service, where the document is automatically created and returned to the user. In that case, the legal team can just retain oversight.
You can use the data from the form submission to determine whether approvals are needed, who the approvers are, and to manage approvals in the most efficient and legally compliant way possible.
Using Microsoft Power Automate, the workflow can be extended further to include automatic saving to SharePoint and digital signing. As you can see in this example video, you can actually automate the entire process. We have had customers generate, sign, and return NDAs to SharePoint in less than 30 minutes.
https://lawhawk.wistia.com/medias/ij58iu6w0o
Of course, you could also vibe code something like this using generative AI. However, there is often real value in having processes that are deliberately structured and run efficiently and consistently on lower-cost technology, without the risk of unexpected decisions. Generative AI can build on and extend structured automation, where it can truly add the most value.
If you are already using Cognito Forms for other processes, such as intake, then the marginal cost of adding contract automation functionality is minimal. The gap between walking and running may be surprisingly small. If you are interested in exploring these opportunities further, please get in touch.
