LawHawk Blog

It's hard to believe this is happening the way it is, but one day, we see tariffs being imposed, the next day they’re not, and the day after that, they’re back on but only for some goods from some countries, and with different percentages! It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin, but this is just a snapshot of how quickly the business environment globally is changing and how challenging it is for legal teams and businesses to keep up.

As a recent World Commerce and Contracting Report (Managing Tariffs and Market Uncertainty: Business Strategies and Emerging Trends) noted, tariffs represent just one of many recent market disruptions, from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflationary pressures to geopolitical instability and raw material shortages.

In such a fickle and financially challenged environment, businesses are constantly restructuring. Key individuals may no longer be involved; they may have different roles, or their entire business units may have ceased to exist. It’s like trying to play musical chairs with the rules changing every minute.

So, what’s a legal team to do when helping their business carry out its goals while staying legally compliant?

Look into no-code software.

Topics: Document Automation, Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Compliance, Legal Automation, Legal Operations, Contract Management

The 2025 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey contains some fascinating findings after surveying 772 participants across 20 industries and 48 countries. There is room for optimism, but a number of apparent inconsistencies and perhaps overall pointers to many legal teams repeating the same mistakes and getting similar outcomes for 2025.

Some of the key findings and my comments on them are set out below.

Topics: Document Automation, Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Self-Service Legal Automation, Compliance, Legal Automation, Matter Management, Legal Operations, Contract Management, Productivity

One of the most interesting things I got from the recent World Commerce & Contracting Summit in Sydney was the report and session run by Dr Sara Cullen of Cullen Group on my Contract Management Style profile. If you haven't done one before, I recommend it.

My results are above, showing how I compare to the average person.

I wasn't particularly surprised that I scored highly for my focus on the relationship development, problem-solving, entrepreneur and scanner categories. They are all things that we have had to focus on when looking to build and grow a new business that intersects complex legal and compliance workflows with fast-moving technological advances. The need to talk to people, understand their problems, and match them to technologies that can solve them is constant – and what I enjoy.

I did pause to think about my relatively low scores for Organizer and Protector and whether those are things that I need to score more highly on.

Topics: Document Automation, In-House Legal, Digital Signatures, Compliance, Legal Automation, Email Management, Legal Operations, Contract Management, Knowledge Management

Research by Deloitte in their In-house Insights Report “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments” prepared in response to a September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, showed that keeping up-to-date and compliance with legal, regulatory and government policy updates was the number one issue that legal teams are concerned about.

Regulatory compliance has become increasingly onerous, but in my view, traditional methods of managing compliance are no longer fit for purpose as a means of keeping up.

Topics: Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Self-Service Legal Automation, Compliance, Legal Automation, Legal Operations, Productivity

I was curious when I saw this question in Deloitte's research in their In-house Insights Report “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments” prepared in response to a September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, on what technology systems do you have in place to support efficient/effective legal operations?

Topics: Document Automation, Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Digital Signatures, Compliance, Legal Automation, Email Management, Matter Management, Legal Operations, Contract Management, Knowledge Management

I'm looking forward to the 2024 ILANZ conference on 22 and 23 May. It's a great opportunity to get a feel for the issues and priorities of the New Zealand in-house legal community, as well as to connect with others who are working with, and providing solutions to, in-house lawyers.

This year, I'll be particularly interested in gauging in-house lawyers' feelings about technology and their plans to invest in it. Even as recently as September 2022, Deloitte's research in their In-house Insights Report “Trusted navigators in complex and challenging environments” prepared in response to a September 2022 survey of New Zealand's in-house legal community, showed that more than half of in-house teams were planning no change in their investment in technology. I found that surprising at the time.

Topics: Document Automation, Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Document Assembly, Self-Service Legal Automation, Compliance, Legal Automation, Matter Management, Legal Operations, Contract Management

 

It's not uncommon for someone to show some initial interest in a legal automation project, get excited seeing how it could make a real difference in their work and that of their team, and then be told that it is not possible.

What can you do in that situation?

Topics: Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Document Assembly, Law Firm Management, Compliance, Legal Automation, Matter Management, Legal Operations, Contract Management, Law Firm Profitability

 

A common concern we hear when talking to prospective clients about legal automation is that they haven't got a budget, and they don't think they can get one.

Often, however, this is before we have discussed the size and cost of the problem or the opportunity to be addressed and the expected benefits, and therefore, it needs more context before a price can be agreed and a budget could be obtained.

What should you do before worrying about price and budget for an automation project?

Topics: Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Document Assembly, Law Firm Management, Compliance, Legal Automation, Matter Management, Legal Operations, Contract Management, Law Firm Profitability

Looking ahead to the coming year, I think (maybe with a bit of hope thrown in) several themes will be key. This is what we will be focussing on helping our customers with, and in our own business.

Topics: Practise of Law, Future of Law, Document Automation, Legal Technology, Law Firm Management, Compliance, Legal Operations, Contract Management, Law Firm Strategy, Productivity

Earlier this month I was at the ILANZ conference. It was an excellent event - the best ILANZ I have been to.

There were several indications that technology for lawyers has matured a lot over the last year.

Topics: Document Automation, Legal Technology, In-House Legal, Document Assembly, Digital Signatures, Self-Service Legal Automation, Compliance, Legal Automation, Legal Operations, Contract Management