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.
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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.
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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 things we regularly see legal teams grapple with is when to put their legal automation solution into live use.
Having done the hard yards of reviewing and refining their documents and the process, having it automated to a high standard, and having done a fair amount of testing within the legal team and with some key users, there is often a feeling that still more needs to be done before setting it live.
I’d encourage you to consider the benefits of putting it live earlier.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Law Firm Management,
Digital Signatures,
Self-Service Legal Automation,
Legal Automation,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management
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.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
In-House Legal,
Digital Signatures,
Compliance,
Legal Automation,
Email Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Knowledge Management
Last week was interesting in terms of both doing a lot of automation work, while also discussing potential approaches to new projects with prospective customers.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Law Firm Management,
Automated NDAs,
Legal Automation,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Productivity
The problem
We often come across people who have some form of existing automation solution in place, but it isn’t meeting their needs and they aren’t sure what to do about it.
They have potentially invested a lot of money already in the existing solution, so there’s a large sunk cost that is in their mind.
Of course, the best thing to do is to ignore sunk costs – what's done is done - and to focus on what is the best decision from here on. Easier said than done, but still necessary!
Reasons
There could be a number of reasons why the existing solution isn’t meeting needs. These could include:
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Law Firm Management,
Digital Signatures,
Legal Automation,
Email Management,
Matter Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
Law Firm Strategy,
Knowledge Management
In legal automation, the most important thing is actually getting started and finding an initial project to get going with. Too many legal teams think about it, and think about it, and never actually start. But where do you start?
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Document Assembly,
Self-Service Legal Automation,
Automated NDAs,
Legal Automation,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management,
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?
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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.
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Topics:
Document Automation,
Legal Technology,
In-House Legal,
Document Assembly,
Self-Service Legal Automation,
Compliance,
Legal Automation,
Matter Management,
Legal Operations,
Contract Management
021 339 527
lawhawk@lawhawk.nz
