P2P

14 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | F A L L 2 0 2 1 Optimizing Efficiencies with Partners On their own, technology solutions and ALSPs can provide significant value. But relationships involving technology providers partnering with ALSPs magnifies that value and provides law firms and corporate legal departments with optimal efficiency. For end clients, the results are lower transaction costs, more deals, or both. When legal teams work with tech-enabled ALSPs, that leads to higher margins and a more competitive cost structure. It also opens new market opportunities. Another advantage is that some of these collaborations between ALSPs and technology providers include a project management component, which relieves law firms and legal department of that aspect of the deal or matter. This also leads to increased professional satisfaction and opportunities for attorneys. When they are no longer bogged down by more commoditized matters, they can take on more sophisticated and challenging work, which leads to higher-profile opportunities. Consider these examples of the ways that collaborations between tech companies and ALSPs can help legal teams: • Managing contracts at a lower cost Contracting work represents some of the most tedious, time-consuming work done by lawyers. Pre-executing, editing, and marking up contracts involves often repetitive work and seemingly endless back and forth exchanges between attorneys and businesspeople. By working with ALSPs who have AI technology that allows for contract automation, legal teams can save time and money and develop better, more consistent contracts by capturing historical information. Through AI, the contracting process can be sped up while maintaining a consistency that human reviewers often struggle to achieve. AI-assisted contract review technology can automate as much as 70% of human review time, leading to faster turnaround time for significantly less money. • Improving transactional work Complex transactions involve both high-level legal insights, and many of the more routine and time- consuming tasks such as due diligence, review, and process management. By working with ALSPs with deal and project management technologies, legal teams can free their lawyers to focus on the strategic issues that allow them to bring the most value and set themselves apart from their competition. These technologies allow for increased efficiencies and the ability to scale services. They can also generate valuable insights into past outcomes and future trends, which creates a competitive advantage for clients. ALSPs and legal technology companies are two sides of the same coin, with similar objectives and value propositions that are cumulative and not competitive. Consider, also, the alternative: an ALSP is rarely best situated to be building an enterprise-grade technology product, and similarly, many technology companies struggle to centralize and grow a scaled workforce of expert users. The partnership efficiency dynamic allows each player to focus on its best use. Being Better Partners with GCs The ongoing, constant pressures to control costs haven't changed throughout the pandemic. That continues to be a challenge when legal services are viewed as cost centers. Legal departments and law firms must consider how they can work with GCs to help them become a more efficient cost center and a good partner to the business. This can be achieved by increasing attorneys' skillset and allowing them to handle more complex and diverse legal tasks while not adding to the bottom line. It also F E A T U R E S

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