The post Adv Sudhir Babu : India – UAE Trade Commissioner first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

Select the best work place for you

Your work environment has an essential role in fostering a positive impact in your works. If you decided to create a happy work space to suit your job, then you might turn to be more productive than your unhappy colleagues.

Establish Daily Check-Ins

Depending on the nature of departments in your law firm, managers could now establish a daily communication in the form of one-on-one calls or a team call with their employees. This could be made possible on a regular basis and is quite predictable. This would enhance your employees’ attitude towards you that assures them that you are an easily approachable person ready to address the queries and concern of the company.

Usage of digital technology efficiently

The remote work force sectors cannot avoid the use of cloud-based network which allows organizations to keep track of their specific storage needs. This helps the lawyers to store, update and share the case related data easily. They can access their data at anytime from anywhere in the world.

Manage all the distractions

Work from home scenarios can be quite stressful during these pandemic days of contagious virus. the work stress can be even higher for those professionals trying to balance a healthy personal life and their job career. Therefore, in order to alleviate the work stress impacting your life, our software is a good choice by avoiding unwanted distractions occurring within your work, thus improving your law firm management efficiently. The software also makes sure that you could work proactively on scheduling tasks better than before.

The post How to Work Remotely As a Lawyer first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

5 Ways Automation Helps Lawyers

Enhance Client Value and Quality Service 

Lawyers can improve their efficiency and productivity by automating communication with clients, document creation, task management and online resources. In the same vein, knowledge automation enhances speed and value that allow lawyers to deliver high-quality output while spending more time building trust with clients. Automation software also helps lawyers scan documents for errors, structure contracts, and arguments as accurately as possible. 

Risk Assessment 

With increasingly complex regulations and laws, compliance and risk management are pressure points for lawyers. Automation is advancing the ways lawyers and law firms ensure compliance and mitigate risk by analyzing a large amount of information to understand how risk can be minimized for lawyers and clients. In addition, knowledge automation software and online resource keep lawyers up-to-date on the latest case law and rulings.  

Time-Saving

Lawyers would spend less time preparing and organizing documents by using automated document creation tools that allow documents to be automatically populated with key information ultimately opening up more time for billables tasks. Automation can also help lawyers organize insights, data, and documents for ease of accessibility. 

Competitive Advantage 

This gives lawyers an edge over their peers as they build a reputation for delivering quality service with reliable speed. Clients are more likely to opt for law firms using innovative technology because they are now well-informed and more value-conscious. Therefore, firms need to differentiate themselves by providing premium value.

Remote Working 

Automation helps lawyers to perform their jobs remotely enabling them to access documents from their homes, communicating via video meets to analyze and make decisions on a case. Automation software like law practice management software, time and billing software and communication software is worth investing in to facilitate easier remote working.

Automation is the future and lawyers should leverage new advancements and the enormous opportunities it brings. Utilizing automation software and technology will help improve efficiency, and reduce human error increasing attorney satisfaction. 

The post 5 Ways on How Automation can Help a Lawyer first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

As its name implies, LPM refers to using Project Management  principles — think Project Planning, Risk Management, and formal  measurement — through a legal lens. Adopting the LPM approach  helps teams reduce time spent on operational issues and deliver  legal services more efficiently, among many other benefits. Well, let’s go on and see some ways in which you can leverage  LPM principles to simplify your in-house legal operations. 

Better control over legal spends and budgets 

Accurate budgeting is a key area of concern for most, if not all  legal departments. A 2019 ACC benchmarking report found that,  legal departments overshot their allocated budgets by more than  11% on average, in 2018. Just by understanding where they  typically allocate their resources, legal departments can better set  and adhere to their budgets, thus saving time and cutting costs in  the process.

A well-defined and fleshed-out legal project management system  can help legal teams overcome some of these common issues  surrounding legal spend and budget control. By using legal project  management software that supports spend management, teams  can gain complete visibility and total control over their expenses. In  turn, they can improve resource allocation and control their  finances with greater precision. 

More Consistent Document Management 

Documents, documents, documents…. 

Documents are a legal team’s lifeblood — which is why effective  document management is crucial. Legal Project Management tools  like Beveron’s Smart Legal Counsel for instance, can help teams  organize, update, and share their documents quickly and easily.  Such a solution has multiple benefits, including: 
■ Reduces errors and saves time by standardizing a team’s      approach to document creation 
■ Enabling teams to easily track changes in documents via      robust versioning capabilities 
■ Create agile form documents, which are key to consistency   and efficiency, and 
■ Effective document management results in more consistent   contracting practices, helping lawyers draft better        documents more quickly. 

Improves inter-department communication 

Quite often, legal teams find themselves working in a silo,  distanced from other departments within the same organization.  Legal Project Management tools provide more oversight into  projects that span teams, making it easier to communicate and  collaborate effectively with colleagues from departments across  the organization.Again, implementing legal project management processes forces  legal departments to initiate regular meetings and status updates  with various other stakeholders within the company. This  automatically increases dialogue with other key departments,  helping legal departments escape the silo. 

Enhances outside counsel management 

One of the legal department’s critical tasks is effectively managing  outside counsel. Legal project management tools provide  transparency and insights into spending, which help teams better  understand and control resources dedicated to external firms. LPM  tools can simplify outside counsel management by: 
■ Automating accruals collection 
■ Easily identifying which firms are billing for which tasks
■ Generating reports that delineate fee agreements and discounts with various firms
■ Identifying firms that may be under-performing or billing inappropriately 

More Robust Reporting 

For analyzing their effectiveness and efficiency, legal teams often  generate multiple reports for use within and beyond their  department. Legal project management tools can provide more  transparent and well-rounded reporting solutions that save time  and offer more granular insights into your department’s operations. 

Timelier Project Delivery 

Many a times, underestimating deadlines and timelines can break  budgets. Legal project management tools help legal teams stay  on-time and on-track. When they use LPM tools, legal teams can: 
■ Gain access to historical data, which helps them more      accurately predict the time needed to complete certain      projects or matters
■ Leverage tools like Beveron’s Smart Legal Counsel and   matter management tools to cut down on time lost to      inefficient, highly manual processes 
■ Applying an effective LPM system streamlines tasks at all     stages of a given matter, saving precious hours and        ensuring the matter’s timely completion. 

Better Relationships and Stakeholder Satisfaction 

Legal project management creates transparency at multiple levels  that allow all concerned stakeholders to evaluate how legal matters  are handled, from an operational as well as a legal standpoint. And  it doesn’t hurt that LPM tools that create efficiencies, enhances  communication, and lowers legal spends makes everyone happy.  By leveraging LPM’s time and cost-saving benefits, corporate legal  teams can delight internal and external stakeholders by delivering  projects on-time and on-budget. This can increase stakeholder  satisfaction and improve relationships across the board. 

To conclude… 

Today, Legal Project Management is a growing discipline with  myriad benefits. Effective LPM is the key differentiator now  between the top corporate legal teams and inefficient ones. It’s always better to empower your in-house legal team with a legal  project management system and legal project management  software that helps your team stand out and shine within your  company.

The post How can legal project management help legal departments first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

LegalTech automates manual work
Data gathering and data-entry are part of most jobs in the legal sector today, but do you know that they don’t have to be handled manually? With the right AI based legal management software, you can quickly automate time-consuming data gathering and reduce (or even eliminate!) redundant data entry. Your in-house legal team can avoid creating complex spreadsheets and repetitive activities by automating routine departmental procedures like invoice approvals, legal billing guidelines enforcement, accruals collection, and contract lifecycle management. With the extra time, employees can focus on highvalue, expert-level and billable work.

Streamlines Document Management
A single corporate legal case / matter can involve hundreds or even thousands of documents. When you’re working across departments and collaborating with outside firms, document organization gets complicated in the blink of an eye, without you even realizing it. It may not seem like a big deal to spend five minutes looking for a file, but eventually it all adds up. A McKinsey survey has revealed that employees spend nearly 20% of their workweek — i.e around eight hours — searching for and gathering
information. When you use in-house legal counsel software, you automaticallycprevent these disruptions by organizing documents in a logical way. LegalTech takes it a step further by categorizing documents
by matter and linking related documents together. For instance, an IP management matter may have hundreds of patent prosecution documents, filings, and notes associated with it. With a good legal
automation platform designed for legal teams, you can associate each file with the main matter

Deeper integrations allow for multitasking
In a normal work-day, you most likely use several different tools like e-mails, invoices, case files, and legal research. Task switching — even if it takes a fraction of a second — can add up to a 40% loss in productivity over the course of a day. With integrations between all these different tools, you can reclaim that time by eliminating the need to switch between applications. Integrations also reduce / eliminate repeat data entry substantially by sending data to multiple applications all at once. This automatically prevents data inaccuracies that you’ll have to manually fix later. Additionally, you can connect your existing tools with other departments, such as finance and accounting, to minimize back-and-forth.

Simplifies Reporting with Data Collection and Monitoring
You can’t run an efficient legal department without reports, but the process of collecting data and putting it into a useful format can be labor-intensive. Legal technology allows you to define the metrics you want to monitor and then tracks them for you. So, if you want to keep an eye on outside counsel spend, you can set up reports that automatically track and filter spend by vendor, practice area, and average hourly rate

To summarize…
Would you accept an invoice from an outside firm if a first-year associate billed at a partner rate? No, right? Then, why are you allowing your high-paid legal ops employees to waste time on menial, repetitive administrative tasks? Legal technology is designed from the ground up to save you from boring, low-value, repetitive tasks while also saving you money.

The post How can LegalTech reduce routine admin work first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

If you find yourself or your legal department staff regularly basing short and long-term goals  on educated guesses, it’s time to adopt predictive legal software. The best legal management  software in UAE like Beveron’s Smart Legal Counsel for instance, helps you rely more on facts  than feelings, letting you provide more effective and strategic legal and business advice. 

WHAT EXACTLY IS PREDICTIVE LEGAL SOFTWARE? 

This type of legal management software is based on predictive analytics, a method that uses  current and historical legal data to forecast future outcomes. It applies built-in mathematical  models to identify trends, like how much you typically spend on vendors per month, then uses  that information to predict what happens next. Software like this saves you a lot of time and  effort while reducing the chance of human errors in calculations. 

The quantity and quality of your corporate legal data determines how accurate the models  can be. Therefore, housing all your relevant legal information in an integrated platform is  extremely important. Again, you just don’t have to worry about duplicate data entry or  missing metrics when your corporate legal software can pull in real-time data from different  applications. This way, the models get a complete 360˚ view of what’s happening in your  corporate legal department. 

ADDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BRINGS IN EVEN MORE BUSINESS VALUE 

While any predictive legal software is better than none, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered  platforms help you get to strategic and result-oriented solutions faster. And when combined  with machine learning, predictive technology can forecast accurate results and act  accordingly. 

As Forbes notes, “pairing predictive analytics models with AI are crucial in improving forecast  accuracy post-pandemic.” The arrival of COVID-19 created unusual data patterns affecting the  accuracy of typical predictive models. AI legal technology, on the other hand, can analyze  historical and current content to determine which trends are temporary or normal. With AI powered legal software, your forecasts won’t get thrown off by irregular data points. 

It’s also worth looking at LegalTech software like Smart Legal Counsel as it’s primed to be the  future of the legal industry. AI-tech in legal is expected to grow by nearly 30% in the next 5 

years. The last thing you want is a corporate legal platform that’ll be obsolete. AI is only going  to keep advancing, which means a continual return on investment. 

HOW CAN PREDICTIVE LEGAL SOFTWARE BENEFIT LEGAL EMPLOYEES? 

The best legal automation software empowers corporate legal departments in business minded decision making and in running an effective legal cost control center. With data backed insights and time savings from this digital tool, you and your in-house legal team can  become more precise and strategic in helping the company succeed. The other major  advantages are: 

You’ll find new ways to meet your cost-saving goals 

You can gain new insights to get the best ROI from external law firms / advocates You can measure, track, and get ahead of risks objectively 

You’ll relieve extra burden and strain on your in-house legal team 

SUMMING IT ALL UP… 

Predictive data analytics support general counsel in being not just top lawyers, but top  business leaders. Whether you go with a standard LegalTech solution like Smart Legal Counsel or an AI-based system, you’ll be able to get ahead of potential financial or legal problems and  find more ways to improve your department’s performance.

The post The role of predictive software in legal  departments first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

What are the “Three Lines of Defense”?

Although Legal will often play an important role in the management of legal risks, in larger  organizations they are likely to be one of several specialists concerned with risk management.  These will typically include risk and compliance managers, fraud specialists and internal  auditors. 

A commonly used risk management model is known as “The Three Lines” system. This is a  method of risk management that allocates responsibility for managing risks between three groups within the organization on these lines: – 

The functions that own and manage the risks 

Functions that oversee the risks 

Functions providing independent oversight (assurance) 

FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE

In this model, the 1^st line of defense rests on management controls where operational  management manages the risks in the area for which they are accountable. This will include  the organization’s Legal Department. Depending on Legal’s areas of responsibility they may,  for instance, own risks in relation to the use of external lawyers; litigation; contract  management; anti-bribery and corruption; and the quality of legal advice, among others. It is  for local managers to identify and assess risks and set controls, including monitoring and  reporting requirements. 

SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE

The 2^nd line of defense has an oversight function to help build the architecture for the 1st line  and to monitor that different areas of risk are being adequately controlled, monitored, and  reported. 

Depending on the size and complexity of the organization, this oversight may comprise  specialist groups (including committees) concerned with areas such as financial controls, risk  management, compliance, quality, and security.  

Legal will typically be part of this second tier, looking at legal risks across the organization,  assisting with policies, procedures, and training to manage them, compliance with relevant  laws and regulations and identifying legislative and regulatory changes and their potential  impact. 

THIRD LINE OF DEFENSE

The 3^rd line of defense is usually an internal audit function providing the board and senior  management with an independent oversight and assurance regarding compliance and risk  management controls operating in lines 1 and 2. 

How to manage relationship with regulators? 

In heavily regulated sectors, the relationship with regulators forms a critical part of the risk  management strategy of the organization with Legal playing an important role in helping  maintain effective relations.  

Now, of course, there’s a fine balance that needs to be maintained between having good lines  of communication and being too open and conciliatory in circumstances where it’s  unnecessary. Good lines of communication will help with horizon spotting by enabling Legal  to learn quickly about proposed changes in the regulatory landscape and should also help to  manage tensions and disputes in a way that de-escalates them, wherever possible. 

Global aspects

In a multi-national organization, legal risks will not only arise across the organization, but they  may also vary in different jurisdictions and thus the assessment and management of the risk  may not be universal. Here, Legal and external counsel are likely to play a key role in advising  on this diversity of regulation and in helping to construct management controls on both a  local and pan-organization basis. 

Smart working

Legal’s advice to other areas of the organization on legal risks that arise in their respective  operations will play an important role in how well these risks are managed. To help business  colleagues become familiar with legal risk and to help them in assessing it, it can be useful for  lawyers to incorporate in their advice the impact of the legal risk by reference to the  framework of risks utilized by the organization – finance, customers, operations etc. 

Additionally, the legal risk can be quantified by reference to a narrative summary  complimented, where possible, by a defined percentage range or ‘score’ in respect of each  affected business area. 

To summarize…

The increasing complexity of laws and regulations impacting organizations and the financial  and reputational consequences of non-compliance, that have been highlighted in some  recent high-profile failings, has meant that in-house legal teams now often play a more critical  role in their organizations in relation to the identification and management of legal risks. Thus,  Legal’s role in identifying, managing, and mitigating risks cannot be emphasized enough, in  today’s modern organizations.

The post How can organizations monitor legal risk first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

Analyze similar expenses from previous years

Annual administrative fees (e.g., corporate filing fees) and pre-existing alternative fee arrangements (e.g., flat fees) will stay the same, so it’s quite safe to budget these expenses at the same amounts. For all the other expenses, you can use current and past estimates. This initial budget is meant to serve as a starting point you’ll continue to tweak.

Communicate with people from other departments to spot potential issues that may later affect spends

Some common scenarios that may result in you paying new fee payments include new product launches that will need filing of patents, trademarks from the product departments, joint ventures, or partnerships (both internal and external) in marketing and promotion. To avoid being blindsided later on, always inform managers / key resources from other departments to keep you in the loop before committing to any new expenditure that may later need to be borne by your legal ops department.

Talk with external counsel to get estimates for predicted tasks

Ask your vendors / other financial experts what the approximate costs for upcoming matters would look like.

Thus, by analyzing historical data and talking to vendors and stakeholders, you can easily create a budget that accounts for recurring as well as predicted and one-off legal matters.

The post 3 ways you can set a budget for your in-house legal department first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

Technology today plays an increasingly important role in helping corporate legal teams  optimize their time and resources. The transformation of working practices over recent years,  with the continued (and increasing!) trend for remote working, means IT tools are becoming  more critical than ever for communication, administration, data management and knowledge  sharing at work. Additionally, legal teams require specific LegalTech software to manage and  automate everything from spend management and billing to matter management, reporting  and administration. 

Your LegalTech vendor checklist 

With so many options available, how should in-house legal teams go about selecting the right technology  vendor for their needs? To help you, we’ve compiled a handy checklist of key considerations:

1. DOES THE TECHNOLOGY MEET DATA SECURITY REQUIREMENTS? 

The data usually handled by legal teams is way too sensitive to take any risks. You need to be confident that the technology you choose meets every security requirement of your IT department. Look for solutions  that offer data security assurances, such as banking-grade encryption, single-jurisdiction hosting, and  compliance with regulatory standards, such as ISO 27001 and GDPR.

2. DOES THE TECH VENDOR MEET COUNTRY–SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS? 

Define your requirements by thinking through in detail about your daily work and identifying what’s  missing. How can technology help? Ask vendors how their technology can address your specific challenges.  For example, can the technology meet country-specific requirements in Europe, such as taxation and  invoicing requirements?

3. WHAT LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS ON OFFER? 

Does the vendor you’re selecting have a professional customer service team? Will you be assigned a  dedicated customer success manager? Does the vendor have dedicated GCC region support capabilities?  How many languages are supported? Do they have the resources to provide the support you need? 

4. IS THE VENDOR TRUSTED BY CLIENTS AND INDEPENDENT COMMENTATORS? 

Always check out testimonials from clients, read case studies and ask to speak to clients. Find out if the  vendor and its solutions are trusted and valued. Look for independent approvals or verifications from  respected organizations. Does the vendor have a network of trusted partners to support and champion its  solutions?

5. DOES THE NEW TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATE WITH ALREADY EXISTING IT SYSTEMS? 

We all use an array of software and IT systems in our work to support efficient collaboration and  communication. You need to opt for suitable legal technology that integrates fully with common software  from Microsoft, Google, and others. Always try and choose interoperable legal technology tools that meet  you where you work. 

6. CAN YOU REQUEST A FREE DEMO? 

Ask all shortlisted vendors for a detailed demonstration of their software and its application to a practical  example. Before committing to new software, make sure you take it yourself for a test drive. Most vendors  offer a free trial to test features, benefits, and usability.

The post How to select the right LegalTech vendor  for your corporate legal team first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.

document, a figure in a financial statement or a clause in a contract, why, even a single comment made in an email thread! Any data that is omitted from analysis creates a gap in knowledge. It removes context that could later become crucial to an accurate interpretation of the data, thus diminishing its overall value.

The approach to data highlighted here starts by “illuminating” the so-called “dark information” that exists in any law firm. This requires establishing an effective process by which every single piece of information becomes accessible. For achieving this, the larger culture of the law firm must be supportive and participative, and the shift needs to be driven by a technology platform that simplifies, unifies, and manages the process.

Disparate solutions that operate in the open or in the shadows must be replaced by a technology ecosystem that’s interoperable and cohesive. This infrastructure also must be able to seamlessly facilitate AI, machine learning, analytics and other advanced capabilities that surface.

Once they’ve reached this vantage point, firms can then begin to think strategically about putting the data to use — whether it’s creating more accurate budgets, predicting litigation outcomes, or optimizing efficiency.

A comprehensive approach enables firms to:

• Improve the client experience by delivering more targeted products and services based on insights. Data empowers your firm to offer more cost-effective solutions, complete work more quickly and meet client expectations with more consistent, dependable work.
• Streamline operations by using data to identify process inefficiencies and fix them, in addition to automating manual steps or triggering a workflow based on known information.
• Provide better business-winning outcomes by better understanding what a client’s reaction to a proposal will be, which resources are needed when, and what a potential client’s pain points are.

With the right mindset, planning, and execution, the potential list of improvements driven by data is nearly limitless.

The post What are innovative law firms doing first appeared on LawTechnos | Legal Technology Magazine.