How Legal Innovation Is Changing Corporate Legal Departments

Legal innovation is driving changes across corporate legal departments. And while the pandemic has accelerated technology adoption throughout the legal field, the roots of legal innovation predate the pandemic. For years, corporate legal departments have faced increased workloads, reduced budgets, and a reliance on remote work. As a result, legal departments have increasingly relied on technological advances. Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered contract review solutions, workflow management software, and legal business intelligence technology are all helping departments increase their productivity and quality of work.

How Does Legal Innovation Differ from Legal Invention?

As the legal industry enjoys a period of invention and accelerated innovation, it is important to highlight the differences between these two terms that are often used interchangeably.  

While invention and innovation often go hand-in-hand, powerful innovations like AI contract platforms can reframe or alter the prevailing operational paradigm and enable legal departments to achieve previously unimaginable gains in negotiation efficiency, productivity, and playbook adherence.

Problems to Tackle with Innovative Legal Technology

Economic changes resulting from the pandemic, in addition to overall industry fluctuations, have created new challenges for corporate legal departments. Some of the most prevalent include: 

All of these challenges will impact office workflow and slow down operations. As a result, innovative options are emerging to help corporate legal departments control resources. 

Five Solutions from Legal Innovations

Companies have introduced leading-edge software and platforms to address the legal industry challenges described above. These solutions facilitate collaboration, contract review, business strategy, and communications. Five forms of legal innovation receiving significant attention are:  

All of these innovations improve legal operations by eliminating many traditionally manual and time-consuming tasks. And if you’re considering a legal innovation that leverages AI, it’s important to know it fits your application.

When to Use AI-Powered Innovations

Corporate legal departments are often intrigued by AI options. When considering whether a task would benefit from AI, a few common attributes can help indicate the usefulness of these more sophisticated solutions.

• Oversight is minimal: If a task does not have a clear and established process in place with regular follow-up, it could be a good candidate for AI. Contract management provides a useful example. A legal department may use a simple Excel spreadsheet to monitor outdated provisions. An AI solution could automatically flag contracts with such provisions and suggest standards-compliant revisions. 
  
  
• Subjective topics: AI is often the best choice for managing subjective tasks that require a high level of independent thought and contextual knowledge. For instance, AI contract review is capable of reading contracts, weighing risks, and authoring suggestions to improve negotiating positions. 
  
  
• High risk: The higher the risk of a given task, the more suitable it is for AI. AI can quantify risks and create strategies for resolution. This is a beneficial attribute in business intelligence. AI can use its data repository to draw conclusions and then make suggestions for improvement. 
  
  
• Limited time: Tasks that require rapid turnaround are ideal candidates for AI innovations. Since an AI solution “thinks” like an attorney, it can complete tasks efficiently when time is of the essence. Time-sensitive tasks like business intelligence, contract review, and contract management are all accelerated with AI. 
  
  
• Low expertise: Many attorneys have been asked to take on unfamiliar tasks due to reduced staff. The AI can help guide attorneys by providing guardrails. AI-powered contract negotiation, for instance, allows legal departments to use their negotiation playbook as a dataset to ensure more favorable negotiation positions.  
  
  
• Template use: Corporate legal departments often rely on templates when initiating agreements. However, templates can encourage oversights as they become dependent on the pre-written language that may not serve specific contract needs. To transform a template into a customized, bespoke contract, corporate legal departments can take advantage of AI solutions. 

Legal innovations are providing solutions for corporate departments overwhelmed by increasing industry requirements. The right software can guide contract creation, improve strategies, and enhance legal operations. For tasks like contract negotiation previously completed by legal professionals, an AI solution can revolutionize the contract approval process.