The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) recognized LexCheck as a “Value Champion” for 2021. The ACC Value Champions program spotlights successful legal partnerships that foster innovation, reduce spending, and yield better outcomes. In this case, NetApp partnered with LexCheck’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform to streamline its contract approval process.

The adoption of AI solutions has been slow in the legal industry, but we’ve long known it has the power to fundamentally transform how legal agreements are processed. Each award helps spread the word that AI has arrived as a vital resource for corporate legal departments that negotiate a substantial amount of contracts.  

The ACC only names a dozen or so partnerships each year, so LexCheck is proud to be nominated and selected among the elite “top value initiatives” in the legal field for 2021.

How Does LexCheck Aid the Contract Approval Process?

These days, “To get a good end-to-end solution, you have to partner,” said Connie Brenton, Vice President of Law, Technology & Operations at NetApp. The company partnered with LexCheck to bring digital transformation to its contract approval process. 

Like many legal departments, their sponsorship agreement contracting involved multiple rounds of back-and-forth emails and phone calls that felt far from efficient. VP-level approval was required for all procurement contracts that deviated from standard protocols, but VPs had limited knowledge of what happened before receiving the escalation. They had to consult with senior in-house counsel to make sense of the contract summary and descriptions of deviating terms.

With the help of QuisLex, NetApp adapted the department’s existing contracts playbook to a digital format and integrated it with LexCheck’s AI to analyze standard positions and acceptable alternatives. 

The weighted scoring system was based on the following parameters:

• Type of agreement
• Degree of variation between suggested vs. standard positions 
• Availability of risk mitigation measures.

NetApp partnered with KP Labs to establish a transparent dashboard and automated workflow. Procurement teams uploaded new contracts into the LexCheck system for assessment, risk reporting, and routing of the completed paperwork to appropriate approval teams.

Reviewers approved, rejected, or provided conditional approval. The risk score, summary report, and contact links were then routed to the VP for final e-sign, approval, and storage in the contract repository. Rejected contracts automatically notified procurement and legal departments for prompt follow-up.

The LexCheck Difference

The value of LexCheck’s solution was immediately evident in the following project statistics:

• LexCheck reduced contract approval time by 80 percent.
• LexCheck reduced escalation rates from 80 percent to 10 percent. 

The impact of these improvements, at scale, saves VP-level reviewers significant time that enables them to focus on the highest risk agreements and personalized client service. Procurement will find room to take on more contracts, track contracts coming up for renewal more effectively, and pursue opportunities to improve outcomes. 

Andy Banquer, VP for Corporate Solutions at QuisLex, was particularly impressed by the quality of LexCheck’s assessments. “The real savings is time,” he said, “but we also get good reporting on the things that deviate and the mitigation measures the business needs to take. A solution like this really can truncate cycle times, which satisfies internal clients.”