Bring legal technology and documentation to a wider audience
At echo.legal, we want to bring legal technology to a wider audience.
So we’ve created some stories that show how we work with our clients using document automation and how this creates business results.
This is our story of working with Conyers to maximise their use of Contract Express.
Conyers – Bermuda’s first offshore law firm
Conyers is an offshore law firm. Founded nearly a hundred years ago, it was the first offshore firm in Bermuda. Today, it has offices in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the Cayman Islands that work together with their offices in the financial centres of London, Hong Kong and Singapore advising on corporate, banking, finance, insurance, investment funds, aviation and shipping and private client and trust.
Project goal: Moving to Contract Express
Conyers Knowledge Team are based in their Bermuda Headquarters. They have been using legal automation for five years, but the lawyer community were not engaging with the existing software. The team wanted to accelerate the document automation journey. They decided to move to Contract Express, so approached echo.legal to help, knowing their track record in helping law firms both implement and optimise Contract Express.
Document automation starts with…. a document
The firm needed to embed Contract Express from the very start. So how did echo.legal help them go about what might seem like an overwhelming task and project?
The starting point was of course – a document.
echo.legal worked with the knowledge team at Conyers to unpick the code in a whole document. This involved echo.legal breaking it down and showing the team how to learn the new language of Contract Express. The teams then worked together on the script, moving the existing script into Contract Express script. echo.legal played a key role here in working out where the script was falling down and where it needed further unpicking before converting, using a conversion tool.
Conyers’ project lead commented:
“ Our teams worked collaboratively. We’d ping documents over and ask how they could be better, and echo.legal would always have helpful suggestions. This was a huge learning curve for us, but the process was great. The team at echo.legal were always available and there to support.”
Preparing to launch Contract Express
So where is the law firm now on their document automation journey?
Conyers have just done a test launch of Contract Express and the initial feedback is positive. Associates are playing a strong role in promoting and championing Contract Express in the firm, as they are the document producers. The system is due to launch formally in September.
After initial launch, the knowledge team will be looking for gaps to understand who is using and who is not using, and will ensure lawyers have the right support to ensure they succeed in using it effectively. Conyers Knowledge Team commented:
“ This project is just the start of the digital transformation journey for Conyers. Maybe we have started later than some law firms, but intend on catching up quickly. echo.legal is key to this journey for us. They work in so many different ways and are always flexible and responsive. They have helped us with this major Contract Express launch, from providing training in difficult areas to augmenting our team. They are really good at talking about how to run projects based on their extensive experience in document automation and are a great sounding board and partner.”
Change management – critical for project success
So what’s next for Conyers in this journey? Conyers said:
“We’ll still be needing some hand holding as we launch, but then it’s about finding our internal champions at Conyers, really embedding and adopting our Contract Express and shouting about the successes so the business understands the impact it is having.
We are looking forward to the initial six months of seeing it in action and reporting back on wins.”
Team echo.legal is definitely happy to be on the transformation journey with you Conyers!
echo.legal is owned and managed by founders and members of the original Contract Express team. We have worked on many of the world's largest deployments of Contract Express at major law firms and corporate legal departments. If you’d like to speak with one of our team about how we could partner with you, contact us.
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