Contract Heroes

The Contract Management QuadrantIn this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the opportunity to chat with none other than Krzysztof Kwiatek, the associate director at Deloitte Legal located in Kraków, Poland. Kris works in legal management consulting and runs the technology center of excellence, mostly focusing his time on CLM tool implementations. His induction into the world of CLM occurred in 2014 when he began working to manage the tech aspect of the new contract management team at Capgemini. Kris has 20 years of experience in widely understood IT and has spent the last 8 years involved specifically in contract lifecycle management. With Kris’s experience in implementing CLM software in mind, we focused our conversation around gaining his advice about successful implementations with high user adoption rates while also learning a bit more about how to go about choosing from the wide variety of CLM solutions currently available on the market.Deploying a PilotTo kick off the discussion, we first asked Kris to tell us about his view of contracts and why CLM is important to every organization. He explained that since contracts and services are everywhere, permeating nearly every inch of an organization, and they need to be signed more and more often, the process surrounding them must be efficient. Contracts are touched by everyone in the company, but they are not owned by one specific department. Even though practically every other process within a company may already be automated, from ERPs to HR, the contracting process, not home to anyone department, was often overlooked. However, there are two main reasons that automation is so beneficial for contracting processes: signing contracts faster and quickly extracting information that you need at the moment you need it. Even if you are only able to implement a contract repository at the start, you are still going to start seeing the benefits of faster searches, tracking approvals, and learning how to make your contract process more efficient.Kris then took us through the implementation process, beginning with a pilot or minimum viable product (MVP). The goal of an MVP is to narrow the scope of the system, usually to just one template or one department, in order to gauge how well it will fit a company’s needs. In fact, these needs are what must be detailed before the pilot can even commence. The organization and the implementation team must first come to an agreement internally about the success criteria for the tool and what it will be expected to fix. Without these criteria in place, it will be impossible to measure the software’s actual success throughout the pilot and determine whether or not it will be properly deployed.Kris explained that deploying the pilot quickly is a must and that it needs to be deployed to real users who can provide real feedback. Outside of a contract repository, the MVP will typically include two integrations (single sign-on and E-signatures), one or two templates (NDA and another which must be used for the duration of the pilot), and a limited group of about 100 users who have been properly trained to work with the system. Once the pilot concludes, you are then faced with two options: go deeper into the functionality by extending everything in the same department and testing again, or launching the MVP throughout the whole organization. The latter is the usual choice as long as the pilot was deemed successful.The CLM QuadrantAs we then asked Kris about his experience recommending certain vendors, he constructed a very handy visual when it comes to the different purposes that a CLM tool may be designed to fulfill, which we later deemed the CLM Quadrant. Essentially, CLM solutions are created with one or more of these vantage points on the contract process in mind: buy-side, sell-side, pre-signature, and post-signature. Depending on the needs of your organization, especially placing focus on the must-haves instead of the nice-to-haves, you may look for a solution that adheres to one quadrant more than another. As the tools grow and develop, and your contract processes do as well, you may also find that a tool expands with you down the road, accommodating more aspects of the quadrants than it previously did.Deloitte is tool agnostic, meaning that they do not have their own solution and can provide the client with the best option for them without any bias. Despite being tool agnostic, however, they do remain tool opinionated, with years of experience providing them with enough information to develop preferences between vendors. That being said, Kris does try to have at least two or three solutions available for each shelf of the market, from the biggest organizations to the middle players to the smallest companies too. User AdoptionWith tools, surveys, and questionnaires in hand, Kris and his team have managed to scale down the implementation process to anywhere from three to six weeks, depending on the size of the company. However, even the quickest and most seamless implementations do not always guarantee user adoption of the software. This is where building up hype for the implementation becomes necessary. The closer you get to going live, the more buzz you should be creating around the CLM tool. But, the buzz that you generate cannot come from preaching about small technicalities within the tool because not many people will engage with that. Instead, try sending short videos or animated movies about how great life will be once the CLM solution has been implemented. Almost akin to movie trailers, you need to be making people excited for the final product.The human aspect of implementation plays a huge role in generating buzz and facilitating user adoption. Your test group for the pilot will become the ambassadors to the software, as they are the experts who know exactly how to work it and how much it will increase the quality of life for employees. It falls to them to spread rumors about how great the CLM tool is among their colleagues. The implementation team will be responsible for making sure all questions about the system are addressed in a timely fashion. After the system goes live, it is important to host daily training sessions with an open invitation that allows anyone to join the call and ask questions about how to use the tool. Following up on questions quickly and providing hands-on solutions is the best way to ensure that no one feels left behind or frustrated while working with the new system.For more exclusive chats with expert guests in the contract lifecycle management sphere along with valuable legal-tech advice, check out past installments of Contract Heroes, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! If you have any questions for our guest, Kris Kwiatek, he is available to message on LinkedIn.

This week’s installment of Contract Heroes brings you invaluable insight from renowned legal operations consultant and founder of InnoLaw, Lucy Bassli. Lucy got her start as a commercial contracts lawyer, eventually moving from a big law firm to working in-house at Microsoft for about 13 years. It was through her work at Microsoft that she discovered her passion for the “how” aspect of her job rather than the “what.” She defines the “how” of working with contracts as finding ways to do them faster, better, and more efficiently. Lucy left Microsoft 4 years ago to start her own consultancy, InnoLaw, where she now works with her team to help corporate law firms better understand how to manage their contracts. Read on to discover just a fraction of the wisdom she shared with us throughout our conversation.AI ExpectationsWith the explosion of contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, many legal-tech conversations have become centered around one common buzzword: AI. However, despite how much the word is thrown around and advertised on the websites of software providers, consumers may still not be aware of what AI currently can and cannot do. We asked Lucy to give us some insight into her experience implementing systems that feature AI and what customers who utilize such software should expect from their program.Lucy began her explanation by stating that contract management boils down to an intricate series of processes and interactions. AI can certainly play a part in these processes and interactions, but you shouldn’t aim to have it replace them entirely. Some CLM providers haven’t been entirely clear about the value of using AI, and this disconnect leads to a lack of understanding about how to successfully implement an AI-driven program. What many first-time AI or CLM solution users may not realize is that AI requires a great deal of human interaction in order to be successful at its tasks. Just as you would train a new employee, you need to teach the AI by feeding it plenty of samples, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of documents. The more samples it has, the better it understands and is able to provide the service that the software company advertised. Essentially, it’s important to be merciful on your AI and not expect too much from it, especially early on in the implementation process.CLM Vendor StandardsBeing the head of her own consultancy, Lucy was able to shed some light on an aspect of CLM solutions that we haven’t had the chance to discuss as often on our show: the screening process for selecting which software to recommend to clients. Since her consultancy is agnostic, they do not have any partnerships with specific companies, meaning that they always do their best to recommend a solution that will be the best fit for the customer without any sort of bias. The first piece of the puzzle when evaluating CLM solutions is, of course, the features and functions, aka the actual technology. Most will be stronger in some phases or areas than others, so it’s important to know which phases are the strong suit for each software in order to choose one that best fits the needs of the customer. The next step is then to evaluate the people behind the product. Getting to know the sales team, as well as the company’s implementation policies, can be a good indicator as to whether or not they’ll be thorough and communicative throughout the process. Typically, she will ask them to prepare a demo for the client to use in order to gain a better feel for how it will work with their practices.For Lucy, evaluating the people behind the product even reaches all the way to the CEO. One way to wade through a sea of potential vendors is to check the backgrounds of the CEOs. Those who have experience in the legal world, have shown some level of passion for the work they’re doing, and put energy or excitement into the advancement of legal-tech are going to be the standout candidates. These are the providers who are more likely to be in it for the long haul instead of merely capitalizing on a current business boom. Providers who showcase stories of consistent customers year after year will generally have higher implementation success rates.For more exclusive chats with expert guests in the contract lifecycle management sphere along with valuable legal-tech advice, check out past installments of Contract Heroes and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! If you have any questions for our guest, Lucy Bassli, you can easily reach her on LinkedIn

In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the opportunity to chat with Mat Jakubowski. Mat has over 10 years of legal experience at companies like Thomson Reuters and Dentons. This experience has given him a unique blend of skills that he now uses to both run a legal ops department and also provide world-class Legal Tech training and mentoring to aspiring lawyers and legal professionals at Silvertown Legal. Part of why he made the transition was that he wanted to be involved in the ever-evolving world of legal-tech, branching out beyond the reach of just one company to affect change in a bigger way as the legal industry rapidly advances from manual to digital. At the time that Mat graduated from law school, there was very few off his peers going into the legal-tech space, with the “standard legal path” being road most followed. Now, with so many alternative paths, he is excited to share his experiences working with legal-tech, and we hope that his advice can help both those looking for technology solutions to suit their contract processes as well as those seeking jobs in the vastly expanding legal technology realm.Utilizing Free Tech at Your DisposalTo start things off, we first wanted to see if there were any free technology platforms that Mat could recommend for those who might be just starting to look into adopting legal-tech and are still in the process of evaluating their contract lifecycles. He began by stressing the importance of understanding your processes before looking into integrating a high tech contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, as technology cannot be used properly unless it is applied to good processes. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t utilize smaller technology solutions during your evaluations as well.One of the platforms Mat recommended checking out was the Microsoft Suite, particularly Microsoft Teams. Teams can be of great help when it comes to creating better communication between departments as well as planning out processes and assigning tasks to different team members. Excel, though usually overlooked, can also be used for planning or keeping track of data. It may not always be the most user-friendly experience, but it can still get the job done while you prepare to make the transition to a more detailed software.Mat also suggested utilizing software like Miro in order to visualize your processes as you learn about them. It is much easier to pick apart the details of your contract processes when you have a map or graph of that process that highlights the dependencies, clauses, clients, and even points out who is approving what. This may also help you pick out processes that are currently being handled by senior employees which could be delegated to mid-level or junior employees instead, freeing up more time for senior personnel to devote to more pressing matters. All in all, free tools like these may be of immense usefulness in creating a big picture of your organization, your processes, and what you’re looking to change.Hiring the Right PeopleBut of course, no matter what tools you choose, they cannot be properly utilized without the right people. The next question we posed to Mat asked him to explore how he goes about finding individuals who fit an organization’s unique culture and who are excited to work in an expanding sphere like legal-tech. Conveniently, Mat broke down his answer into 4 key parts, outlining the different traits that he would look for when deciding who to hire:Legal experience: Understanding the legal aspects of the contracting process is extremely important. Even if this legal experience boils down to just a few internships, it helps to have a handle on how legal processes work, such as redlining, the importance of clauses, limitations, liabilities, etc. Certain parts of the contract will be contentious and others will be simple, so you need to know where to spend your time in order to create the best quality contract without dragging out the process.Project management: Innovation is almost always exciting at the beginning, but it is usually a long process, sometimes longer than anticipated. Individuals working to incorporate legal-tech solutions need to be able to keep up the momentum of the innovation project for the entire duration of the plan. Highlight the value that the innovation will bring to the company and make sure people know what they are meant to be doing at each step of the journey.Business acumen: Business knowledge is not always necessary when incorporating CLM solutions, but it is helpful when focusing on a value-driven mindset. By knowing what a business does and how it operates, you can better understand which values to prioritize throughout the integration process.Tech knowledge: Surprisingly, Mat considers tech knowledge to be the least essential of the 4 traits he mentioned. While it is helpful to know how the technology works in order to figure out the best ways to gain value from it, you can easily learn a lot about technology on the job or even by simply attending webinars. After all, Mat himself didn’t have much tech knowledge when he started either. Searching for SolutionsSo after you’ve evaluated your processes and hired the right people, how do you go about wading through the immense pool of CLM solutions available on the market right now? We asked Mat to walk us through the early steps of locating the perfect CLM tool for your organization. Laughing, he first explained how not to start your search: selecting a tool simply because one of the partners in the firm heard good things about it or knows someone who works for the software company. This could result in choosing a software that is completely unsuited to the needs of your organization, which would be a waste of money, time, and resources.You first need to understand what you want your CLM tool to be able to do for you. Begin by making a clear list of your must-haves and what you want the software to help you accomplish. There are tons of CLM tools out there, and each one has to differentiate itself from others by offering various features, all of which can be helpful in their own ways. But, this also makes it easy to be drawn in simply by the features that would be nice to have while losing sight of the ones that are your organization’s priority. Mat recommends being realistic about your list and starting small. You cannot expect the software to fix every single problem in the legal department right away, so focusing on smaller goals at first allows you to choose a software that suits your immediate needs and that may adapt with you down the line.Encouraging High User AdoptionAnd, once you have all your moving parts in place, the final question that many are left asking is how you get your employees to actually use the new software. Mat explained that support from various locations within the company throughout the implementation process is key. Leaders of the organization, whether they be partners or stakeholders, need to be the ambassadors of change, while a leader of the innovation group itself remains available to answer questions and make sure no one feels left behind. Having a handful of employees who catch onto the software quickly and can act as living proof that the new technology works may encourage others as well. Not to mention, it also helps to showcase success stories early on in the process in order to keep people feeling positive and motivated for the change.For more exclusive chats with expert guests in the contract lifecycle management sphere along with valuable legal-tech advice, check out past installments of Contract Heroes and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! If you have any questions for our guest, Mat Jakubowski, he is available on LinkedIn to discuss all things legal-tech.

In this week’s installment of Contract Heroes, we sat down with the mastermind behind the creation of Counselwell, Avi Weiss. Avi ​​is currently an in-house lawyer at Coinsquare, a cryptocurrency company based in Canada, but he also manages Counselwell simultaneously. His passion for in-house counsel and the drive to provide resources for his peers in this versatile and demanding profession have led him to take on both jobs, often working nights and weekends to achieve his goals.Throughout the episode, we had the opportunity to learn more about Counselwell and its early days while also gathering some of Avi’s essential tips for anyone looking to find a job working as in-house counsel. Though a bit different from our typical subject matter, Avi’s perspective provides a great look at the world of in-house counsel, what it’s like, and how to get your foot in the door. Creating CounselwellSo, what is Counselwell all about? Avi explained that he created Counselwell with the intention for it to become a resource and a home for in-house lawyers, which it most certainly has. Counselwell offers resources like online courses, a Job Board, a vendor directory, and a Slack community to lawyers all around the country, helping them to grow professionally in their careers and reach new heights.The idea for Counselwell originally came to Avi when he made the switch to in-house counsel himself for the first time. He started out his legal career working at a large law firm in Toronto. Bigger law firms like this one, he explained, have lots of resources available for nearly any subject, as there are people working there from practically every area of law who can give you advice. When you make the jump to in-house counsel, however, you become the only resource for that company when it comes to all sorts of legal subject matter. Whether the questions are in your area of expertise or not, you are still expected to know or be able to figure out an answer. Despite searching around, Avi was unable to find any resources to help him when he first started working in-house. So, he decided to make his own resource: Counselwell.One of the features of Counselwell that we wanted to highlight in particular are the online courses being offered, such as legal project management and contract management. Avi explained that working as an in-house lawyer himself, he was able to think about the types of tasks that lawyers have to do most often outside of the usual substantive law tasks. Dealing with contracts and managing legal projects were two of the most frequent tasks he noticed, hence why they were made into online courses at Counselwell. The legal project management course teaches things like staffing, balancing costs, and time management in order to help lawyers create a structure for handling various legal projects. The contract management course is designed to help lawyers assess their contracts and processes before adopting any form of legal-tech, like contract lifecycle management (CLM) software.Tips for Prospective In-House LawyersCounselwell also features a unique Job Board that is specifically designed to help those seeking in-house positions find the perfect job for them. Avi noticed that in-house counsel positions can have an infinite number of titles, which makes searching for and finding job listings difficult. The Job Board eliminates all the clutter of different titles by listing only jobs for in-house counsel. Starting back in mid-2021, the Job Board has grown to include about 60 listings, with more and more being added each month.One of the main points we asked Avi to touch on was providing some tips or suggestions for anyone interested in an in-house position, whether they’re at the start of their career or simply looking to switch paths for something new. He explained that the first step in the process should be to narrow down your search by thinking about key aspects of your dream job: what type of industry or company you want to work for (a government agency, a startup, a non-profit, a big company, etc.), what type of legal department you want to be a part of (small agile teams or larger ones), and what type of work you want to do. The type of work that you want to do is especially important, and Avi warned against picking a job based on what others might think of your title. Instead, focus on what tasks you’ll be doing at that job and what the actual experience of working there will be like in order to determine whether or not it will be a good fit for you.We’ve condensed Avi’s checklist for finding your perfect job down below:Create a spreadsheet of all the key aspects of your dream job mentioned above.Create a list of companies that match all your criteria.Reach out to people on LinkedIn who work in those companies and track the conversations on your spreadsheet.Use the conversations to narrow down your choices more and more until you find a job that centers around your ideals.For more exclusive chats with expert guests in the contract lifecycle management sphere along with valuable legal-tech advice, check out past installments of Contract Heroes, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!

Throughout our conversations on Contract Heroes, we have often focused mainly on contract processes, how to go about bettering them before implementing tech solutions like contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools, but one key aspect of the contracting realm that we have yet to fully cover is people. After all, the employees working throughout the different departments of a company are the ones who make the contracting process possible, so we decided to center our attention on understanding the importance of people and building cohesion across the entirety of the business.Cohesion Across DepartmentsWe kicked off our discussion by posing our usual opening question to Kim: “Why do you think the contracting processes of every organization need attention?” She explained that processes make up the foundation of the business. They provide an outline of how people should be doing their jobs and what roles they need to play both within their own business units and as a part of the larger company. The best way to facilitate a deep understanding of this foundation is to find a sense of commonality across all the different business units. By creating consistency among processes in each unit, you can make sure employees are always aware of their roles and are able to adapt even when switching to or collaborating with another unit.For organizations that do not yet have that consistency between units, there are two ways to go about creating it: roll out the new strategy to each unit one at a time or try to incorporate the entire organization in one large move. Choosing between these two possibilities depends on your company’s risk level. It is often much riskier to try to implement strategies in one “big bang” motion. If the strategy is ineffective, then carrying it out across all the units was a waste of time and resources. Kim advised instead to focus on individual business units first. Test the strategy on a smaller scale and make sure it works, then roll it out in broader terms so you can minimize any disruption. Depending on the size and scale of the company, you can either incorporate the new strategy unit by unit or move from location to location.Finding Your StrategyBuilding from Kim’s discussion of incorporating a company-wide strategy, we next asked her to explain how to begin developing that unique strategy. Understanding your contract processes and the way you interact with customers and suppliers is key. Essentially, finding your strategy will act somewhat as a maturity model as well. Mature contracting organizations have their supplier strategies in place, have well-defined processes, and have talented people who understand how contracting truly works. Once a company reaches that point of maturity, then they can begin utilizing strategic contracting.Strategic contracting is based on three main types of contracts: performance-based, relationship-based, and vested outsourcing. Each one will be used differently, so it is important to understand your relationship with each customer or supplier in order to choose the correct contract moving forward. Kim outlined these three types of contracts as follows:Performance-based contracts: Typically used for critical or strategic suppliers. Focused on how you are going to perform to meet the end state of that contract instead of just quality and delivery. How are we going to support the customer after we’ve delivered the product?Relationship-based contracts: Typically used for strategic suppliers. Focused on how you will work together to achieve a certain endstate. Establish terms based on the relationship and how you will ultimately satisfy the customer’s needs. Approach from a trade-off perspective. Keep in mind who will be doing what in the relationship and how you will act in order to achieve the end deliverable.Vested outsourcing: The most collaborative model for strategic suppliers. Focused on building out the relationship together. Understand and agree on the risk profile that both companies will engage in and develop the actual contract jointly. Since vested outsourcing sounds like the best solution for most cases, we asked Kim to give us an example of when that type of approach might not work. She explained that forming contracts using the vested outsourcing strategy requires a great deal of trust and for both sides to understand each other’s risks. If the relationship between the two companies is at all contentious, then this strategy most likely will not be a good choice.Picking the Right PeopleAs we mentioned, we wanted to hear more about contracting from the perspective of the people involved in it rather than just the processes themselves and the tech used to automate them. We asked Kim to help us understand the best way to go about finding and selecting the right people to fit into each aspect of the contracting process and help the company really function at its highest potential. She stated that not only is it important to create a culture within the organization that breeds the correct type of people who want to be involved with that culture, but it is also a necessity to try to incorporate employees early in their careers. Contracts are, of course, inherently based in the law to some extent, as they always have to account for risks and what to do when something goes wrong. However, it is extremely important to make sure contracts do not cater only to the legal side of the relationship, but also to the business side. After all, the goal of contracts is to enable business. Kim explained that people who are hired into contracting positions must be able to understand both sides of the contract as well as how to create and develop meaningful business relationships with customers and suppliers. Apprenticeship programs in college allow young employees to become exposed to different types of contracts in various industries and help prepare them to build these comprehensive contracts that are risk-balanced and use appropriate language to support the legal and sales perspectives equally.To wrap up the show, we asked Kim to give us some tips that people who are just starting their search for a CLM tool can use while wading through the countless options available on the market. From her perspective, it is important to keep in mind that technology is the enabler people use to make their jobs easier and more efficient. You should aim to find a holistic solution that uniquely fits your business strategy and creates a flow across all departments while also allowing room for long-term growth.For more exclusive chats with expert guests in the contract lifecycle management sphere along with valuable legal-tech advice, check out past installments of Contract Heroes and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! If you have any questions for our guest, Kim Miller, she is available via email at kim.miller@L3Harris.com.

Tom is a contract management veteran and a legend in the industry with tons of knowledge to impart about the early steps of implementing contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools. Over the years Tom has helped his clients understand the people, process, and technology that makes up the framework of contracting, especially from the sell side of the equation. During this episode we discussed:How to leverage contracts as a strategic tool that can empower your organization, maximize revenue, and control the way revenue leakage is managedWhy the combination of people, process, and technology is a unique at each organization and how to solve this puzzle to meet your businesses needsWhat “phase zero” is and why it’s so important when starting your journey to find the perfect CLM toolWant to learn more about Tom and the things we discussed in this episode? Connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmfuchs/

Just as a typical doctor would do when diagnosing their patient, the Procurement Doctor evaluates his client’s contract process in order to locate the pain areas before suggesting recommendations on how to go about fixing those areas.During our interview we discussed:Karthik’s experiences in working with the procurement side of contracts vs. the sales side.Why implementing a contract playbook can help your team cut costs, bring in more revenue, and reduce the overall contract processing time.Why managing data vs filing and forgetting is so important when it comes to contract.

Alex started practicing law as a litigator before eventually making the transition into the legal-tech space where’s he’s worked in a variety of roles, most recently as the head of community development at Ironclad where he is responsible for facilitating community engagement. —————————– In this episode we cover: How being a lawyer helped Alex have success selling legal-tech Why working for a law firm isn’t the right fit for all who those who graduated law school How social media helped Alex land his dream job Why communities can and should play a role in which CLM tool your team purchases —————————– Learn more about Alex by connecting with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-su/

Husein Panju has been practicing law for 10 years, spending the first 5 years of his career providing advice and litigation to the three levels of the Canadian government before taking on a dual role with a top public affairs consulting firm in which he handled commercial drafting and risk management. —————————– In this episode we cover: - The problems with legalese and why lawyers still use them - How simplifying the language in your contracts can make them more user-friendly - What tools and services are available to help simplify language and write more clearly —————————– Follow Husein on Twitter (@lawyeredpodcast) and check out his podcast here: http://lawyeredpodcast.com/The Ins and Outs of Legalese

On this episode of Contract Heroes, we had the opportunity to sit down with Sally Guyer, Global CEO of World Commerce & Contract and Paul Branch, CTO. WorldCC provides a home and a common body of knowledge for those working in the rapidly advancing world of contract management. WorldCC showcases an extremely diverse community, with over 70,000 members spanning from 180 different countries. In this episode we spoke with Sally and Paul about: Why simplifying contract language is becoming more popular What issues you can run into when using complex contracting language Understand where your organizations contracting processes are lagging How to find a CLM solution that best fits your teams needs