It’s not sexy legal tech and may not contain one mention of AI but online transaction management is one space where you can expect some major law firms wins shortly, and later today Workshare will announce that Odi-sé Avocats Aviation Finance has become the first independent French law firm to adopt Workshare Transact.
Workshare Transact runs deal checklists through a secure online workspace, removing the pain of multiple e-mails. The checklist provides online access to the latest version of all transaction documents and simplifies the process of collecting conditions precedent and reviewing progress. Participants can connect to the workspace at any time, which makes the management of cross-border transactions, over several time zones, much smoother.
Odi-sé Avocats is one of France’s most respected aviation focused law firms and founder and managing partner Matthieu de Varax (pictured), a former Mayer Brown partner who launched the aviation boutique in September, said: “Aircraft finance and leasing transactions often involve multiple parties in various jurisdictions and generates a considerable number of documents.
“Workshare Transact allows us to spend less time on low-value work and to bring more value to our clients. It also makes the management and closing of transactions a much smoother, more efficient and cost-effective process.”
Workshare Transact, which is charged out on a per deal basis, is used by law firms including Fieldfisher, which helped to develop the product and this year took it on a US roadshow to its clients led by corporate partner Tim Bird. Simmons & Simmons in September 2017 announced that it has adopted the platform after a pilot led by UK head of real estate finance Mark Waghorn.
It is removing the inefficiency of multiple excel spreadsheets, emails and post-it notes to keep track of potentially hundreds of documents in high-value transactions, which goes a long way to explaining why demand is quickly growing. Speaking to Legal IT Insider in February, Bird said: “Projects like Workshare are not changing what we do fundamentally, but they are definitely enhancing the way we go about our day job.
“Time is not well spent rummaging around to find the latest version, only to find that you’ve marked up the wrong version: these are things we deal with day in, day out.”
See also:
https://legaltechnology.com//latest-news/fieldfisher-rolls-out-transact-and-takes-it-on-us-roadshow/