Corporate law knowledge service FromCounsel and legal automation platform Clarilis have today (12 May) formally launched their fully maintained automated M&A document suite.
Clarilis offers complex automation via a combination of technology and a managed services team of professional support lawyers. Speaking to Legal IT Insider, Clarilis CEO James Quinn said: “Over time we have got to know FromCounsel, which specialise in corporate content and knowhow, and we thought ‘wouldn’t it be great if we brought the market a really comprehensive suite of M&A documents.’ It means you can be a one man band and it’s still economic. The document suite is applicable to a whole range of firms, and we’re already engaged with most of the UK top 100.”
By engaged, Quinn means that many of the UK top 100 have reached out to FromCounsel and Clarilis after a webinar they hosted in December to preview the new M&A capability.
Quinn says: “The majority of our clients have automated SPAs already within Clarilis and we’re not taking that away, you can automate your own or, where you see the benefit, use FromCounsel’s content.”
The new suite includes a range of corporate documents including buyer and seller SPAs and many of the preliminary documents required in a corporate transaction. Given the positive reaction, FromCounsel and Clarilis are extending the suite to include the likes of shareholder agreements and articles of association, with the ambition of providing end-to-end capability.
What’s interesting is the extent to which this type of automated suite will drive a degree of standardisation, although Quinn says: “Clients can take the FromCounsel precedent and ask to make their own changes: that still forms part of the arrangement.”
Clarilis counts among its clients firm including Slaughter and May, Addleshaw Goddard, Herbert Smith Freehills, Arthur Cox and TLT, which also has a white label partnership to provide Clarilis-automated documents to its clients.
FromCounsel and Clarilis’ PSL team, in addition to providing precedents, will maintain the content, automation and guidance on an ongoing basis.
In a statement today Andrew Thornton QC, CEO of FromCounsel commented: “There’s a huge potential in bringing fully maintained, high-quality automated legal documents to the broader market, from the many smaller firms that don’t have the same access to resources as the leading firms to the larger firms looking to utilise their fee earner resources on higher value work rather than time-consuming maintenance and manual processes. Given the overwhelmingly positive reaction to this offering, we are already working on other automated document suites together.”