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Make your contracts beautiful: Top tips for contract automation with Checklist Legal Founder, Verity White

Verity White is not your average lawyer.

She’s a contract enthusiast who believes a “beautiful contract” is not an oxymoron. She founded CheckList Legal in 2016 to help other businesses unlock the potential of their contracts and systems through impeccable user experience. 

You might be wondering, but where do I begin?

Verity gives us her top three tips for how to begin transforming your contracts into powerful digital tools.

1. Consider metrics

Before you begin automating your life away, Verity suggests analysing the documents and contracts used within your business. 

“How often do you use each contract per month and how long does it take you each time you draft it? You can extrapolate those numbers over, say, a year to determine which contracts you would benefit most from automating,” she says. 

By considering which contracts will deliver the most value if automated, you will save considerable time and money in the longer-term.

“When I was setting up my law firm I was doing on the side of my corporate legal job, I invested in tech and automation because it was essentially going to be my secretary,” Verity adds.

2. Simplify first

Technology is the enabler, not the main event. Automating a contract won’t magically make its content better.  

Verity suggests looking first to contracts which are widely used within the business or that are crucial to an important stakeholder, like a CEO or Partner. Then, dig into the contract terms themselves, to see what can be improved and simplified. 

“Simplify first before you automate. I see so many people trying to automate contracts before they’ve simplified the original document. If you haven’t simplified, it’s going to be really hard to automate,” says Verity.

3. Process map

Processing mapping is a great way to simplify your contracts. It involves breaking down any contract or system into visual steps, to enable a holistic view of either the customer journey, lawyer journey or both. 

“Imagine you are the bot and you’re talking to your client. What do you want to say?” Verity asks.

Going through the process of mapping the journey before building anything on a third party tech platform, will allow you to see where your current process is flawed or what an ideal process looks like.

“I like to use mind mapping tools like Coggle and Miro, or even post-it notes with trusty pen and paper!” says Verity. 

She adds that “lawyers are often guilty of having blinkers on as to what the support team do before and after they deliver the legal work.”

Processing mapping exposes every stage of the journey for everyone involved, not just the lawyers. Understanding your workflows will improve your contract automation and has the potential to enhance team cohesion. 

Connect with Verity on LinkedIn and Instagram or visit Checklist Legal for more details on her current projects.

Verity's advice is top notch.

We wholeheartedly endorse Verity’s advice and can support your team at every stage of your automation journey. Explore Josef’s products today.

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