The Future of Contract Review: Fast, Accurate, and (mostly) Automated

Reviewing contracts is a problem. In hundreds of conversations I’ve had with in-house legal teams, the pain of contract review comes up again and again, at or near the top of the list, regardless of the company’s size or industry. 

“We value speed – like same day turnaround – which means our legal reviews need to have business context (when to say yes, when to push back), we need to move fast, and we need the right answers and resources at our fingertips.” – VP of Legal, Series D SaaS company

The problem, to be precise, is that reviewing contracts is time-consuming, tedious, and takes away from other strategic legal work. Yet the flow of contracts never stops, and business stakeholders want fast turnarounds so they can close a deal, sign a partnership, or bring on a vendor. Legal essentially has to choose between bad options: hire more people to review contracts, offer slower turnaround times to the business, or put-off other priorities. 

A better solution to contract review

There is, however, now a fourth option that didn’t exist a few years ago: AI contract review software. That’s why I’m so excited about what we’re doing at LegalOn.

In recent months, the wider world has awoken to the power of AI – and it’s exciting! Just last week, a retired lawyer asked me about ChatGPT. He’d been hearing about it but had a hard time picturing what it could do. So we logged in and asked ChatGPT to write a poem about him and his love of cars in the style of Shakespeare. It did. Jaws dropped. Seeing is believing.

I’ve been working with AI and legal technology for more than a decade. Over that time, I’ve seen first-hand the behind-the-scenes, dramatic advances in AI capabilities, as well as the powerful user-facing products that result. Conviction about the potential of AI now and over the next five years is a major reason why I joined LegalOn.

LegalOn's proven approach with AI + guidance

Now, we have this extraordinary meeting of problem and solution. Using AI, which we’ve built and tailored over many thousands of hours, LegalOn can now do what was previously impossible: spot nuanced risks buried deep within contracts. 

And, by adding on top of that AI our expert legal knowledge – about how to handle a contract risk, the right language to use instead, and practical guidance about why the risk matters – we cut the time needed to review contracts by 40% and elevate our customers to higher value decision-making, not line-by-line review. 

As one in-house lawyer said to me after seeing LegalOn – “this is the kind of tool I’ve been expecting for years!” 

Combining technology with guidance has made LegalOn the largest contract review product in the world, trusted by over 3,000 companies and law firms globally. With LegalOn, 98% of users save time in their contract review process, and 90% improve review quality. 

All that is to say, not only is the technology here today to solve the contract review problem, it’s proven. And, this is just the start. Contract review is situated in a broader process – it flows from a legal request that a business stakeholder makes, it ties to other departments that may need to collaborate or approve, and it is the key moment for preventing or at least flagging downstream risks and obligations that must be managed in the future. 

We’re excited to work with innovative legal teams to solve their contract review problem and to advance the practice of law with technology. If you’re interested, we’d love to hear from you.