Contract Management Blog Articles

The legal profession has historically seen itself as unique and exempt from the constraints and concerns that have dominated the business sphere. With the rise of technology and its role increasing in power and influence over how businesses run, the legal profession now is coming around to the idea of not being a cost center and the department of no to a value creator and the department of can do.

You’ve likely heard the term wet signature and may have wondered what the heck is a wet signature?

A wet signature is simply a signature using a pen, pencil, or seal on a physical document. For a long time, wet signatures were commonly used to represent a binding contract.

Contracts are the undercurrent that drives business forward. They define the contours of most business relationships, and are how most businesses make money. As a first-year law student, you are taught the law of contracts: offer, consideration, and acceptance. These concepts are useful for a lawyer, but no one (besides legal professionals) gives much thought to these things. What is far more useful for the business is understanding how contract cycles can be sped up. That's where contract playbooks and contract templates prove their worth.

Hallways filled with people. Some were dressed to kill, others dressed for comfort. Lanyards, bags, and swag were everywhere. Ah, it was good to be back! 

Contract Lifecycle Management continues to be a fast-growing legal industry sector, but do you know what it is?

This post is intended to provide a brief overview of what this sector is about. In this post, I will:

1. State a few underlying principles of CLM.
2. Answer some frequently asked questions about what CLM is.
3. Provide some additional resources for further review.

Contracts are legal documents and, appropriately, are the domain of the legal function.

Managing contracts, however, is a cross-functional exercise involving several functions including finance, legal, sales, and in larger companies, procurement.

Jason Smith puts it this way:

“There's a difference between managing the contract lifecycle (the process) and the contract (the document). The contract document is a legal artifact... the process is a business lifecycle. Once you understand this, the cross-functional concept becomes easier to address.”

Meet Colin, one of our newest additions to the Malbek team! You may know Colin from his heavy social media presence, or his countless speaking affairs.  Actually, he was even a Contract Lens podcast guest! To get to know this legal tech star, we asked him seven questions. Here are his answers: