Managing Outside Counsel Spend: Harnessing Technology, People, and Processes

In recent years, businesses have been facing a significant challenge in managing their outside counsel spend. Legal costs have been on the rise, and understanding the underlying reasons behind this trend is crucial for effective management. Meanwhile, internal budgets have been reduced by over 10% in most cases. Changing the perception of legal as a cost center starts with – you guessed it – managing legal costs. In this blog post, we will explore the factors contributing to the escalating costs of outside counsel and delve into how businesses can address this issue by leveraging technology, optimizing their in-house legal team, and streamlining legal processes.

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Unintentional Bias in ChatGPT: Implications for Contract Drafting

The language we use in contracts is carefully chosen to ensure that the terms are precise, unambiguous, and clear to all parties involved. With the advent of generative AI, tools like ChatGPT have become increasingly popular for assisting with tasks like contract drafting and contract review.

Awareness of the potential unintentional bias in these AI-powered tools is important. We can work towards a more equitable drafting process by gaining a deeper understanding of unintentional bias in AI and taking steps to address it.

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Unlocking CLM: Best Practices from Simplified Academy

We had an amazing time at the first-ever CLM Simplified Academy in NYC. This day-long event explored every aspect of contract lifecycle management and how Legal professionals should approach it. Lucy Bassli, the host of the event, created an engaging and informative experience for everyone – I can’t wait to attend the next one!

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Fastcase Recognizes One of Malbek’s Innovators

He’s your favorite legal tech guide, our very own Director of Legal at Malbek, and everyone’s favorite legal tech enthusiast.

Yes, you guessed it! We are talking about Colin Levy. These days, it’s easy to enjoy his hot takes on legal tech and being a legal professional in this ever-changing world thanks to his ever-growing social media presence. But more than just his followers have noted his advocacy and vision for legal tech.

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Contract Lifecycle Management Data is Bringing Sexy Back

We generate insights and integrate data into our everyday lives both knowingly and unwittingly. From DNA tests, targeted ads, programmatic media buying, wearable devices (think FITBITs, tech togs, yoga tights, UV patches, smart watches, the OURA ring), to sharing geolocations and our whereabouts on maps.

In the information and digital age, we each leave a potentially insightful sprinkle of data everywhere we go. As do contracts on a contract lifecycle management (“CLM”) system such as Malbek.

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4 Must-Haves for Procurement Contracting

A contract lifecycle management solution is something that both Procurement and Legal teams need. However, there is often some disconnect between the two business functions. Knowing what features and functions are needed to bring consistency to buy-side contracting is necessary when trying to improve collaboration with Legal.

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Getting to Know Colin Levy

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:

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Key Takeaways: Legal Vs. Business Systems

Last week we were lucky enough to be joined by Ronak Ray, General Counsel of Pantheon, and Judist Crews, Director of Business Systems at Revalize, to settle an ongoing debate—can legal and business systems teams be friends?

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10 Best Practices in Contract Lifecycle Management

When contract lifecycle management is overlooked in business operations, it leads to unnecessary financial losses and can reduce operational efficiencies. For Sales, Legal, and Finance teams, adhering to contract management best practices is essential.

From contract drafting and storage to speedy approval times, here are 10 key contract management standards and best practices that should be applied to any CLM process.

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Can You Help Me Better Align Sales and Legal?

Welcome to another installment of our series “You ask. We answer” where we answer some of the most common questions that come from people like you. So, let’s get started!

Can You Help Me Better Align Sales and Legal?

When I think of opposition I think of a few scenarios: a fox versus a hound, a parent versus a toddler angling for more dessert, Don Lemon versus Sean Hannity, and, ultimately, Sales versus Legal. Let’s face it. The goals of Sales and Legal are in natural opposition, but that isn’t always a bad thing. Just like we don’t expect Sean and Don to have a nice balanced give and take when discussing politics, we expect organic friction between Sales and Legal in the course of getting a contract to signature.

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