GC Spotlight: How Danh unlocked additional capacity for his lean legal team.

2. What change have you seen implemented in the workplace that fundamentally shifted your business & how?

The paradigm shift to 'remote-first' working environments brought on by the pandemic and now a permanent fixture has irrevocably changed the way we work, as well as our relationship with that work. Remote-first is a more than viable alternative to office work and has allowed companies to tap into new and richer pools of talent, now that they’re no longer constrained by geographies or time zones. In addition, there's now a greater willingness to use ever-improving technology to enhance collaboration, teamwork and information sharing, making for more engaged and productive teams, regardless of where they sit in the world.

3. What do you think about the use of LegalTech, data analytics and process optimisation to improve your legal department's value?

LegalTech is great. Provided you adopt the right LegalTech tools (eg contract lifecycle management platforms, legal intake, e-signatures, etc), which address the key pain points experienced by your team, they can help to optimise your processes significantly and lead to higher productivity and effectiveness for your team and the organisation overall. At Paysend, we've seen a marked increase in productivity. It has helped to improve contract cycle times, reduced the amount of lower-value work (eg review of NDAs and marketing contracts) and unlocked additional capacity for the team to focus on higher value and more strategic work (eg high value transactions, and strategic partnerships and initiatives).

4. What trends do you expect to see in the legal services industry in the next 5 years?

I think we'll see a further acceleration in the adoption of LegalTech, GCs and inhouse legal teams being more vocal about their needs when engaging law firms and other service providers (eg ALSPs), and an increased shift towards outcomes-based charging models from those providers. The main driver being - how does this add value to my business?

5. Where do you see NewLaw/ALSP fitting in the matrix of your legal department?

NewLaw and ALSPs will and should play an increasingly important role in this matrix. Again, our focus will be on value and how and where we can best source the right expertise or capability from the best/most appropriate provider. Who we outsource work to will depend on the nature of the project, our risk appetite, and what's available in the marketplace. It will be a combination of different service providers. There's really no ‘one size fits all’.

6. Your favourite tune? And why?

Adele's 'Set Fire to the Rain'. Why? Because she's Adele and she's a legend! I saw her perform live in Hyde Park in London last year and she was - in a word -  phenomenal. There's simply no one else like her.