In-house legal counsel manages chaos with automation
Teodora Bobcheva
Attorney at Law
Teodora, tell us something about yourself?
I started my career almost two decades ago as a lawyer in legal practice in the center of Sofia. I spent 8 years as a generalist handling contract drafting and negotiations, representation and corporate governance, legal advisory services and litigation. 5 years ago I accepted a position as an in-house head of a legal department and recently became legal counsel. All these experiences made me into the “T-shaped” lawyer I am today. I’m interested in IT and commercial law, and in my personal time I like to travel, and learn about new cultures, and perspectives.
How did the immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic affect your work in 2020?
In many ways! As the entire world was hit unexpectedly, governments took extreme measures at the beginning of 2020 by closing borders and access to public and private establishments, as well as quarantining citizens for long periods of time. Large open workspaces with closely packed desks was not an option anymore. This forced companies to reduce their office space by more than two thirds and move to remote work almost immediately. All this had enormous legal implications that I had to address almost immediately.
What made you choose CoMantis as your automation partner?
For the past 5 years, my client’s business grew exponentially (an Eastern European IT leader in software development and digital services). The business cases were becoming more in numbers and in variety and complexity. I was constantly bombarded with tasks from different departments and had to draft new documents with many variables every day. I knew the founders of CoMantis from before and they helped me realize I can produce more with less by using automation.
What were the initial challenges that were addressed by automation in your work?
CoMantis helped me utilize the existing resources provided to me by my client to streamline the management of all tasks sent to the legal department. This gave me a crystal clear visibility of what we were doing on a daily basis almost immediately and the statistics showed that most of our work is repetitive. They, later on, addressed this challenge with another solution for automated document assembly and document management.
What solutions were implemented and what was your first impression of automation?
I currently use two systems – ClickUp and Legito. I use the former to handle all my operational activities and the latter, to handle my entire document drafting and document management processes. Both solutions seemed complex at first until I was shown how to use them. CoMantis has excellent consultants that have a very personal approach and use methodologies that utilize mine and their time optimally.
What was the reception from you and your team regarding the overall implementation?
I was kind of skeptical at first because I didn’t know that such solutions existed. ClickUp had a lot of options and possibilities but it was hard for me to imagine how to use it. Both my team and I had some experience with task management software but felt that the system is too complex for us. I had the same problem with Legito as I could not conceive how a system would manage so many dynamic elements in my contracts as well as all other operational requirements we had within the company such as collaboration and approval workflows.
What was it that made you increase your confidence in the possibilities of automation?
I was shown a proof of concept that was tailored to my needs for each solution individually. In ClickUp, they created an automated request form so I can organize the tasks from different departments. We were able to see how we could use the system to increase our overall efficiency by tracking how much time we spend on each task and analyzing where we could improve by automation. This triggered my need for a demo of Legito where I saw that I can offer a much higher value to my clients and manage vast amounts of legal knowledge in a system that is easy to use. These showcases proved that I could offer my value to my clients.
What were some of the changes you noticed since the implementation of the systems?
Now it is much easier for me to report precise statistics at board meetings and present insightful charts at corporate meetings. My colleagues can easily see my progress and I can see if I have the necessary information to complete my tasks. I also can easily draft contracts because all my templates are automated. I can even provide access to a client portal where all my colleagues can have their own personal space for contract drafting and document management. I don’t need to update stakeholders on document progress – they can easily see that for themselves on the available dashboards.
What is your impression of CoMantis now that you’ve worked with them for over a year?
I’m still surprised by the versatility. They have vast amounts of operational knowledge as well as a profound understanding of the business process. When they suggest a certain solution, you know it is tailored to your needs! They show you how the solution works, how it saves time, and how much less effort you have to put in completing your work. They tackle a challenge at its root level and form an overall strategy of how to solve one or several challenges with an existing, low-cost, out-of-the-box solution. This kind of optimization and automation service is rarely found.
Thank you for your kind words, Teodora!
The Service
Teodora chose Operations Automation as a service provided by CoMantis Ltd.