Finding the best-fitting clauses for each client case at BG2V

Technology is crucial for excellent customer service

BG2V is an independent French law firm specializing in business law, led by a group of 13 partners and nearly 40 associates who share a new vision of the profession. Their main goal is to service their clients in the best way possible. Stan Richoillez, Corporate Partner at BG2V, believes legal tech plays an important part in doing so: ​“Our most important resources are of course the people who work here. But besides that, technology is crucial. It allows us to answer to requests from our clients, who do not only expect an increasingly technical response but also a more sophisticated and faster one”.

Keeping up in the digital age

At BG2V they even dare to say that legal tech became indispensable. It allows them to keep up in this new, digital age. Woody Guirand, Counsel in the real estate department, explains: ​“Before, like every law firm, we would ask the partners or more senior colleagues for precedents. That would allow us to re-compile existing documentation. But it also meant that we lost valuable time and sometimes we didn’t have the necessary information at a given time. That caused a lot of frustration because we weren’t always able to deliver the documents within the required time frame.”

Basically, in the past, at BG2V, they would do like 80% of the lawyers in Paris: they would start from an existing contract and try to adjust it. ​“But in general, once you’re drafting, you’d become aware of the fact that that specific contract is not the best template. Or you’d think of another clause that you definitely know exists because you’ve used it before, but you simply wouldn’t know where to look for it”, Stanislas points out.

Eliminating frustrations

Drafting in such a traditional way is not always very rewarding. ​“Deep down you know that you’re not necessarily doing things in the best way possible. You know you could do better, but you don’t have the right resources to do so.” Thanks to Henchman, luckily, this rudimentary way of drafting is now a thing of the past. ​“Henchman allows us to search through every existing precedent and contract ever written by the firm. It makes it easy to find the best-fitting clause for the contract that you’re working on. Moreover, it’s very user-friendly because it’s integrated within Word and at the same time very sophisticated in the detail of the search results.”