Cuatrecasas holds on to global quality standards for legal services

Sharing knowledge is a mindset

Cuatrecasas is a leading law firm, operating in 12 countries and prominently established in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. Despite its global presence, Cuatrecasas is committed to providing the same quality of service to its clients around the world.

Telma Carvalho, M&A Lawyer at Cuatrecasas explains: ​“10 years ago, colleagues were scared to share or contribute to knowledge. They thought that, by doing so, others would do the job as well or better than them. It’s crucial to understand that we are Cuatrecasas, a leading law firm, and all of us need to deliver the same quality with the same standards for our clients. Of course, we have a personal relationship with our clients, but we work as a team and sharing knowledge is critical to our work”.

Teresa Amaral Cabral, Knowledge Lawyer at the Knowledge and Innovation Department at Cuatrecasas, agrees: ​“Knowledge is essential to lawyers. As attorneys, we see that different people might have different opinions on many things. But in the case of the law, it is important to have a structured response or opinion as a law firm on a particular matter. That is why we try to ensure that we have a shared view so that clients don’t get divergent opinions just because their lawyers are different”. To foster that culture of knowledge sharing within the firm, Cuatrecasas has created a Knowledge and Innovation Department composed of lawyers, legal engineers, legal technicians, and legal researchers. This department tests and introduces legal tech to continuously optimize the way-of-working.

The start of a healthy addiction 

Before Henchman, there was a clear need within the firm for better and faster contract drafting. Drafting required much more effort, because the lawyers needed to go to the knowledge database, open standard or model documents, or ask colleagues if they had similar clauses. ​“A lot of times the templates were outdated. And so it was difficult to get around all the precedents and all the legal information that we had. To become more agile, we started using legal tech tools like Henchman”, Amaral Cabral says.

Today, Henchman perfectly supports lawyers in their daily work. Teresa Amaral Cabral explains: ​“When I know what kind of clause I want, I ask Henchman to search precedents or similar clauses, which might have been drafted in the past by me or other lawyers from the firm, and then I adapt it to our current situation.”

In fact, Cuatrecasas’ lawyers can’t imagine working without Henchman anymore. ​“It’s something I use every day. If they took it away, I would miss it, it’s already like an addiction.” Carvalho says. In the past, she would spend up to 3 hours, sometimes even more, looking for the right clause. Now, she simply fires up the Henchman add-on in Microsoft Word and finds precedent clauses in seconds instead of hours.

The perks of legal tech

Carvalho feels blessed that Cuartescasas believes and invests in technology because it is a great help in the day-to-day work, freeing up time to focus on delivering legal services and expertise in an innovative way. Clients don’t want 30 pages of legal text anymore. They want easy-to-read, manageable documents or presentations, and will ask for supporting documents when needed. So with the time she used to spend drafting contracts, Carvalho now can focus more on how to deliver the information. ​“Clients expect you to be involved in the project and bring something valuable to the table. So I started using Excel and PowerPoint more like consultants do, I make memos instead of sending a big Word document.”

Carvalho isn’t the only one drawn to Cuartescasas’ investment in innovation and technology. The firm’s more junior attorneys in particular, are eager to work with tools like Henchman. This commitment to innovation also plays a big role in recruiting, as young professionals see these types of tools as a deciding factor in whether or not to choose a firm as their next employer. It’s simply a great way to retain and attract talent.

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