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Manage Your Legal Department and Its Contracts From One Unified Platform
November 1, 2023
CounselLink CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) is an online collaborative negotiation platform for corporate legal departments, including the ability for internal and external stakeholders to securely review, comment on, and edit contracts in real-time. Read our new TechnoLawyer Buyer's Guide report below.
Manage Your Legal Department and Its Contracts From One Unified Platform
Corporate legal departments require robust contract lifecycle management (CLM) software to meticulously negotiate and track provisions in their agreements — obligations, notification rules, renewal dates, service guarantees, etc. However, CLM is just a piece of the puzzle. Legal departments also need enterprise legal management (ELM) software to manage budgets, legal bills, law firm relationships, matters, etc. CounselLink from LexisNexis provides both functions in one integrated product thanks to the recent addition of CounselLink CLM (formerly Parley Pro).
The Killer Feature
CounselLink CLM manages all stages of a contract from the initial request to negotiations and redlining to execution to ongoing management of its final terms. A myriad of CLM products from startups have flooded the market in recent years but CounselLink is one of a handful that offers a unified product with both CLM and ELM.
This combination lets corporate legal departments use one product instead of two or more, eliminating data silos and integration hassles. LexisNexis also sets CounselLink and CounselLink CLM apart with its internal team of specialists who provide hands-on implementation, systems integration, training, and 24x7 support.
"CounselLink CLM, a key component of our Enterprise Legal Management platform, provides legal departments with a better way to share work across teams, link contracts to matters, and track spend related to contracts," says LexisNexis Chief Product Officer Jeff Pfeifer. "With this latest CLM addition, contracting professionals can more effectively and efficiently execute contracts, thereby supporting revenue generation for the organization."
Other Notable Features
CounselLink CLM contains key dashboards that keep you apprised of in-progress and executed contracts. The Executed Contracts dashboard includes information such as contracts expiring soon, renewals approaching, upcoming contract activities, contracts recently signed, and contracts by department. The In-Progress Contracts dashboard includes Types of Contracts, Days in Negotiation and Cycle Time, Contracts by Amount, Most Active Contracts, and Non-Standard Terms. You can drill down from each dashboard to further explore a specific contract.
The dashboards in CounselLink CLM track the entire lifecycle of both in-progress contracts (shown here) and executed contracts.
At its core, CounselLink CLM consists of workflow tools, proprietary negotiation capabilities, and contract management functionality. Each contract starts its lifecycle with a request using a customizable form that captures essential details such as type of contract, its origin, and any other pertinent information your legal department requires. The requester can use a template or upload a third-party contract. CounselLink CLM also integrates with Salesforce to automate the capture of sales agreements. Once CounselLink CLM captures a new contract request, it can automatically assign it to and notify the designated people in the legal department as configured for that contract type.
To make negotiations more efficient, CounselLink CLM eliminates multiple versions of the contract. No more juggling multiple Word documents, which creates risk and wastes time. Instead, you can invite third parties to collaborate within CounselLink CLM. Alternatively, you can export a Word document, email it to the counterparty, and then import what you receive back, which will automatically update the contract showing their changes.
The contract review system in CounselLink CLM includes markup tools like those in Microsoft Word. However, CounselLink CLM goes far beyond Word. For example, you can assign tasks internally at the clause level. A commenting system lets each party discuss specific provisions internally or with all parties depending on the context. These comments as well as all accept/reject decisions are retained in the agreement's Negotiation History to provide an audit trail.
When the parties reach a consensus, CounselLink CLM integrates with Adobe Sign and DocuSign for e-signatures. It also supports scans of wet signatures. Once signed, CounselLink CLM records the effective date, term, renewal, and any customizable field data for the management stage of the agreement. The ensuing notifications ensure that your company will never miss a key deadline.
What Else Should You Know?
You can add CounselLink CLM to CounselLink anytime. If your company doesn't use CounselLink, you can use CounselLink CLM by itself. Either way, for CounselLink CLM you pay only for legal department users. Business users at your company, counterparties, and other third parties use CounselLink CLM for free.
Neil J. Squillante founded TopLaw and serves as its publisher. As a young litigator working on a high-profile trial, Neil witnessed the discrepancy between what happened in the courtroom and what the media reported. Neil created TopLaw to provide fellow lawyers and law firm personnel with reliable information. Many consider TopLaw newsletters the only ones they need. Previously, Neil practiced commercial litigation at Am Law 100 firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law and his B.A. from Duke University. At UCLA, Neil served as a Managing Editor of UCLA Law Review.
