The Contract Lens Podcast

On today's episode of the Contract Lens Podcast, Kevin Brening, Director of Sales at Malbek, and Adam Selsby, CTO at JusticeBid, cover everything you need to know about the RFP process from both the buyer and the supplier viewpoints. They discuss why it's so important to invite the right players to participate (if you're buying apples, don't go to someone selling bananas) and why you should consider starting with demos before even issuing the RFP to narrow the playing field. Adam explains why some RFPs end up looking a bit like Frankestein's monster and how to prevent that from happening. He also laments the role that PowerPoint has had in making RFPs way too long and how best to stand out from the pack. At the end of the day, RFPs are all about value and a good one is truly an art form. If you've ever completed an RFP or had to issue one, you won't want to miss this episode. So grab a glass of wine and let's talk contracts!

JusticeBid website

On today's episode of the Contract Lens Podcast, Gary Zuder, VP of Sales at Malbek, chats with Matt Linder, Senior Manager for Stout's Legal Management Consulting practice, about how to build the business case for contract management. Matt begins by explaining how creating several "flavors" of the business case improve the effectiveness and cohesiveness within an organization. Matt shares the who, what, and how that goes into a business case and the best ways to appeal to all facets of the business impacted by contracts. Using anecdotes from his experiences defining business requirements, he points out that the best business cases go way beyond cost benefits to align with business goals. He also dives into the pains, gains, and fears that push companies to buy and how to show that a CLM solution can help solve these problems. So grab a glass of wine – or beer in this case – and let's talk contracts!

Stout on LinkedIn

On today's episode of The Contract Lens Podcast Allison Martyn, a Business Analyst at Malbek, talks with Samir Bhatia, CEO at Brightleaf Solutions, about everything you need to know when migrating your legacy contracts. Samir walks through the practical steps involved when you're staring at boxes of paper contracts or files in a share drive and need to get them into a new CLM system. He explains what OCR is and why contract migration will never involve just passing a bunch of files to a consultant and getting back a spreadsheet. He also gives his best recommendation for when to start thinking about contract  migration and why data extraction is the most cumbersome part of the whole process. You'll want to listen to this gem of an episode full of great advice for any company contemplating contract migration, especially for Samir's story about migrating a handwritten contract in cursive from 1862! So grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts!

Brightleaf Website

Brightleaf on Twitter

On today's episode of The Contract Lens Podcast Matt Patel, COO and Co-founder of Malbek, chats with Julie Riese, a seasoned proposal and contracts professional. As someone who manages the day-to-day activities of proposals and the contract lifecycle for her entire company’s business units, Julie is well-versed in all things contracts – from authoring, evaluation, and workflow, to approvals, negotiations, and milestone management. Her practical, hands-on experience gives her a unique perspective into what works and what doesn’t. The conversation touches on the evolution of contract management tech from the clunky software of yesteryear to the elegance users can enjoy today. And Julie shares how your contract management solutions should be like Legos, not cement. So grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts!

On today's episode of The Contract Lens Podcast Becky Holloway, VP of Marketing at Malbek, chats with Lucy Bassli, Founder and Principal at InnoLaw Group, about the contract metrics every legal department should be tracking. Lucy begins by pointing out that when it comes to contracts, domain expertise is essential. However, many lawyers tend to be cautious about legal tech and this is equally problematic. She gives her best tips for helping legal professionals overcome that fear and keep from being left behind. At the same time, she urges Legal Ops to realize that tech is not always the answer. With her infectious good humor and energy, Lucy dispels some of the biggest legal tech hype out there (no, robo lawyers are not coming for your jobs!) and shares very practical advice on what top 3 metrics every legal department needs to know like the back of their hand. Hint: the ultimate goal for legal departments is to use contract data to inform substantive decision-making. So grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts!

Lucy Bassli Website

Lucy Bassli on Twitter

Today's episode of The Contract Lens Podcast features Co-founder and COO of Malbek, Matt Patel, joined by Lourdes Slater, Founder and CEO of Karta Legal, as they discuss some of the latest trends in legal tech. With a wealth of experience as a litigator, technologist, and process improvement expert, Lourdes provides candid commentary on how the pandemic has forever disrupted digital transformation in the legal world. She points out that tech is part of your "lawyerly duties," but encourages listeners to first start with a clear legal tech and innovation roadmap before selecting any vendors. Lourdes emphatically makes the case for why law firms, not just in-house legal teams, should embrace contract management software, and she shares her perspective on the traits that are essential for effective Legal Ops professionals. So grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts!

Karta Legal on Facebook

Karta Legal on Twitter

In this episode of The Contract Lens Podcast, Dan Sloan, a Senior Account Executive at Malbek, talks with Craig Conte, Partner at Deloitte Legal about  where to start when selecting your contract management technology. With his signature good humor, Craig shares client experiences that can help guide you on your journey. Recognizing that CLM solutions are a critical part of speeding revenue in the door, Craig points out that the contract is primarily a business document, not a legal one. This means that how it impacts the business, from Sales to Procurement to IT, is vital, and the burden on legal can be alleviated by technology. Craig shares why the user experience of a CLM system matters to user adoption, and he provides practical suggestions for where to start internally before you even begin looking at tools. Craig suggests involving the right people in the "dating" process of selecting a CLM solution and advises starting small to gain success in one group before expanding to other departments. So grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts!

Craig Conte on Twitter

In this episode of The Contract Lens Podcast, Allison Martyn, a Malbek Business Analyst, talks with Edo Bar-Gil, CEO at Lawflex Designed Solutions about the intersection of legal and contract management. They start by discussing the competing requirements that contract stakeholders sometimes have even within the same organization and the consequences of not involving all the right people from the get-go. Edo shares how vital "needs mapping" is and underscores why you have to be honest and candid during that process, however uncomfortable it may be. He explores why understanding legal terms is necessary for contract professionals even though they may not have a law background, and conversely he advocates for legal learning the language of business. At the end of the day, the goals are the same — mitigate risk and increase revenue. So grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts!

Lawflex on Facebook

In this episode of The Contract Lens Podcast, Malbek CEO Hemanth Puttaswamy talks with Teju Deshpande, Founder and CEO of Oya Solutions, about AI and its impact on legal tech broadly and contract management specifically. Their conversation covers the evolution of AI from a standalone extraction tool to a platform play that is AI-first (like Malbek!). They discuss what AI actually is and whether it's coming to replace the legal team (hint: it's not!). They get real about the current limitations of AI (like looking at more than one document at a time) and share what it's really good at doing and where it can help transform your contract management experience. So grab a glass of wine, and let's talk contracts!

Welcome to the very first episode of The Contract Lens Podcast hosted by Malbek. Today's guest is Stephanie Corey, Co-founder of UpLevels Ops and a long-time legal ops veteran. This episode is all about the pivotal role of legal operations and we kick it off by defining what legal operations is and why it's needed.  Stephanie shares tips for smaller legal departments that don't yet have someone in the legal ops role and makes recommendations for the traits you should be looking for when you are ready to hire your first legal ops professional. We cover why Legal should pay attention to employees' "work joy" and which metrics they should be focusing on to measure the positive impact of legal ops on the business. So let's relax, grab a glass of wine, and talk contracts!

UpLevel Ops on LinkedIn

UpLevel Ops on Twitter

Stephanie Corey on Twitter