Sorainen and Avokaado have concluded a cooperation agreement under which the law firm and the legal technology company will begin developing digital services for Sorainen clients in the Baltic countries and Belarus. Sorainen is the first international law firm on the Avokaado platform.
As part of the initiative, Sorainen will start using the Avokaado software and platform for contract automation and knowledge management, building on the team’s expertise in Baltics and Belarus. Further digitisation and automation of legal services and processes will enable the law firm to scale their legal service offering to thousands of customers on the platform in the future.
According to Sorainen partner Kaupo Lepasepp responsible for developing know-how in Sorainen, such automation is the first step towards legal services powered by artificial intelligence. “The computer will perform routine, repetitive tasks, enabling the legal expert to focus on more substantive work, thus creating more value for the client. In conclusion, the expertise of specialists will reach more customers so for the first time we can talk about substantive scalability of legal services,” Lepasepp added.
The founder of Avokaado, Mariana Hagström, said that Estonia’s reputation as a digital society and the e-residency programme have boosted the development of many digital solutions in Estonia, including legaltech. “After two years of work, we have reached an important stage in our product development, where we can start adding new service providers to the platform. The first partner is Sorainen, the largest law firm in the Baltics, which sets an example to other market players with their innovation culture. This partnership gives us an opportunity to expand with Avokaado SaaS platform outside of Estonia to three more countries,” Hagström added.
Hagström said that rapid technological developments will dramatically change lawyers’ work in the coming years. She added that the real winners will be innovative firms and their clients, as legal services will become more transparent, faster and more customers will have access to completely new borderless services. “Traditional services and legal practices have to keep pace with today’s evolving business models and market expectations. As competition tightens for both law firms and alternative service providers, this puts pressure on service pricing and value proposition while demanding increased productivity,” Hagström explained.
“We tested several technologies and solutions, and knowingly chose Avokaado, because here we see much greater potential than just drafting standard documents,” Lepasepp explained. We are ready for new developments and believe that a well-chosen tool in the hands of smart people will allow for legal services to be provided in a completely new and more efficient way.”
Avokaado is a creator of cloud software and structured legal content that helps businesses automatically draft, negotiate and sign corporate, sale, service and human resources contracts online. Thousands of contracts have already been concluded on the Avokaado platform with users from neighbouring countries, but also from Australia and the U.S. The company was established and services launched in 2016; in the end of 2017 Avokaado was selected among the best early stage startups in Estonia.
Sorainen is a client-focused and innovative law firm with offices in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. Advising international and local customers on all business law and tax issues, the firm has won multiple awards including “European Law Firm of the Year”.