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Private law firms once led the charge in spurring the innovation of legal technology to better serve their clients, however, the tide has changed and now legal departments are finding new ways to use the technology.

Rob MacAdam, the director of legal solutions at the U.K.-based legal tech company HighQ, said even as recently as five years ago law firms were coming to his company, which creates a software to streamline projects through a portal, to find better ways to connect to their clients.

“Traditionally we have been used by private practice law firms,” MacAdam explained. “Recently we've been working with legal teams who are under an increasing amount of pressure.”

MacAdam also said legal departments want to be able to work on the same page as their firms. Rather than having five or six different technologies offered by firms, they want one system they can manage themselves.

Mo Zain Ajaz, the general counsel and global head of legal operations at U.K.-based National Grid, said he previously had all of the firms National Grid worked with offer technology solutions to certain problems.

“It's difficult when you have multiple firms. How do you manage technology for all of them?” Ajaz said. “Do you get all of them on board or do you work with your firms to segment out which uses which tech?”

Ajaz said to mitigate this problem he met with his law firms and explained his technology needs directly to the firms. He also said he has worked with others at a Law Forum to create a standard for contract life cycle technology. That way, the firms all have an exact idea on what clients expect.

The shift in technological thinking has caused the company to create a platform specifically for legal departments. In January, HelloFresh partnered with HighQ to incorporate its platform into its global legal department.

Dr. Christian Ries, senior vice president and global general counsel of HelloFresh, said the meal kit delivery company has legal departments in Berlin, New York, London and Amsterdam.

“HighQ gives us the opportunity to share and edit documents in a very simple way,” Ries said. “In addition, the handling of the HighQ system is very similar to the handling of other well-known front-end solutions which accelerates internal processes and makes them more efficient.”

Ries said he would like law firms to work more with technology.

“Going forward I think that artificial intelligence solutions will be of great importance. These solutions could be used for a pre-evaluation of legal questions, which will thereafter 'only' be double-checked by lawyers,” he said. “In addition, the automated generation of contracts will be of essence. This could also reduce the time lawyers have to spend on drafting agreements and would therefore reduce the legal fees.”