ALAwards-0893_Innovation

Finalists: Afriwise (highly commended); Bowmans; Hogan Lovells; Law For All; LNP Attorneys; Webber Wentzel.


Legal outsourcing provider Exigent bagged a second consecutive Innovation Award, for its work supporting supply chain management firm Imperial Logistics through a due diligence project.

As part of the process, Exigent had to engage with the various business units, reviewing customer, supplier, lease and employment agreements, and setting up and managing access to a virtual data room to house the legal, finance and tax due diligence investigations. Exigent reviewed multiple contracts, at one stage averaging more than 100 reviews a day. The process saved its client about 75% relative to the cost quoted by an alternative service provider.

Exigent was able to deliver these savings by providing onsite legal project management; using technology to speed up, manage and analyse the document review process; and scaling up resources where necessary that enabled the timeline to be reduced from three weeks to just 10 days. Exigent says its approach to managing due diligence projects is changing how legal departments perceive the process, helping them recognise that it can be done quickly and efficiently while still maintaining the highest standards of accuracy.

"Groundbreaking way of delivering due diligence in legal services, which is not only cost-effective but managed the capacity of time constraints," commented a judge.

To return to the full list of winners, click here.