Estonian Legal Tech Advances with Avokaado Contract Automation Deal

Estonia is steadily making a name for itself as a legal tech centre. Last year the first ever legal tech company to launch a digital currency, Agrello, was revealed to be Estonian. Now, another start-up from the Baltic nation, Avokaado, which handles contract automation, has forged a partnership with one of the country’s leading law firms, Sorainen, based in the capital Tallinn (pictured above).

In a joint statement, Sorainen and Avokaado said they 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, they added.

As part of the initiative, Sorainen will start using the Avokaado platform for contract automation and knowledge management.

Sorainen partner Kaupo Lepasepp, who is responsible for developing know-how said: ‘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.’

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 legal tech.

‘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.

‘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,’ she concluded.

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.