Burges Salmon Launches Doc Automation Platform For Start-ups

In another example of a law firm creating a doc automation platform dedicated to helping start-ups, the UK’s Burges Salmon has launched BScale. Clifford Chance in Singapore and Wilson Sonsini in the US have also recently taken similar approaches.

As with its peers, it provides the ability to quickly generate a range of core documents for start-ups, but BScale also offers plenty of human input as well. They will be offering legal advice to start-ups ‘at a price point that is realistic for early stage businesses’. This, they add, will help the firm to ‘build lasting and strategic relationships with the most exciting and innovative technology companies and their investors’.

I.e. by providing a range of docs that start-ups need, and some moderately priced legal advice if required, the firm can build a relationship that will last into the future.

While some start-up companies may not grow very much, others will, and presumably some of those will become long-lasting clients of Burges Salmon and generate a healthy stream of work for their lawyers.

This, the firm said, could cover areas such as ‘mission-critical funding rounds, the inevitable regulatory, tax, employment and commercial challenges that come with scaling a business, and the expertise to protect value when the time comes to exit’.

Below is a short video that explains what BScale offers.

A Burges Salmon production.

Alex Lloyd, a Director in the firm’s Corporate Finance team, commented: ‘There is real value in high-growth businesses forming a long-term relationship with their lawyers. We recognise that we need to flex our pricing and invest our time, expertise and contacts on those early projects. We understand that is how we will build relationships with the most promising and exciting scale-ups in our core sectors. This is why we’re launching the BScale platform.’

While, David Varney, Director in the Technology and Communications team, added: ‘We are thrilled to launch BScale and continue to strengthen our relationship with emerging technology companies and their investors. BScale will enable us to grow with our technology clients as they scale and we are looking forward to forming strategic and long-term partnerships with some of the UK’s most innovative and progressive companies.’

In terms of what the BScale Document Generator covers, here are some of the key documents they have automated:

  • Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement
  • Articles of Association
  • Disclosure Letter
  • Founders’ IP Assignment Agreement
  • Website Terms of Use
  • Website Privacy Policy
  • Website Cookie Policy
  • Employment Contract
  • Confidentiality Agreement

All in all, a smart move that will help to create and then sustain new client relationships – and all based upon a foundation of legal tech in the shape of doc automation. A good example of combining tech and human expertise to create an improved legal delivery experience for clients.