In a move that adds extra spice to an already hot market segment, LexisNexis Legal & Professional has bought CLM Parley Pro ‘to complement LexisNexis’ industry-leading Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) platform, CounselLink’, the giant company said.
Parley Pro was founded in 2015 and ‘enables efficient and effective contract request, drafting, negotiation, signature, and post-signature management via a secure, cloud-based platform’.
Parley Pro’s current leadership team, including CEO Olga Mack, will continue leading the Parley Pro business and will be supported by and will collaborate closely with the CounselLink and broader LexisNexis Legal and Professional teams.
Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO, LexisNexis UK and North America, said: ‘Parley Pro’s CLM capabilities provide the critical third pillar – in addition to Legal Spend and Matter Management – to strengthen our already robust CounselLink platform.
‘Together, CounselLink and Parley Pro will deliver greater overall value to ELM customers seeking CLM solutions by enabling more effective negotiation workflows and providing the right contextual insights to inform better decisions and create value for the organisation.’
Mack, CEO of Parley Pro, added: ‘By seamlessly integrating Parley Pro’s best-in-class contract automation and workflow tools with CounselLink’s market-leading features, innovation and capabilities, customers will benefit from the industry’s all-in-one, premier legal operations platform.’
The fee paid was not disclosed.
Overall….wow.
OK, now for some thoughts on this.
First – so much activity in this segment (and more to come later today) just shows how much everyone is expecting growth here.
Second – that a giant like LexisNexis is jumping in so hard shows they are betting on a very long-term future here serving the inhouse world with a widening platform of products.
Third – this will mean the current CLMs – which are pumped with VC cash – will face plenty more competition.
Fourth – LexisNexis has tonnes of legal tech and NLP expertise – they can use this to turbo-charge Parley Pro to make it a very competitive product.
Fifth…..who knows…..CLM seems out of control right now.