Following the successful launch by Clarilis and FromCounsel of an automated private M&A suite for the English market in May 2021, the dynamic duo have teamed up with leading Irish law firm Arthur Cox to co-develop an automated M&A document suite with precedents specifically for the Irish market.
It’s an interesting example of a heavily content-focused legal tech company finding ways to expand its reach. And while Ireland is not the largest legal market, revenue gained from leveraging the product in an additional jurisdiction is always going to be welcome.
The other aspect to this is the teaming up with a major law firm to provide the local legal expertise for the doc content. This is no doubt a model that could be rolled out to other countries, depending on the willingness of law firms to enter into such co-development deals.
As before, Clarilis will provide its automation platform, FromCounsel will bring its legal knowledge backed by a range of lawyers including several QCs – but, the new part of the formula is the law firm, Arthur Cox, which will deploy its corporate team to provide Irish law subject matter expertise.
Clarilis reckons that ‘using the automation to draft M&A documents will provide time savings in the order of 12-14 hours per transaction’.
All well and good, but you may ask: why Ireland? The company said: ‘The M&A market in Ireland is booming [and according to EY, inbound investment from abroad accounted for much of this activity].’ One could also say that if you are looking for new markets, then hopping over the water to Ireland is a logical move.
Commenting on the project, Eileen Burns, Chief Digital Officer at Arthur Cox, said: ‘We have been working with Clarilis since 2020 in relation to the automation of complex transactions. This strategic partnership is an evolution and deepening of this relationship which will enable us to bring the benefits of M&A automation to the entire Irish market. We are looking forward to combining the knowledge of the FromCounsel and Arthur Cox teams to create exceptional content here.’
And, James Quinn, CEO at Clarilis, said: ‘We’re delighted to be working with Arthur Cox and FromCounsel to create this automated M&A suite specifically for the Irish market and to accelerate digital transformation across Irish law firms of all sizes. Arthur Cox has an excellent corporate team and is extremely forward thinking when it comes to digitisation of the practice of law.’
Andy Thornton, QC, CEO at FromCounsel, concluded: ‘This further collaboration is a natural next step to ensure that the benefits of these automations can be realised on a global scale and adapted to suit the needs of local markets.’