Adoption of iManage Closing Folders at McCarthy Tétrault reaches 90%

McCarthy Tétrault is a Canadian law firm that offers a full suite of legal and business solutions to clients in Canada and around the world. They deliver integrated business, litigation, tax, real estate property, and labour and employment solutions through offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montréal, Québec City, New York and London, UK.

While the firm prides itself in being a leader in innovation and technology to increase efficiency for its lawyers and enhance the client experience, its legal processes around transactions were not evolving with the pace of technology. Closing Folders provides the firm with a modern, automated closing process, that allows them to expedite the entire process via a single integrated platform as well as to bring clients and other attorneys into the process sooner.

The business challenge

Before adopting iManage Closing Folders, McCarthy’s transactional practice had been handling a growing number of their closings virtually, which involved circulating documents over email. Even with this virtual closing process in place, some mundane tasks still required significant time and attention, specifically:

• Identifying signature pages and their signatories

• Pulling signature pages out by signatory and sending them

• Putting signed pages back in documents

This was not only time-consuming and inefficient, but it was susceptible to human error. Combining this with the firm’s continuous efforts to provide its lawyers and clients with streamlined and cost-effective processes, it was evident that there was a need for a single platform to quickly and efficiently compile complete sets of documents and allow for sign-off on execution versions of drafts.

The solution

In keeping with its unique approach to innovation, the firm has an interdisciplinary committee focused on evaluating legal technology tools. The goals of the committee are to help modernize the transaction process, and introduce, test, and refine tools for lawyers and clients that can make the transaction process run more efficiently using the best available technology.

Following a recommendation from Jake Irwin, a partner at the firm, the committee invited the Closing Folders team to do a demo of their Legal Transaction Management (LTM) software to a group of the firm’s lawyers and paralegals. “The Closing Folders demo really resonated with the lawyers and paralegals,” says Irwin.

After thorough evaluation by IT and user pilot tests, the committee concluded that Closing Folders would be an effective tool for the transaction practice. They decided to move ahead and roll out Closing Folders simultaneously with several other transaction tools, including DocuSign: a leading e-signature provider that integrates seamlessly with Closing Folders.

Business outcomes

In combination with the firm’s in-house services offered by MT>3’s transaction management services team, the firm and its clients have realized many benefits with the adoption of Closing Folders, including increased efficiency and enhanced service delivery. 

Increased efficiency for lawyers

McCarthy’s monthly reports show high adoption rates that continue to grow month over month. Adoption is particularly high among associates and students, with a significant percentage using Closing Folders more than 20 days per month – an indicator that the solution has become integral to their day-to-day activities as transactional lawyers.

“Our active users fluctuate between 90 and over 100 per month, which represents 80% or 90% of transactional lawyers at a certain level at the firm. By latest count, we’ve got over 800 transactions that have used Closing Folders since we launched,” says Irwin.

Senior lawyers find the solution helpful because they can manage a transaction more efficiently by logging in and checking to ensure the junior lawyer’s work is meeting quality standards and expectations.

“The technology has improved the engagement between junior and senior lawyers," Irwin remarked, "which helps us deliver the top-tier quality our clients expect.”

Closing Folders is also helping lawyers practice more efficiently, not only during transactions but also in post-closing and on future deals. When lawyers log into their Closing Folders platform, all their deals are there and they can access materials quickly and help clients faster.

Enhanced client experience

The McCarthy team has noticed that clients are more relaxed leading up to a closing now that they have visibility on the progress and can review documents from the convenience of their own homes or offices. Closing Folders eliminates the need for lawyers and clients to spend late nights or weekends in a physical closing room.

Clients are impressed that a custom-branded closing book can be delivered within hours because the need for printing, scanning, and binding files has been eliminated – saving both time and money. In the past, providing a client with a final record of a transaction could take a month or longer.

Increased boardroom availability

Another benefit since adopting Closing Folders has been an increase in the availability of boardrooms in their offices. In the past, boardrooms would be tied up for days or weeks holding folders for closings. Now, these boardrooms can be used more effectively for face-to-face negotiations, client meetings, and other firm activities.

This seemingly minor benefit is significant in McCarthy’s busy offices where there is high demand for scarce boardrooms. Closing Folders has alleviated boardroom congestion and the stress of not having access to a boardroom when needed, as well as the need for staff to manage boardrooms.

“When closings are happening more efficiently, transactions are easier to manage and close. Closing books go out more quickly and clients are happier. It’s really been a success story for us,” says Irwin. “Closing Folders has proven to be an effective tool since it was launched and we’ve made it our default process here at McCarthy.”