For us, innovation is all about anticipating needs and providing greater value. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, we don’t just solve problems, we help clients improve data-driven decisions, optimize operations, and gain competitive advantages.
From the use of artificial intelligence to the development of predictive analytics, our firm’s suite of innovative resources provides the next-level support clients need to become widely admired leaders of industry.
Innovation at Work
Representing a national retailer during a merger requiring Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval, Husch Blackwell’s data scientists augmented the legal M&A case for the client, who won FTC approval. The client’s leadership identified the deal as the most significant in company history. It was the only retail deal among 28 Mid-Market Deals of the Year recognized by Mergers & Acquisitions.
Our Legal Project Management and Strategic Pricing Team developed a new approach to streamline a client’s (a national leader in innovative packaging solutions) contract management process, managing the overall contract lifecycle. After working with the new system, the company’s CFO remarked how much he appreciated Husch Blackwell’s proactive posture as a “value-added supplier.”
When Husch Blackwell took over management and payment of monthly invoices by outside counsel for a global Fortune 500 company, the client was able to reassign its personnel to more strategic priorities. Our team simultaneously mined the broader data set, proposing new directions to further reduce client expenditures. By the third year of case management protocols, the client secured the dual advantages of a half-million dollar savings on legal spend.
To eliminate contract-by-contract resources, a multinational financial services company partnered with Husch Blackwell and a leading contract management software provider to form a library of eight contract templates and five playbooks. Contract execution time decreased by 65 percent. Contract volume grew 40 percent. Continued year-over-year cost-savings is anticipated, as the review-and-decision framework triages contracts with consistent contractual key terms.
In partnership with a leading benefits management client, we reviewed 16 years of cases to glean insights that identified how best to comprehensively handle future litigation, which included our development of new technology and processes. As client matters increased by 35 percent, time spent per matter dropped by 39 percent.
Representing a leading U.S.-based communications company, our HB Vault platform streamlined complex litigation, allowing a sophisticated client, co-counsel, and non-lawyer employees to simultaneously access and contribute necessary information, and maintain complete focus on the overall strategy in a critical case.
HB Innovations, LLC
As a subsidiary of the firm, HB Innovations, LLC serves as an internal development incubator for new legal technology. This structure allows us to effectively create and license proprietary technology solutions that streamline business and legal processes.
Artificial Intelligence
A client negotiating a business deal required the due diligence of reviewing 937 customer agreements so as to make an informed decision on deal structure by the following afternoon. Using Cloud-based machine learning software, KIRA, Husch Blackwell flagged 497 restrictive or unfavorable terms and other detailed contract provisions in less than four hours. Prior to artificial intelligence, the job would have taken at least 10 associates and upwards of $10,000 in client fees. Using AI is one of the ways Husch Blackwell delivers clients cost containment.
HB In-House
We know we can best help clients when we understand their day-to-day. In 2024, we launched HB In-House, a one-of-its-kind professional development program aimed at helping attorneys gain an intimate understanding of in-house roles, enhancing the firm’s ability to cater more effectively to its clients, and providing career development opportunities for attorneys who are interested in transitioning to corporate counsel roles.
Get Started! Collaborative Communities
Developing next-generation entrepreneurs, we counsel startups, growth-stage entrepreneurs, innovators, and disruptors nationwide who trust our accelerator programs to design, plan, launch, stabilize, and expand. Our Get Started! attorneys guide individuals and young companies through every stage of business development. We negotiate and streamline formation and structuring, financing, corporate governance, intellectual property, licensing, privacy policies, nondisclosure and vendor agreements, and exit strategy, among other complex legal issues startups face. Having successfully run their own small businesses, lawyers on our Get Started! team are passionate about positioning clients for optimal results, amplifying success, and protecting new ideas.
The organizations and sponsorships we collaborate with include:
Client Portals
We designed HB Central – a secure and customized client portal – to monitor, coordinate, and manage your legal needs. As a supplement to our personal relationships, HB Central serves as our 24/7 connection to you and your team. This custom client portal collaboration avoids heavy and confusing email traffic and tends to reduce legal spend.
eDiscovery Solutions
Review costs can quickly escalate without proper tools and a well-planned review strategy. Our eDiscovery Solutions team uses review software such as Relativity, which allows us to host most of our cases in-house, with little added client cost. We also lead the industry in use of technology assisted review (TAR) and predictive coding to increase review efficiency.
Legal Project Management
Our dedicated Legal Project Management team ensures that clients always know the status of their projects. We promote efficiency, transparency, and certainty through careful scoping, planning, monitoring, and reviewing.
Strategic Pricing
We recognize that simple discounted or blended hourly rate fee arrangements may not streamline your legal spend. For greater cost certainty, we design creative fee arrangements tailored to client needs. With more than 20 years of experience, we offer innovative strategies in pricing.
Clery Compliance Toolset
HB Innovations, LLC worked to develop the online drag-and-drop technology, Clery Compliance Toolset (CCT), allowing colleges and universities to fully comply with federal crime and safety standards set by the Clery Act. Higher education clients can purchase a subscription to this service to address all campus reporting challenges regarding policies, procedures, and generating annual reports.
Design Thinking Workshops
As part of our commitment to innovation, we employ design thinking methods both internally and externally to creatively solve problems. This iterative process of empathizing, ideating, and prototyping produces intuitive solutions that deliver optimal value to clients.