Intapp News Room

Filter by

Intapp Integrates Engagement Letters into the Intake Process with Intapp Risk & Compliance 3.0

  • Automated engagement letter creation reduces risks related to billing disputes and malpractice claims
  • Team Clearance feature enables more efficient processing of complex conflicts searches
  • Intapp Risk & Compliance enables smoother lateral intake management, also via Wall Builder and Intapp Flow

PALO ALTO, Calif. — March 5, 2015 — Intapp, a global leader in legal software, today announced the release of Intapp Risk & Compliance 3.0 – the latest version of its new business intake and conflicts application – now available with automated engagement letter generation. Adopted by over 100 law firms worldwide, Intapp Risk & Compliance is redefining how leading law firms take on new clients and matters.

Today, law firms that take on new matters without clearly documenting the scope of services to be provided are subject to significant financial and liability risks. Insurance providers view the consistent use of engagement letters as a reliable indicator of whether a law practice has systems in place to reduce the risk of malpractice claims. Too often, however, law firms fail to use strongly worded engagement letters – or to use them in the first place. Only 38% of law firms report having automated engagement letter generation, according to the 2014 Risk Roundtable Survey.

The new module available with Intapp Risk & Compliance 3.0 automates the creation of engagement letters, using data captured during new business intake. By integrating engagement letter generation into the business acceptance process, firms can reduce business risks related to billing and fees, malpractice claims and other client disputes. Intapp Risk & Compliance now supports integration with popular document automation services such as ContractExpress from Business Integrity or HotDocs, and can be configured to align with the firm’s processes – prompting lawyers and staff for additional information, and routing for approvals where needed.

“Too often, engagement letters are handled on an ad hoc basis – left to the discretion of individual lawyers who may rely on handshake agreements or hastily drafted documents based on generic information, with little visibility for firm management or the finance and risk departments. Unfortunately this exposes firms to unnecessary business risks, leaving them open to billing disputes, disagreements, or even malpractice claims made by disgruntled clients,” said Pat Archbold, Vice President, Risk Practice, Intapp. “Implementing Intapp Risk & Compliance provides an opportunity to gain visibility and control over the firm-wide engagement letter process. By integrating engagement letters into the very fabric of the business intake process, Intapp Risk & Compliance simplifies engagement letter creation and management for lawyers and staff, reducing the risk of misunderstandings, and ultimately improving client service and satisfaction.”

Team Clearance: Simplifying Large Conflicts Searches
The latest release of Intapp Risk & Compliance also offers new “team clearance” functionality – the ability to split a large conflict search request into multiple searches, and assign them to multiple team members. By dividing and conquering, conflicts teams can process large-volume searches more quickly and efficiently. This much-requested feature is particularly useful in large bankruptcy cases where there may be thousands of creditors requiring review, and in class action lawsuits potentially involving thousands of participants. Team conflicts clearance can also play a strategic role when firms are pursuing potential mergers or lateral hiring of lawyers. The team clearance feature is now available in the Advanced Conflicts package for Intapp Risk & Compliance.

Lateral Intake: Swifter Conflicts Management
Lateral hiring is often a complex process that requires the careful evaluation and management of potential conflicts. Firms can work with Intapp and its partners to implement an externally facing web portal for incoming laterals to input background information on their client and matter history, which can then be processed via Intapp Risk & Compliance.

In addition to the team clearance feature now available in Intapp Risk & Compliance, firms can take advantage of other Intapp products that help to manage a comprehensive lateral onboarding process. Intapp Wall Builder enables firms to set up and manage information security barriers for incoming laterals when necessary, to reduce the risk of disqualification. Intapp Flow can help to accelerate the onboarding of new hires – enabling lawyers to be productive from Day One by automating workflows such as the creation and configuration of new user accounts, and updating intranet directories and internal skills repositories.

Links