Multi-billion dollar family office
Background
“We wanted a serious attorney to do the work for us so it didn’t take up our time. Ontra delivers exactly what we need and we’re very happy. We can achieve our desired results at a reasonable cost.”
Director of Operations, multi-billion-dollar family office
The Challenge
Heavy volume of routine legal documents
Rising cost of outside counsel
Difficulty balancing NDA work and deal work
A multi-billion family office that invests in a diverse set of industries, including medical technologies, negotiated a heavy volume of NDAs.
Prior to 2019, the firm handled these important documents with a combination of in-house lawyers and associates at Big Law firms. However, as NDAs started taking up a disproportionate amount of the in-house team’s time, and outsourcing costs touched $600 per hour, this family office needed a change.
The firm’s director of operations recalled: “Sometimes I would have very intense weeks. I’d get emails saying, ‘We want to meet with a potential investment tomorrow… Can we have the NDA turned around by then?’ It was difficult to balance. I had all these much more important things on my plate, like closing an investment on time. But our NDAs had to get done. It was a conflict of priorities.”
The firm began actively looking for a solution.
The Solution
Increased deal volume with no impact on other areas of the business
No more difficulty balancing NDAs and deal work
Agreements turned around in a timeframe the firm couldn’t consistently achieve itself
After vetting Ontra’s contract automation solution, the firm immediately ended its search.
The director of operations commented: “Once we saw what Ontra’s platform could do, we didn’t have to go anywhere else. There was no reason to vet another provider. The engagement process was easy and didn’t take long, and the service agreement was straightforward and simple.”
The firm can now handle increased deal volume with no impact on other areas of the business. It turns NDAs around in a matter of 1 - 2 days, as opposed to almost a week, and Ontra’s contract lawyers directly handle all the back-and-forth negotiations on behalf of the firm.
Commenting again, the director said, “The contract attorneys know exactly what we do and don’t want in our NDAs, and they can deliver in a timeframe that we couldn’t consistently achieve ourselves. Everyone is very happy. They do their jobs very well.”
