Newly merged Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has launched a ‘home-grown’ legal tech start-up which produces a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for £5. The online contracting tool, called Swiftagree, is the firm’s first technology product launch following its April merger, and is said to precede a number of other offerings it will launch this year. BCLP partner Barry Gross and the firm’s legal technologist Bruce Braude developed the concept.

From UK to US

Swiftagree aims aim to increase the efficiency of contract procedures by ensuring parties need only agree on negotiable points of a contract before finalising the negotiation through the platform. It is focused on English law contracts, though is expected to scale to contracts governed by US law. The firm claim the start-up will ensure a contract is unbiased, and reduce the adversarial nature of traditional contract negotiations as only a few key terms are up for negotiation. The NDA is fixed at £5, but the cost is unspecified for broader agreements.

Digital marketplace

Commenting on the launch, Barry Gross, partner at BCLP said: 'The future of legal service delivery will require service providers to meet their customer’s requirements through multiple channels one of which will be digital. Swiftagree is a significant step forward in bringing legal service delivery truly into the digital marketplace saving clients time and money.' The start-up will be based internally with a team working within the firm, however external assistance has been given by Surely Group, a provider of technology platforms. Mr Gross believes developing the start-up differs from incubation models seen at other firms, which focus on including third party companies within a law firm’s space.