Like any large company, Legal Studio started with the simple question: can this not be done differently? In this case, it concerned repetitive legal actions that cost a lot of time and money every time. Filip Corveleyn, co-founder of Legal Studio, was a lawyer with a keen interest in technology. He saw that lawyers spend much of their valuable time on tasks that do not strictly require a law degree and that could easily be automated. For complex legal issues, it is common to pay a lawyer a considerable hourly rate, but for repetitive legal work this is neither logical nor necessary, reasons Corveleyn. He also saw that the processes for drafting and validating standard shareholder or board resolutions were inefficient, consuming significant resources. Corveleyn decided to further investigate the possibilities of digitising these processes. At fashion brand Levi Strauss, the first company he looked at, he discovered that even basic principles like formally appointing a new director or convening a shareholders' meeting involved a time-consuming, expensive paperwork trail. Simply replacing directors in different countries, approving annual accounts, granting powers of attorney, or effectively the entire legal backbone, could be managed more intelligently and efficiently. With the KLEA platform Corveleyn had a product, but not yet a company. He saw the potential of KLEA though, and together with former Allen & Overy colleague Anthony Verhaegen he founded Legal Studio. CTO Bart Reyserhove came on board and with new insights and valuable customer feedback they worked on the next version of KLEA. Business Challenges Repetitive legal actions High cost of traditional legal services Inefficient processes for shareholder and board resolutions
Business Need: Like any large company, Legal Studio started with the simple question: can this not be done differently? In this case, it concerned repetitive legal actions that cost a lot of time and money every time. Filip Corveleyn, co-founder of Legal Studio, was a lawyer with a keen interest in technology. He saw that lawyers spend much of their valuable time on tasks that do not strictly require a law degree and that could easily be automated. For complex legal issues, it is common to pay a lawyer a considerable hourly rate, but for repetitive legal work this is neither logical nor necessary, reasons Corveleyn. He also saw that the processes for drafting and validating standard shareholder or board resolutions were inefficient, consuming significant resources. Corveleyn decided to further investigate the possibilities of digitising these processes. At fashion brand Levi Strauss, the first company he looked at, he discovered that even basic principles like formally appointing a new director or convening a shareholders' meeting involved a time-consuming, expensive paperwork trail. Simply replacing directors in different countries, approving annual accounts, granting powers of attorney, or effectively the entire legal backbone, could be managed more intelligently and efficiently. With the KLEA platform Corveleyn had a product, but not yet a company. He saw the potential of KLEA though, and together with former Allen & Overy colleague Anthony Verhaegen he founded Legal Studio. CTO Bart Reyserhove came on board and with new insights and valuable customer feedback they worked on the next version of KLEA. Business Challenges Repetitive legal actions High cost of traditional legal services Inefficient processes for shareholder and board resolutions
Solution: Filip Corveleyn asked Emixa to help build a solution to further automate and streamline the processes. Legal Studio and Emixa developed a secure, user-friendly cloud platform within a few weeks, connecting company data to automated workflows. These workflows can process changes in directors, annual meetings, powers of attorney and much more. The platform also integrates Connective for digital signatures and Auth0 for robust authentication. With an ISO-certified backbone and end-to-end encryption, data security is also guaranteed. The platform was initially still called Legal Studio, but was later renamed KLEA. The name refers to knowledgeable, legal entity and automation, aspects of legal processes that KLEA brings together into a clear, easily manageable whole. KLEA is built with the Mendix low-code platform. Low-code is a visual approach to application development that enables developers with different levels of experience to create web and mobile applications using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic through a graphical user interface. The KLEA software links all stakeholders to workflows and documents. The customer provides the input, the software handles the middle section and the lawyer takes care of the back end. Thanks to the software, lawyers no longer have to deal with repetitive clerical tasks, but can focus fully on their core tasks. KLEA has all the necessary data and manages the process. The platform is an intelligent database that stores, manages and makes data easily retrievable. Key to success: - Rapidly developed working prototype - Digitalisation increases workflow efficiency - Integrated platform for legal automation
Results: Processes are now streamlined and all data can be accessed from one central location. Thanks to KLEA you can immediately see whether everyone has the correct authorisations or documents, but also for example whether all directors have approved a resolution or dividend. If a director's appointment needs confirming in several countries? KLEA makes sure the right passport information is available on time at all locations. The platform also uses automation tools like digital signatures and single sign-on. This means documents can be signed much faster and delays caused by someone forgetting their password, for example, become a thing of the past. With KLEA, users don't waste valuable time searching for the right information, so that legal experts can focus completely on their core tasks. KLEA has therefore fundamentally changed and accelerated administrative processes for the legal sector. It automatically connects the right person to the right workflows and documents. This means users can see directly whether all directors have approved a resolution or dividend. Customers of Legal Studio achieved 60 percent time savings this way and were able to reduce operational costs by over 40 percent. The platform is now active in 80 countries. Customers are linked to legal documents in over forty languages through smart workflows, with legal experts guaranteeing compliance. After three years the platform processes almost two billion euros in turnover. Results: - 60% time savings in legal tasks - Operational costs reduced by 40% - Global implementation in 80 countries