Scottish legal-tech firm makes move into Singaporean market 

A Scottish legal-tech company which automates document production for lawyers has signed a lucrative deal with the Singaporean government.

Edinburgh-based HotDocs, which automatically produces a range of documents for lawyers using intelligent templates, has obtained a listing of its software as a ‘pre-approved product’ under the Singapore government’s Tech-celerate for Law funding initiative.

HotDocs worked on the deal through Singapore-based legal technology consultancy firm Bizibody Technology Pte, and its technology has been built into Bizibody’s LawCloud software suite.

The funding initiative has been administered by the Law Society of Singapore in partnership with Singapore government agencies – the Ministry of Law, Enterprise Singapore, and Infocomm Media Development Authority.

Under the scheme, the government will pay for up to 70% of the cost of a licence for HotDocs-LawCloud, as well as the training and implementation fees, widening access to technology that was previously only available to larger law firms.

Having access to the latest software is expected to help smaller law firms to deliver legal services at a more competitive rate to a wider segment of society.

The Tech-celerate for Law programme is part of efforts by the Singapore government and the Law Society of Singapore to modernise the city-state’s legal sector by increasing the uptake of software and other technology within the legal profession.

HotDocs’ deal with Bizibody comes just months after the company won a contract to power docQbot’s legal contract drafting service in China.

Gary Lessels, General Manager at HotDocs, said: “Having HotDocs’ technology selected by Bizibody as part of its LawCloud suite is a huge feather in the cap for our team.

“Serving customers around the world is a key part of our business, with our services already used in 60 countries.

“Automating document production saves time for lawyers and therefore saves money for their clients.

“We’re not only seeing HotDocs make a difference to lawyers in legal practices but also to in-house legal counsel too.”

Serena Lim, founder of Bizibody, added: “Tech-celerate for Law is a game-changing industry initiative that’s helping to transform our legal sector in Singapore. 

“In Singapore, HotDocs has been successfully used by retail conveyancing firms to meet the challenges of working in a high risk, high volume, low margin work area of practice. Hotdocs’ outstanding global track record was a key factor in its inclusion in the Tech-celerate programme.

“Being able to automatically produce a range of standard documents frees up lawyers’ valuable time, allowing them to concentrate on offering tailored legal advice instead of being tied-up with mundane, manual processes.

“Our government’s grant scheme will now allow the Hotdocs service to be offered to a much wider selection of law firms, which in turn will be able to widen affordable legal services to a broader range of clients.”

HotDocs is already a key tool for more than one million users in 11,000 companies across 60 countries, including four of the five largest United States banks and 20% of the companies in the Fortune 500 list.

The company, which was founded in 1996, was bought in 2017 by San Diego-based AbacusNext, the largest technology-as-a-service (TaaS) provider for the professional services sector, which is owned by American asset management firm Providence Equity.

HotDocs’ clients include law firm CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, Royal Bank of Scotland, commercial real estate services organisation Colliers International and the US Department of Justice.

The company won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in 2013 and again in 2018, after revenues rose by more than 70% during the previous three years.