Arnold Bloch Leibler (ABL) – an independent Australian law firm renowned for advising clients on high-stakes transactions and disputes – has chosen iManage Closing Folders to simplify its legal transaction processes, becoming the first Closing Folders customer in the APAC region.

The adoption of Closing Folders coincides with the firm’s selection of iManage for document and email management, collaboration, security, and governance that will help more than 150 of the firm’s professionals to be productive from anywhere in a safe, secure environment.

iManage Closing Folders removes the manual, repetitive tasks from legal transaction management so that customers can focus on delivering more value to their clients. Through intelligent automation and collaboration tools, Closing Folders helps firms run deals with unparalleled efficiency, accuracy, and control.

ABL’s Banking & Finance team saw a particular opportunity for Closing Folders to streamline ordinarily labour-intensive processes like the creation of closing “bibles” and the gathering of signatures. Historically, the firm had relied on a labourious workflow that centred around emailing PDF documents back and forth to clients for signing.

Closing Folders greatly simplifies that process, saving ABL’s professionals valuable time and allowing them to provide more responsive service to customers. Additionally, native integration with iManage enables a single source of the truth for transaction documents from creation through closing.

“Choosing to standardise on the iManage platform in the cloud not just for transaction management, but for many aspects of our knowledge work provides our firm with a strong technological foundation and a competitive edge, which is one of the reasons why we’re so excited to be first among our regional peers to deploy Closing Folders,” said Nicole Munro, Director of Business Transformation at ABL. “It just makes sense to have one fully integrated ecosystem for our professionals to leverage.”

Modernising with a Platform Approach

In addition to Closing Folders, ABL will also leverage the iManage Cloud to deploy iManage Work for intelligent document and email management; iManage Share for secure and easy collaboration; and iManage Threat Manager for securing access to information barrier matters. iManage provides an end-to-end platform for knowledge work that handles content and communication management as well as transaction management.

“After a thorough review of market offerings, in which we carefully evaluated platforms against multiple criteria, iManage emerged as the clear winner,” continued Munro. “It is a very modern platform in look and feel – as well as functionality – that provides an ideal way to modernise the infrastructure that supports the work our professionals do every day on behalf of our clients.”

ABL is working with global iManage partner Morae on its iManage deployment, which will start with a rollout of Closing Folders followed by a rollout of the extended iManage platform. The firm expects the first phase of the deployment to be complete by the end of Q3.

“As just the first chapter in their iManage journey, Closing Folders will enable ABL to reduce time spent on administrative tasks and spend more time on delivering high-value legal counsel to clients,” said Sahil Zaman, Head of Business for iManage Closing Folders. “From there, they will be able to take advantage of all that iManage’s comprehensive knowledge work platform has to offer, enabling them to work smarter, more securely, and more productively, and to drive better business outcomes.”