Organizations in legal practice, under pressure to do "more for less," are searching for ways to automate legal work, to improve efficiency of legal service delivery. Automated drafting of contracts (or: contract automation) is one of the areas where technology is-partly-replacing legal professionals. In Dutch legal practice, the number of organizations that are actively deploying contract automation is still relatively small, but growing. This chapter looks at experiences with contract automation of organizations from various sectors in Dutch legal practice. Contract automation can improve legal service delivery to consumers and SMEs, as well as contracting processes within organizations. Several organizations report positive results. However, successfully implementing contract automation, especially for internal use within organizations, is not simple. Tight budgets, resistance to change and poor integration with other software are some of the problems that organizations may encounter. Generally, human and organizational factors are often at least as important as the technological aspects. Succesful implementation of contract automation requires design thinking, a proactive approach and process-oriented (legal) professionals. Regardless of these difficulties, the use of contract automation software in Dutch legal practice can be expected to increase, due to several factors. The number of organizations that are offering contracts (and other legal documents) online to SMEs and consumers has grown rapidly over the last years. Contract automation is not only offered to consumers and SMEs by commercial parties, but also by branch organizations, as a service to their members. Consumers and SMEs will become used to these self-help solutions for legal matters. Legal publishers are also increasing the offering of automated contracts and other legal documents. In addition, law firms and consultants are promoting the use of contract automation within client organizations. Finally, many corporate organizations are increasingly exchanging experiences on improving legal operations and the use of Legal Tech, including contract automation. Eventually, increased use of contract automation may drive further harmonization of contracts within sectors and facilitate other technological applications, such as the automated analysis of contracts.

Legal departments play a pivotal role in the quality of contracts and contracting processes within an organization. This article reflects on current developments and innovations in contracting practice and their impact on the role of legal professionals and legal departments within organizations. Based on empirical research among legal professionals and legal departments in Dutch legal practice, the article positions contracts and contracting within the legal function of an organization and discusses developments in contract management, automated contract assembly and legal design and their potential impact on the role of legal professionals and legal departments. Finally, areas for future research are identified. Throughout the article, the focus is on large commercial organizations.

Les systèmes d’aide à la prise de décision jouent un rôle important dans la pratique juridique aux Pays-Bas. Divers organismes gouvernementaux utilisent de tels systèmes automatisés pour la prise de décisions juridiques (de masse). Les départements juridiques, les cabinets d’avocats, les éditeurs juridiques et d’autres organismes ont de plus en plus recours à ces outils pour appuyer et améliorer les services d’aide juridique aux particuliers et aux entreprises. Ces outils permettent d’améliorer l’efficacité des processus et des services juridiques, mais ils peuvent aussi avoir d’importants effets préjudiciables sur les droits des personnes ou sur la qualité juridique des services produits, en particulier lorsqu’il n’existe pas de processus de conception minutieux et transparent. Cet article donne un aperçu de l’utilisation de ces systèmes dans la pratique juridique néerlandaise, discute de leurs avantages, pièges et défis, puis il identifie certaines questions de recherche pour le futur.

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