Process innovation in action: delivering clearer, faster outcomes for clients

Discussions about innovation in legal services often centre on AI. While AI is undoubtedly transforming the way legal services are delivered and creating meaningful efficiencies across many areas of practice, some of the most significant improvements in client service come from something less visible: process innovation. Real transformation happens when legal teams take a step back and examine how work is delivered end-to-end, and re-design the process itself around client priorities: speed, consistency, transparency and value.

A large-scale client challenge 

When the Legal Services Unit (LSU), CMS’s centralised team of paralegals, was asked to support a client through a large-scale project involving the preparation, negotiation and execution of hundreds of settlement agreements across multiple waves, the scale of the task presented a clear challenge. Each agreement required individual drafting, bespoke negotiations, coordination with employees and their legal advisors, and careful tracking through to signature. Handled traditionally, the volume of manual work would have been significant, creating pressure on turnaround times, increasing delivery costs, and adding administrative burden. The LSU, together with the Associates and legal technologists, managed this process differently, knowing that effective delivery meant identifying points of friction at every stage and removing them.

Making delivery more efficient 

Document generation was streamlined through automation using HotDocs. Rather than using the tool to generate each agreement individually, we worked with the HotDocs Team to enable mass production from a single instruction. That shift turned document automation from a drafting aid into a scalable delivery process, helping us produce first drafts faster and with less manual effort.

Client communication and status tracking were centralised through a shared HighQ portal, providing real-time visibility of each settlement agreement's status: which party held the agreement, which clauses were under negotiation, and when terms were agreed. During the first wave, many emails were manual, but the LSU and legal technologists built automated workflows from the portal, automating hundreds of emails and streamlining client communication. Negotiation parameters were standardised through a detailed playbook; repetitive calculations were replaced with practical tools that reduced manual intervention and minimised the risk of human error; and by integrating DocuSign electronic signing into the wider project workflow and linking it to the HighQ Site, the client had greater transparency over progress, reduced friction for signatories and a more efficient path from agreed terms to completed agreements.

Improving with each wave

Perhaps most importantly, the process evolved as the project progressed. Each wave provided an opportunity to review what worked, identify bottlenecks and introduce improvements before the next wave began. Small operational changes, repeated consistently, created significant cumulative benefits for the client and the delivery team.

Client impact

By combining people, process and tech, the impact was felt both internally and by the client. By automating document creation, streamlining communication, and building practical tools, the legal team was able to focus its time on the issues requiring legal judgement and specialist expertise, while process-driven activities were handled in a structured and scalable way. The client benefited from real-time visibility, faster delivery, and consistent, high-quality work across all waves.

This highlights that as powerful as AI has become, innovation does not always mean adopting the latest technology. AI rarely delivers its full value if it is layered into inefficient processes. We can achieve the greatest benefits when we first understand how work flows, where delays occur, and how tasks can be streamlined, standardised or automated. Sometimes the greatest impact comes from rethinking how work is delivered in the first place. By combining technology, smarter processes and the right expertise, CMS provides process innovation that clients can see in their measurable outcomes and feel in the service they receive.