Torys LLP Simplifies New Client Intake with CorpIntake, Saving Time and Reducing Errors.
Discover How Torys LLP Has Used CorpIntake Since 2008 to Automate New Client Intake/Onboarding and Boost Efficiency.
Client Overview:
Torys LLP is a respected international business law firm with a reputation of quality, innovation and teamwork. Its experience, collaborative practice style, and the insight and imagination the firm brings to its work have made Torys its clients’ choice for their largest and most complex transactions, as well as for general matters in which strategic advice is key. The firm is based in Canada, with offices in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and New York, and has more than 300 lawyers and 400 staff.
Business Situation:
Before 2009, Torys used multiple systems to open new client matters, run conflict checks and manage risk. Client demands were changing, especially with the advent of alternative fee arrangements, and new federal regulations in Canada required law firms to follow specific client identification and verification procedures. These factors combined to motivate Torys to evaluate a new system to manage its processes.
Torys’ Intake Process:
At the end of 2008, Canada adopted the Model Rule on Client Identification and Verification Requirements, or the “Know Your Client” regulations. This rule requires law firms to gather a checklist of information about their clients and maintain it in a central repository. Under this rule, Canadian law firms have four primary obligations: identification, verification, recordkeeping and withdrawal.
At the same time that this rule took effect, Torys wanted a way to better manage its entire intake process. The firm was assessing the risk of new clients, but the process was never formalized. Potential clients were vetted when members of the financial and risk management committees informally discussed issues with the lawyer proposing to bring the new client to the firm.
System Requirements:
The Torys team laid out the features they needed in their technology. They wanted:
- A method for lawyers and assistants to easily enter information about a client.
- To give the financial committee a way to review rates and terms.
- To give the risk management committee a system to assess and approve new clients and matters.
- The ability to customize the system.
- A notification system, enabling anyone to track the progress of opening a new client or matter.
- Integration with Elite financial system and iManage document management system.
- Compliance with “Know Your Client” regulations in Canada.
The CorpIntake Solution:
Torys chose PaayaTech’s CorpIntake, a Web-based software, to help them solve its challenges. CorpIntake captures client and matter-related information in one sharable location and expedites the process of checking for conflicts and opening a matter for a client while allowing users to view, manage and receive information in real time.
CorpIntake automates the process of collecting client and matter information, allows users to search requests for conflict party information, and runs a built-in workflow for approval. Accessible anywhere with a secure Internet connection, partners, assistants and other users can enter information using predefined drop-down menus and customizable notes, and can receive real-time email notifications regarding status updates and requests.
Its features and benefits to a firm include:
- Reduced conflict approval time, by providing a complete digital approval workflow process
- Increased revenue, due to accelerating the file-opening process by collecting client and matter information via a Web interface
- Enhanced communications, by sending instant email notifications to all stakeholders related to the matter
- Full audit and tracking of all activities in the workflow
- Minimized risk, by providing approval workflow processes for firm committees
- Integration with other applications, such as SharePoint, DMS, Elite and records management infrastructures
- Collection of information through dynamic questionnaire forms, which are tailored to a firm’s needs
- Less manual data entry by pre-populating client and matter information.
Launching CorpIntake and Driving Adoption:
Torys decided to implement a one-year timeline, which included development, testing, rollout and training. While there were no major issues, the intention was to eliminate any glitches before introducing new systems and processes to lawyers and staff.
Once development was complete, the firm spent time conducting training sessions with the firm’s lawyers and assistants. With the new “Know Your Client” regulations and the new system, lawyers had to know more information about each client and be more involved in filling out the forms to request a new client intake. Torys needed to help lawyers deal with the changes in the way they now needed to think about and handle new client intake.
The Ongoing Benefits of CorpIntake:
Since rolling out CorpIntake, the number of requests to open a new file at Torys has increased 27 percent. CorpIntake has made the process faster. When lawyers have all of the required information, the process for completing and submitting a request takes less than 20 minutes. The conflicts and records department can have a matter opened within 24 hours after a request has been submitted. Requests also are being launched faster, since the firm’s time-entry policy gives lawyers a compelling reason to complete records requests quickly. Approval from the risk management and financial committees is faster because committee members take turns reviewing new client matters within CorpIntake. The system has positively impacted the firm’s insurance risk assessment, and it also puts the firm in a good position to respond to an audit of compliance with the “Know Your Client” requirements.
About PaayaTech:
Learn more about our solutions at www.paayatech.com.
