NEW YORK – July 1, 2020 – Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP , working in collaboration with two other law firms, has won Microsoft’s Legal Innovation Challenge, earning a place in the software company’s prestigious innovation accelerator.
The high-level competition, which lasted several months and involved a total of 13 law firms, focused on business design challenges that could be solved through digital transformation. Participants were challenged to leverage technology to provide more effective, efficient, and productive ways for delivering legal services that aide in resolving Microsoft’s business challenges.
The winning Greenberg Traurig team was led by Bobby Rosenbloum, chairman of the firm’s Entertainment & Media Practice, in partnership with Perkins Coie and Davis Wright Tremaine. Both teams found new ways to handle Microsoft’s distributed sales agreements on an alternative fee basis.
Microsoft, which announced the winners of the Legal Innovation Challenge on June 17 at a two-hour virtual event, will now work with the two winning law firm teams to move their concepts through its accelerator program with the goal of converting them into initiatives for implementation. In addition to the three collaborating firms, a K&L Gates team also won the competition.
Microsoft Director of Corporate, External & Legal Affairs Rebecca H. Benavides praised the Greenberg Traurig/Perkins Coie/Davis Wright Tremaine team: “Your submission stood out for its clear articulation of the challenge, collaboration, and input from a diverse group of professionals, and a solution that articulated a framework for how to go about addressing the challenge.”
To create the solution, Rosenbloum said the team placed a high value on collaboration and transparency among the firms and with Microsoft, working together to devise and deliver a creative and comprehensive way to define, measure and address a mission-critical business challenge. The team crafted a framework to be designed based upon Microsoft’s commercial contracting practices that would ultimately generate data for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, clause libraries, and other tools to shorten Microsoft’s contract closing timelines.
“This strategy puts the client first, leveraging the strengths of our firms’ respective expertise and geographic reach in an effort to maximize the achievement of Microsoft’s goals,” Rosenbloum said. “The end result is synchronized excellence in client service, delivered in the most effective and cost-efficient manner.”
Using the virtual law firm consortium model, the three firms proposed a process to transform Microsoft’s volume licensing process to help make it faster, more efficient, and more profitable. The proposal aims to reduce the time Microsoft attorneys need to spend on less complex transactions while enabling Microsoft’s legal teams and business client to make data-driven decisions to help drive Microsoft’s product sales.
“I look forward to collaborating on the design and implementation of an efficient process that will ultimately harness relevant data to assist Microsoft in making future process improvements,” said Jonathan A. Beckham, a Greenberg Traurig Shareholder in Intellectual Property & Technology, who is the lead attorney participating in the pilot for Greenberg Traurig.
Greenberg Traurig’s Innovative Client Strategies Team, a multi-disciplinary group of attorneys and business and project management professionals who focus solely on developing client experience-based innovation, also supports the Microsoft accelerator project. The teams will work together with Microsoft and Bold Duck Studios to complete the pilot by November 1.
“Collaborating with our clients to meet their goals has always been a core principle at Greenberg Traurig,” said Brian L. Duffy, CEO of Greenberg Traurig. “Deploying innovative strategies enables us to provide a best-in-class experience, as we work to achieve those goals.”
About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2200 attorneys in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.
The high-level competition, which lasted several months and involved a total of 13 law firms, focused on business design challenges that could be solved through digital transformation. Participants were challenged to leverage technology to provide more effective, efficient, and productive ways for delivering legal services that aide in resolving Microsoft’s business challenges.
The winning Greenberg Traurig team was led by Bobby Rosenbloum, chairman of the firm’s Entertainment & Media Practice, in partnership with Perkins Coie and Davis Wright Tremaine. Both teams found new ways to handle Microsoft’s distributed sales agreements on an alternative fee basis.
Microsoft, which announced the winners of the Legal Innovation Challenge on June 17 at a two-hour virtual event, will now work with the two winning law firm teams to move their concepts through its accelerator program with the goal of converting them into initiatives for implementation. In addition to the three collaborating firms, a K&L Gates team also won the competition.
Microsoft Director of Corporate, External & Legal Affairs Rebecca H. Benavides praised the Greenberg Traurig/Perkins Coie/Davis Wright Tremaine team: “Your submission stood out for its clear articulation of the challenge, collaboration, and input from a diverse group of professionals, and a solution that articulated a framework for how to go about addressing the challenge.”
To create the solution, Rosenbloum said the team placed a high value on collaboration and transparency among the firms and with Microsoft, working together to devise and deliver a creative and comprehensive way to define, measure and address a mission-critical business challenge. The team crafted a framework to be designed based upon Microsoft’s commercial contracting practices that would ultimately generate data for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, clause libraries, and other tools to shorten Microsoft’s contract closing timelines.
“This strategy puts the client first, leveraging the strengths of our firms’ respective expertise and geographic reach in an effort to maximize the achievement of Microsoft’s goals,” Rosenbloum said. “The end result is synchronized excellence in client service, delivered in the most effective and cost-efficient manner.”
Using the virtual law firm consortium model, the three firms proposed a process to transform Microsoft’s volume licensing process to help make it faster, more efficient, and more profitable. The proposal aims to reduce the time Microsoft attorneys need to spend on less complex transactions while enabling Microsoft’s legal teams and business client to make data-driven decisions to help drive Microsoft’s product sales.
“I look forward to collaborating on the design and implementation of an efficient process that will ultimately harness relevant data to assist Microsoft in making future process improvements,” said Jonathan A. Beckham, a Greenberg Traurig Shareholder in Intellectual Property & Technology, who is the lead attorney participating in the pilot for Greenberg Traurig.
Greenberg Traurig’s Innovative Client Strategies Team, a multi-disciplinary group of attorneys and business and project management professionals who focus solely on developing client experience-based innovation, also supports the Microsoft accelerator project. The teams will work together with Microsoft and Bold Duck Studios to complete the pilot by November 1.
“Collaborating with our clients to meet their goals has always been a core principle at Greenberg Traurig,” said Brian L. Duffy, CEO of Greenberg Traurig. “Deploying innovative strategies enables us to provide a best-in-class experience, as we work to achieve those goals.”
About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2200 attorneys in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.