Tech • AI • Robotics • Game
From legal bottleneck to business partner | Legora’s Emma Kadri Bergström
5/10TL;DR
AI tools are reshaping in-house legal work by automating routine contract review, sharply cutting time spent on NDAs, and helping small teams support rapid business growth without becoming a bottleneck.
KEY POINTS
Routine legal work is now automatable
Tasks that once seemed unrealistic on overnight deadlines, such as summarizing license periods across multiple vendor contracts, have become feasible with modern AI tools. That shift has changed how in-house legal teams handle large volumes of document review, especially when speed is critical.
Faster output without lowering standards
Emma Cadre Bergstrom, general counsel at Lora, said AI has allowed her to work faster, run more matters in parallel, and still maintain a high quality bar. The practical change is not only individual productivity but also the ability to coordinate work more efficiently with colleagues, counterparties, and other third parties.
NDAs were an early target for automation
Non-disclosure agreements were among the first document types automated because they are necessary but often low-value and repetitive to negotiate. By building workflows for those contracts first, the legal team reduced time spent on routine review and freed up capacity for more consequential work.
Playbooks help flag unacceptable terms
After automating NDA handling, the team built playbooks that let AI take a first pass through contracts and identify terms that fall outside acceptable risk parameters. That means lawyers can focus attention on exceptions and negotiation points rather than starting every review from scratch.
NDA review time fell from 20% to under 1%
Before playbooks and automation, roughly 20% of full-time employee hours were spent reviewing NDAs. That figure was reduced to under 1%, a change that materially shifted legal resources toward higher-value matters such as major commercial agreements and strategically important deals.
A small legal team supported rapid expansion
The legal function used Legora while supporting a business that expanded from 3 offices to 18 in the past 12 months. During the same period, the company completed 3 financing rounds and 5 acquisitions, creating a workload that would have been difficult for a small team to manage manually.
Avoiding bottlenecks is a core business issue
Legal departments often worry about becoming a bottleneck because if response times slip, business teams may stop involving legal early enough. That can increase operational and contractual risk, while also making it harder for lawyers to influence decisions before problems are locked in.
The human role remains central
Even as AI takes over parts of document review, legal accountability remains with people. The core human contribution is judgment, strategic planning, and relationship management, including aligning stakeholders and advising on risk in context rather than simply processing paperwork.
Strategic partnership is the goal
The broader effect of adopting AI is that legal can remain a strategic partner instead of a reactive gatekeeper. When teams are brought into projects early and can respond quickly, they are more likely to add business value rather than slow execution.
CONCLUSION
For in-house legal teams, the immediate impact of AI is not replacing lawyers but reducing low-value manual work so they can focus on judgment, strategy, and growth. That shift is becoming increasingly important as small teams are asked to support faster and more complex businesses.
Ask a question