Harm Bavinck: ‘A large part of my work will be taken over by AI in the future’

Working as efficiently as possible with the latest technology has become second nature to Harm Bavinck. With 25 years of experience in both legal operations and software development, he turned out to be the ideal partner for Legal Manager. Together with Jan-Willem Prakke, he helps companies build a solid future.

Shortly after finishing his law degree, Bavinck, then still a young management trainee, had a smart system developed for in-house lawyers. “In 2001, my business partner and I decided to turn that into a company of our own. That eventually led to the product Effacts, a legal management platform.”

While legal tech was still in its infancy worldwide, Effacts grew into a popular system among in-house lawyers. Bavinck later worked for Wolters Kluwer, where he met Jan-Willem Prakke. “A client of mine,” says the legal operations expert. “At a certain point he wanted to start an Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP), so we looked into that together. In consultation with Wolters Kluwer, we decided that I would move over to Jan-Willem.”

Adapting the business to new software

The two partners have been at the helm of Legal Manager together since 2019. Effacts is no longer in use, because Wolters Kluwer rebuilt it into a new system: Legisway. That was not an easy change, as Bavinck remembers. “Everything was built around the old software, so we had to adapt our business to it,” he says. “But in the end it had its advantages too. In the meantime we started working with various systems and developed our own software as well. That means clients can now choose whichever system fits their business best.”

Bavinck gives a few examples of his legal service. “A colleague needs to put an NDA in place, a bank asks for a UBO declaration, the tax department needs an org chart, someone in sales wants a contract monitored. That is standard work that can take up a lot of time. It is really the bottom end of legal work. If you are a highly educated, well-paid expert, you should be doing something where you genuinely add value. Having a lawyer do the work we do is a real waste of their time.”

“Cultural change is a real factor”

The technology and the service have clearly proven themselves, but getting a traditional company to make the switch does not happen on its own. “Cultural change is a real factor,” Bavinck says. “When you implement something, you also have to make sure people actually use it. That is hard work. It means running training sessions and hammering the point home every single time. That is what we are there for.”

Legal tech is now making major leaps thanks to the arrival of AI. “Reviewing a contract can already be automated pretty well. Ten years ago that was not possible. I expect that to keep improving over the coming years. Even so, there will always be work left for us. Many companies do not have anyone in house who can work well with AI. On top of that, it does not always pay to buy expensive software if the workload is not that large. The numbers simply do not add up. That is the gap in the market we step into. We are ready with a full team and make sure there is always someone who can help you.”

“AI will take over part of the work we do now,” Bavinck expects. “So we keep a close eye on those technical developments and on what we can add as a service. The big advantage is that we work for around a hundred clients, which lets us see how they approach things. What you learn there, you can carry over when you help other companies. When it comes to legal operations, we know exactly what works and what does not. That is the value we are glad to offer.”