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A virtual data room is a repository for storing, sharing and distributing documents. They are commonly used to host documents during corporate transactions, for example during due diligence, however they have broader applicability and are sometimes used during large-scale litigation. Popular solutions include NetDocuments, Datasite (formerly Merrill), FirmEx, and Venue by DFIN.

Virtual Data Room

<p>Collaboration between lawyers and their clients, and internally within matter teams, has become increasingly important as remote work and hybrid work practices have become commonplace. Collaboration solutions vary from video and web-conference services to basic virtual data rooms to full collaboration platforms allowing teams to work on matters together in one online location.</p>

Collaboration

With the advent of virtual data rooms and automated due diligence review, transactional practices have come to rely more heavily on technology. Many vendors offer solutions specifically to transactional practices, supporting deal work in many different ways from broad end-to-end transaction management (with Litera Transact, Legatics and The DocYard) to more discrete use cases such as corporate structure diagrams (Jigsaw and Structure Flow).

Transaction Management

Managing the many documents that must be signed by multiple parties in order to facilitate the closing of a deal is one of the most cumbersome aspects of transactional work. The solutions have developed to streamline the closing process approach it in different ways. Some, like Simply Agree, require that closing documents be uploaded onto a platform that then produces signature packages and helps lawyers to organize the closing process from a dashboard. Others, like iManage's Closing Folders, allow for the organic capturing and management of documents for signing through an email workflow that works in tandem with a signature platform.

Closing Management

Deal collaboration solutions provide a subset of the functionality available in end-to-end transaction management solutions. These solutions might provide collaboration on deals, for example, allowing deal teams to assign tasks and comment on progress, but not closing checklists.

Deal Collaboration

The due diligence process, like discovery in litigation, constitutes onerous, repetive, large-scale contract review work that lends itself perfectly to automation. Similar to eDiscovery, due diligence automation is therefore becoming ubiquitous, at least in larger law firms and for significant transactions. The leading provider in this space is Kira, which comes loaded with hundreds of pre-trained provisions and an interface that is custom-made for due diligence review. However, this area is becoming increasingly competitive, with Diligen, eBrevia, Luminance, ThoughtRiver and more providing viable solutions for streamlining due diligence.

Due Diligence

End-to-end transaction management tools provide full support of deal teams from the beginning to the end of the transaction. These solutions seek to provide collaborative project management platforms that enable deal teams (both internal and external) to work together, assigning and tracking tasks, drafting and co-editing documents, and managing the closing checklist including obtaining and tracking signatures for closing. The benefits of such a solution are that attorneys are able to work in one location, consistently, with work on a transaction being streamlined through a single platform. The challenges with an end-to-end solution include the difficulty of getting every member of a deal team to work inside the platform. Litera's Transact is a market leader in end-to-end transaction management, alongside Legatics.

End-to-End Transaction Management

This topic is distinct from the Project Management category that appears under Business of Law, referring to the project management of legal matters specifically. In recent years more law firms have recruited legal project managers to help partners deliver legal work on time and on budget. In addition to tools and methodologies common to project managers in general, a few tools have popped up aiming to help lawyers with better project managlegal ement of legal matters. Solutions supporting legal project management provide the ability for teams to manage multiple projects within one system, as well as being able to break down matters into tasks, assign and manage tasks, assign priority, track progress, set weekly, monthly, quarterly goals, and allow team members to communicate within the platform. Fibonacci helps legal departments such as Barclays and many of its panel firms with project management. Dashboard Legal supports law firm project management.

Legal Project Management

<p>The beginning of most corporate transactions will involve the creation of a structure diagram to depict relationships between entities. These types of corporate structure diagrams are also commonly used in investigations practices and as visual aids during litigation, and tax lawyers require structure charts to illustrate the tax liabilities for entities during most corporate legal work. Solutions such as Jigsaw and Structure Flow have been developed in response to this need, and are in use across many large firms, where they can reduce the time required to create complex diagrams from hours to minutes. Additional use cases include the creation of organizational charts for employment law, and the illustration of real estate holdings and financings.</p>

Structure Diagrams