If
your
in-house
legal
team
is
still
picking
outside
counsel
based
on
legacy
relationships,
hunches,
or
internal
reputation,
you’re
not
alone.
But
you
might
also
be
holding
back
your
company’s
growth.
In
a
recent
episode
of
“Notes
to
My
(Legal)
Self,”
I
sat
down
with
Otto
Hanson,
co-founder
and
CEO
of
TermScout
and
Screens,
to
talk
about
how
contract
review
is
evolving
and
how
forward-looking
legal
teams
can
stop
outsourcing
by
instinct
and
start
scaling
good
judgment
through
strategy,
data,
and
technology.
From
Law
Firm
Burnout
To
Product-Minded
Builder
Otto
began
his
career
in
a
familiar
place,
Biglaw.
“I
was
a
corporate
attorney
at
Davis
Graham
and
Stubbs,
and
I
loved
helping
clients,”
he
said.
“But
so
much
of
the
work
I
did
was
tedious,
menial,
and
didn’t
justify
the
billable
hour.
It
wasn’t
a
good
use
of
my
time
or
theirs.”
That
realization
planted
the
seed
for
TermScout,
a
platform
focused
on
reviewing,
benchmarking,
and
certifying
contracts.
But
it
didn’t
stop
there.
With
the
rise
of
GPT-4
and
generative
AI,
Otto
and
his
team
launched
a
second
platform,
Screens,
which
lets
legal
teams
build
and
share
AI-powered
contract
playbooks.
“It’s
about
letting
lawyers
craft
AI
to
think
like
them,”
Otto
explained.
“The
goal
is
to
turn
knowledge
into
scalable,
defensible
legal
products.”
The
Problem
With
Instinctual
Outsourcing
One
of
the
most
dangerous
defaults
in
legal
departments
is
choosing
vendors
and
reviewing
contracts
based
on
familiarity.
“There’s
this
belief
that
big
firms
are
always
the
safest
choice,”
Otto
noted.
“But
that’s
no
longer
true
for
low
to
medium-risk
work.
There
are
better,
faster,
more
specialized
options
and
most
legal
teams
are
leaving
value
on
the
table
by
not
exploring
them.”
Instinctual
outsourcing
leads
to
expensive
inefficiencies,
bloated
deal
cycles,
and
contracts
that
reflect
legacy
habits
instead
of
business
goals.
Otto
pointed
out
that
many
legal
teams
are
told
by
their
CROs
or
CEOs,
“Legal,
stop
getting
in
the
way
of
sales.
Your
job
is
to
support
the
business.”
That
wake-up
call
can
be
uncomfortable.
But
it’s
also
an
invitation
to
lead.
Codify
Your
Judgment
Before
You
Scale
It
When
legal
leaders
move
from
instinct
to
intention,
everything
shifts.
Otto
shared
a
simple
yet
transformative
approach
his
team
uses
with
clients:
the
risk-complexity
matrix.
“We
literally
create
a
matrix:
high,
medium,
low
risk
on
one
axis,
and
high,
medium,
low
complexity
on
the
other,”
he
explained.
“Then
we
map
all
the
projects
from
the
past
year
and
look
at
what
was
spent
where.
That
becomes
a
blueprint
for
smarter
allocation.”
This
kind
of
thinking
allows
in-house
teams
to
match
the
right
task
to
the
right
provider,
and
to
define
why
a
given
firm
or
solution
is
being
used.
That
defensibility
matters.
Especially
when
legal
is
being
asked
to
justify
spend
in
language
the
CFO
understands.
Certify
Trust,
Not
Just
Risk
Beyond
better
triage,
Otto
believes
legal
teams
can
go
further
by
turning
contracts
into
business
assets.
That’s
where
TermScout’s
certification
layer
comes
in.
“More
and
more
companies
are
waking
up
and
saying:
we
don’t
need
to
win
on
every
clause,”
Otto
said.
“We
need
a
contract
that
closes
deals.
Certification
helps
legal
prove
that
the
terms
are
fair,
reasonable,
and
aligned
with
market
expectations.”
The
platform
offers
badges
like
Certified
Balanced
or
Certified
Customer-Favorable,
backed
by
public
benchmarks
and
transparent
methodology.
“It
works,”
Otto
said.
“It
shortens
deal
cycles,
builds
trust,
and
signals
professionalism.
And
it’s
easy
to
implement.”
The
AI
Trust
Gap
And
Why
Playbooks
Matter
Despite
all
the
promise
of
AI,
many
lawyers
remain
cautious.
Otto
called
it
a
“trust
gap,”
and
he
doesn’t
expect
it
to
close
overnight.
“AI
doesn’t
have
context,”
he
said.
“It
doesn’t
understand
the
20-year
relationship
with
your
customer.
It
doesn’t
know
what
matters
to
your
GC.
That’s
why
coupling
AI
with
human
expertise
is
the
way
forward.”
Screens,
his
second
product,
lets
lawyers
build
AI
playbooks
that
reflect
their
firm’s
judgment.
These
playbooks
can
be
used
internally,
shared
across
teams,
or
even
offered
as
products.
“It’s
not
about
replacing
lawyers,”
Otto
emphasized.
“It’s
about
letting
lawyers
scale
themselves
safely.”
What
In-House
Legal
Should
Do
Next
If
you’re
in-house
and
want
to
move
from
reactive
to
strategic,
Otto
offered
a
clear
starting
point:
“Just
start
playing.
Take
the
free
trial.
Build
one
playbook.
Certify
one
contract.
You
don’t
have
to
overhaul
everything.
You
just
have
to
begin.”
Small
steps
matter.
“The
tools
are
changing,”
Otto
said.
“And
when
the
tools
change,
so
should
the
business
model.”
This
shift
from
instinctual
outsourcing
to
intentional
decision-making
isn’t
theoretical.
It’s
the
future
of
legal.
And
it’s
one
in
which
clarity,
certification,
and
product
thinking
will
separate
the
blockers
from
the
business
builders.
Olga
V.
Mack is
the
CEO
of TermScout,
an
AI-powered
contract
certification
platform
that
accelerates
revenue
and
eliminates
friction
by
certifying
contracts
as
fair,
balanced,
and
market-ready.
A
serial
CEO
and
legal
tech
executive,
she
previously
led
a
company
through
a
successful
acquisition
by
LexisNexis.
Olga
is
also
a Fellow
at
CodeX,
The
Stanford
Center
for
Legal
Informatics,
and
the
Generative
AI
Editor
at
law.MIT.
She
is
a
visionary
executive
reshaping
how
we
law—how
legal
systems
are
built,
experienced,
and
trusted.
Olga teaches
at
Berkeley
Law,
lectures
widely,
and
advises
companies
of
all
sizes,
as
well
as
boards
and
institutions.
An
award-winning
general
counsel
turned
builder,
she
also
leads
early-stage
ventures
including Virtual
Gabby
(Better
Parenting
Plan), Product
Law
Hub, ESI
Flow,
and Notes
to
My
(Legal)
Self,
each
rethinking
the
practice
and
business
of
law
through
technology,
data,
and
human-centered
design.
She
has
authored The
Rise
of
Product
Lawyers, Legal
Operations
in
the
Age
of
AI
and
Data, Blockchain
Value,
and Get
on
Board,
with Visual
IQ
for
Lawyers (ABA)
forthcoming.
Olga
is
a
6x
TEDx
speaker
and
has
been
recognized
as
a
Silicon
Valley
Woman
of
Influence
and
an
ABA
Woman
in
Legal
Tech.
Her
work
reimagines
people’s
relationship
with
law—making
it
more
accessible,
inclusive,
data-driven,
and
aligned
with
how
the
world
actually
works.
She
is
also
the
host
of
the
Notes
to
My
(Legal)
Self
podcast
(streaming
on Spotify, Apple
Podcasts,
and YouTube),
and
her
insights
regularly
appear
in
Forbes,
Bloomberg
Law,
Newsweek,
VentureBeat,
ACC
Docket,
and
Above
the
Law.
She
earned
her
B.A.
and
J.D.
from
UC
Berkeley.
Follow
her
on LinkedIn and
X
@olgavmack.