Chapman Tripp Recognised On New Zealand’s Most Innovative Firms List

Described as the ‘one to watch’ in New Zealand’s legaltech industry, Chapman Tripp with their technology and innovation business, Zeren, has been recognised on NZ Lawyer’s Innovative Firms list for 2020.

Zeren delivers automated, legal technology services to help clients become more efficient, improve performance and manage risk. Products include a document automation service, a compliance automation solution and a contract lifecycle management and supplier relationship management platform.

James Fuller, Zeren’s CEO appointed in March this year said, “Zeren’s services are designed to help organisations to better manage costs and ensure compliance. As well as improving process efficiency, our technology helps organisations to use the contract and supplier data they have to better respond to events such as COVID-19. Clients are able to generate reports on key commercial terms and supply chain risks critical to their business continuity risk assessments and mitigation plans for COVID-19. This has become, and will continue to be, hugely important for those in the Central and Local Government, infrastructure, manufacturing and health sectors.”

In March this year, the firm reported that its document automation service helped clients to achieve a 30%–50% reduction in the time taken to draft and review documents and contracts. Clients have also achieved a 20% average reduction in end-to-end process cycle time from document initiation through to execution through using Zeren’s automation technology.

Chapman Tripp’s legal experts are involved in the design of the automated documents, workflows and guidance notes that support the users through the journey of drafting a document and/or contract. “This means that legal assurance can be built in to the process. Zeren’s technology solutions are not simply ‘out of the box’,” says Fuller.

Outside of the legaltech space, Chapman Tripp has advised clients on some of New Zealand’s most innovative deals. This includes Shell on the sale of its NZ upstream oil and gas operations to OMV for NZ$794m, ANZ Bank on its sale of OnePath Life NZ for NZ$700m to Cigna Corporation, as well as the first secondary PPP transaction in New Zealand (InfraRed Capital Partners sale of stake in the Auckland South Corrections Facility PPP). The firm also advised on the ground breaking deal for New Zealand’s first loan linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures, the first time any New Zealand company has agreed with its bank to link its sustainability agenda to the cost of funds.

Chapman Tripp has been named Most Innovative National Law Firm at the IFLR Asia Awards for three years in a row.

The full NZ Lawyer Innovative Firms 2020 Report is published here.

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