Avvoka

A London legal technology company that builds document automation software for lawyers.

About Avvoka

Avvoka builds software that helps lawyers and businesses draft and negotiate legal documents. Imagine a contract that normally gets emailed back and forth as a Word file, with everyone changing the wording. Avvoka lets a team turn a standard contract into a guided form, answer a few questions to produce a first draft, and then negotiate changes with the other side inside the same online space. It has been described as 'Google Docs for contracts'. This is called document automation and negotiation.

Legal Technology's Startup Corner says it was founded in 2015 by David Howorth and Eliot Benzecrit, both former City solicitors, with a market launch in early 2016. The Law Tech UK ecosystem listing gives 2016 as the founding year and describes a company of 51 to 100 employees, based at Fuse, 1 Bishops Square in London. Another directory says it has a second office in Singapore. These sources disagree slightly on dates and size, so treat them as approximate.

The founders' stated aim was to 'bring a new technology-led approach to the contracting and diligence process'. Another directory describes the mission as helping law firms, in-house legal teams and businesses draft and negotiate documents, then use the data from that process to improve future drafts and reach agreement faster.

The platform lets users build templates in a visual builder inside Word without writing code, use decision trees to produce first drafts, work together in real time, negotiate with the other party online, sign electronically and store the finished agreement. Reports track which clauses people push back on most and how individual negotiators perform. Named customers on one directory include Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, Slaughter and May, Carlsberg and WarnerMedia. The company's early target clients were firms that contract on their own standard terms, in sectors such as real estate, finance, supply chain and pharmaceuticals.

We found no first-hand description of culture, so we cannot say what it is like to work there. Job listings mention roles such as legal engineer (someone who builds legal templates and workflows, a mix of legal and technical skills) and a Graduate Software Developer and Document Template Automation Specialist, which shows it has hired graduates. We could not open that listing to read requirements or pay. If you like both law and technology, a legal engineering role is an unusual route into the field, but check Avvoka's own careers page for what is open now.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Turning legal templates into guided questionnaires that create a first draft.', 'title': 'Document automation'}
• {'desc': 'Both sides work on a document online instead of swapping emails.', 'title': 'Contract negotiation'}
• {'desc': 'Reports on which clauses get pushback and how deals perform.', 'title': 'Analytics'}
• {'desc': 'Building templates and workflows for law firms and companies.', 'title': 'Legal engineering'}

Key facts

• Founded 2015 by former solicitors David Howorth and Eliot Benzecrit (Legal Technology), launched early 2016
• London base at Fuse, 1 Bishops Square; 51-100 employees (Law Tech UK listing)
• Customers named on one directory include Allen & Overy and Slaughter and May
• Has advertised a graduate developer and template role (title only)

Website: avvoka.com