Global News
Blockchain technology company Integra Ledger has announced it is working with White & Case LLP to develop a Proof-Of-Concept based on blockchain technology to enhance efficiency and security in the exchange of Environmental, Sustainability, and Governance (ESG) procurement questionnaires that are required by clients of law firms.
Compliance with client-required ESG questionnaires has historically been a time-intensive, manual process with significant duplication of work by law firms and vendors throughout the legal industry. Using Integra’s Blockchain Smart DocumentTM technology, White & Case is streamlining the ESG questionnaire process to authenticate and validate the firm’s vendors in order to meet client requirements. Blockchain technology is uniquely well-suited for the ESG process because of its ability to create a permanent record of compliance across the legal value chain, which is essential to create trust and verification in the process of legal procurement.
White & Case, a prominent member of a law firm procurement industry group composed of many large law firms, is in the process of inviting member firms and technology vendors to participate in this new, blockchain-enabled Proof-Of-Concept to improve efficiencies throughout the legal procurement market. Upon launch, this will become one of the first large-scale ecosystem applications of blockchain technology in the legal industry.
Tony Cordeiro, CIO of White & Case commented, “When you observe where blockchain technology has had early successes, it has been in the context of back office business processes, rather than client-facing, front end applications. A number of months ago, Jose Pariente, our Chief Procurement Officer and I were discussing the process around onboarding of vendors and acknowledged that the legal procurement market has ecosystem inefficiencies that are similar to those in the back office of the financial services industry and large industrial supply chains. We have been working with Integra to determine how a blockchain-based solution might be able to help drive efficiency and improve the integrity of the process. While our work continues, the early returns are promising.”
Jose Pariente, CPO at White & Case added, “Many industries enjoy common vendor onboarding protocols that require and demand the same information from vendors. This blockchain proof-of-concept has been designed to enable a trusted meshwork between Law Firms and the vendor community. The results may pave the way for the adoption of smarter P2P interaction. We are very excited to be exploring this on behalf of the larger Legal Procurement community.“
David Fisher, CEO of Integra, concurred, “The team at White & Case has a very sophisticated understanding of how blockchain technology can be applied in an ecosystem setting between law firms and clients. Additionally, their leadership in the legal procurement market means that they are ideally suited to lead this project, which we hope will streamline legal procurement across the entire industry, benefitting both law firms and their clients.”
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