News Type: Press Release

HOUSTON – MARCH 20, 2025 – Onit, the global leader in legal workflow automation solutions, today announced user interface (UI) and platform updates to reimagine how legal teams manage spend, contracts, matters and more. 

Unity—a new platform—will bring a modern, common interface to Onit’s market-leading solutions, including OnitX, SimpleLegal, ContractWorks, ReadySign, CounselGO, SecureDocs, and BusyLamp. The company is also introducing AI Agent Studio, a new collection of AI agents that support legal teams. 

“Today’s corporate legal teams are being asked to drive more business value than ever before. That’s why Onit is doubling down on supporting legal operations professionals with AI-native solutions that benefit their bottom line,” says Onit CEO Michael Farlekas. “Unity’s intuitive modern design and AI agents—along with our other solutions—make legal operations more efficient and effective than ever before.” 

Unity combines intuitive design and powerful AI agents 

The intuitive design of Unity helps simplify complex business processes, streamline legal workflows, and empower end users to get more done in their day. By simplifying navigation and promoting data-driven insights, Unity increases efficiency and improves alignment with business objectives. 

By uniting processes under a comprehensive platform, Unity eliminates silos and creates a single source of truth for all legal operations. Unity is flexible and scalable, integrating with existing tech stacks to ensure all legal operations work together harmoniously. 

Look for more information about Unity features and availability in late Spring.

AI Agent Studio starts with Spend Agent 

While AI-enabled tools assist with workflow management for a more streamlined experience, Onit’s AI agents go further—actively executing tasks like invoice review, contract analysis, and legal spend optimization, reducing manual effort and boosting productivity. 

“Onit is at the forefront of the AI-first future of legal operations,” says Onit’s SVP of Product & Design, Shri Iyer. “Legal teams can transcend process management and attain true operational excellence—boosting efficiency, accuracy, and strategic impact—by utilizing AI agents to carry out tasks.” 

AI agents integrate into workflows that legal teams rely on every day, like managing approvals, enforcing policies, generating insights, flagging risks, detecting errors, and recommending actions based on historical data and learned patterns.

Best of all, users can interact with AI agents via chat to quickly retrieve insights, reports, and process updates. 

Onit poised for continued market leadership 

This news builds on a year of strong momentum for Onit, which acquired Legal Files—a legal case and matter management solutions provider—in January, expanding its footprint into government and insurance markets. The company also announced the hiring of Pranav Mundi as CTO and Peter Rubino as CCO, following Michael Farlekas joining the company as its new CEO last year. 

About Onit 

Onit is an AI-native Legal Operations platform that transforms legal business processes. Built by legal professionals for legal teams, Onit streamlines workflows, optimizes operations, and addresses critical challenges in contract management, legal spend tracking, matter management, and compliance. 

Onit empowers 3,000+ customers, supported by 15 global partners, to work smarter—boosting productivity, reducing costs, and enhancing collaboration. Founded in 2009, Onit delivers measurable results with AI-driven tools, seamless integrations, and a relentless commitment to innovation, continually evolving to meet the needs of modern legal teams. 

In 2025, Onit’s comprehensive solutions—including enterprise legal management (ELM), contract lifecycle management (CLM), workflows, secure data room (SDR), and services—continue to redefine legal technology, helping teams focus on what matters most. Our goal is to help our customers flourish and drive business growth in the era of AI.

The move further extends Onit’s market leading legal software into insurance and government industries

HOUSTON – January 28, 2025 – Onit, the global leader in AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for the legal industry, today announced that it has combined forces with Legal Files Software, Inc., a provider of legal case and matter management solutions. This move will strengthen Onit’s workflow automation expertise with Legal Files’ decades-long reputation as the go-to legal case management solution provider for industries ranging from corporate enterprises to federal, state, and municipal governments. 

Legal Files has been the leading provider of case management solutions for over 30 years. The company has more than 500 customers and offers a suite of highly configurable solutions that are flexible enough to meet the diverse needs of teams responsible for a wide range of legal functions. 

“Legal Files has spent three decades building and honing its industry expertise, making it the preferred case management solution for insurance companies, universities, and state and local governments,” said Michael Farlekas, CEO of Onit. “By combining Legal Files’ expertise with Onit’s leading-edge workflow automation and AI-native solutions, we will be able to offer clients the same great services they are used to while simultaneously offering them the infrastructure required to scale.” 

“Today’s legal teams are being asked to do more with less, while also navigating the changing dynamics of legal operations and how legal teams contribute to business growth,” said John Kanoski, CEO of Legal Files. “This is especially challenging in highly regulated industries like those Legal Files specializes in. Leveraging Onit’s technological leadership – especially when it comes to AI – will empower our clients to meet these expectations and continue to grow.” 

About Legal Files Software, Inc. 

Legal Files Software, Inc. develops, supports and markets Legal Files, a leading legal case and matter management system. Legal Files is used by corporate and university legal departments, government agencies, and law firms to manage cases, matters, documents, email and more. 

About Onit 

Onit is a global leader of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement. 

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit www.onit.com.

January 2025 –  Onit,  the global leader in AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for the legal industry, and Swiftwater and Company, a leader in legal strategy and performance improvement services, today announced an expanded partnership focused on transforming corporate investigation processes and value creation. 

This strategic partnership combines Swiftwater’s corporate investigation frameworks and experts with Onit’s advanced technology platform to deliver a unified, efficient approach to global investigations that delivers value and reduces risk.

“The complexity of global investigations demands both advanced technology and deep domain expertise,” said Matt Den Ouden, Chief Evangelist at Onit. “Our expanded partnership with Swiftwater brings these elements together, providing organizations with a comprehensive solution that transforms how they manage investigations across their enterprise.”

“This expansion of our partnership represents a paradigm shift in corporate investigation management,” said Hassan El Asraoui, CEO of Swiftwater and Company. “By deepening the integration between Swiftwater’s proven investigation expertise and Onit’s robust technology platform, we’re enabling organizations to build high-functioning investigation frameworks that speed investigations, enhance compliance and deliver quantifiable operational efficiency.”

This expanded partnership enhances the business value investigation and compliance teams deliver to their organizations, by enabling them to:

• Reduce investigation cycle times
• Optimize global resource allocation
• Seamless multi-jurisdictional compliance
• Secure, centralized evidence management
• Data-driven insights for continuous improvement
• Real-time visibility into investigation status and outcomes
• End-to-end process automation from intake to final reporting
• Enhance risk mitigation through standardized procedures

Onit and Switftwater will host a webinar, “Corporate Investigations: Unlocking the Value from Intake to Reporting” at 11:00am CT/12pm ET. The webinar will demonstrate how organizations can leverage this partnership to transform their investigation processes. The session will be hosted by Swiftwater Managing Director Mirat Dave, who will be joined by Onit Chief Evangelist Matt DenOuden. 

This will be the first in a series of three webinars that will showcase the expanded capabilities and strategic benefits of this partnership. To attend the webinar, register here.

Built by legal experts for legal experts, Onit delivers practical and scalable solutions for corporate legal departments. Onit’s comprehensive platform supports a wide range of legal and business needs, including enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM) solutions that automate customized workflows for managing matters, spend, vendors, legal requests, legal holds, and contracts. Onit empowers legal teams to transform beyond business protectors and into business drivers that increase their organization’s growth and efficiency and adapt to the ever-changing demands of the corporate legal landscape. We are proud to be recognized as a Major Player by IDC MarketScape for CLM in 2024.  Onit operates globally, serving clients across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and beyond. Our platform is trusted by leading enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, to streamline legal operations and improve business outcomes.

Swiftwater and Company is a premier and nimble advisory firm comprising of senior advisors. It specializes in delivering solutions across commercial, legal, risk, compliance, and technology consulting. Our mission is to propel businesses toward commercial agility, ensuring operational excellence, and fortifying risk mitigation and compliance. We have a seasoned cadre of C-suite advisors, who advise Chief Legal, Compliance, Risk, Revenue, and Procurement Officers. At the core of our ethos lie the 7 Cs: Connect, Care, Collaborate, Create, Curiosity, Courage, and Confidence, which together fuel our approach to transformative consulting.

Prestigious Annual Awards Program Recognizes Companies and Products Driving Innovation in the Global Legal Industry

HOUSTON, November 20, 2024 –  Onit, the global leader in AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for the legal industry, today announced that its CounselGO solution is “Vendor Management Solution of the Year” in the 5th annual LegalTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by LegalTech Breakthrough, a leading independent market intelligence organization that evaluates and recognizes standout legal technology companies, products and services around the globe.

CounselGO is an intuitive and easy-to-use vendor portal by SimpleLegal, an Onit company, that enables law firms and vendors to quickly submit invoices, propose matter budgets, manage timekeepers, and track the matters assigned without extensive user training or technical support. CounselGO features an intuitive and user-friendly design that streamlines engagement and collaboration between law firms, vendors, and legal teams, allowing them to work closely together. 

Users can view and manage all legal department clients in one spot, track the status of submitted invoices, and stay on top of referred matters. Its comprehensive matter management provides detailed insights including client matter ID, name and description, legal entity, and submitted invoices. The solution also enables collaboration on matter budgets, allowing legal teams and their partners to align on scope, risk, assumptions, and costs before work begins.

With flexible timekeeper management, firms can add and manage internal timekeeper rates or submit rates for client approval. Self-administration capabilities also allow users to self-administer their accounts, including adding and deactivating users, granting admin permissions, and setting which users can submit accruals. CounselGO also supports multiple invoice formats and allows for the submission of PDFs and other non-eBilling formats. With unlimited invoice attachments, there’s no need to upload multiple invoices due to file size limits. In addition, CounselGO supports over 167 currencies. 

Onit’s SimpleLegal e-billing solution provides law firms and vendors with dedicated support, and users also have access to a self-help knowledge base and in-app prompts. Importantly, CounselGO leverages industry-standard encryption for data at rest and in transit, ensuring the security and confidentiality of customer data. 

“It’s an honor to have CounselGO singled out by LegalTech Breakthrough for this award. By addressing the pressing needs of legal teams for enhanced coordination and communication with vendors, we’re not just simplifying processes – we’re paving the way for more strategic and impactful legal outcomes,” said Michael Farlekas, CEO of Onit. “In the future, we’ll continue to provide legal teams with the tools they need to stay ahead in a rapidly changing environment while understanding that rapid collaboration and communication are the foundations for success.”

The mission of the annual LegalTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry’s most  comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the top technology companies, solutions and products in the legal technology industry today. This year’s program attracted thousands of nominations from over 12 different countries throughout the world.

“CounselGO helps legal teams and their partners stay organized and informed, facilitating better decision-making and coordination. Effective collaboration is a necessity in the ever-evolving legal landscape. Seamless, efficient communication with outside counsel and vendors is pivotal to successful legal outcomes but law firms often struggle with keeping all parties on the same page,” said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director, LegalTech Breakthrough. “By streamlining engagement and collaboration, CounselGO – the next evolution in vendor collaboration – significantly improves the efficiency of legal teams, allowing them to successfully manage tasks and focus on higher-value activities. We’re pleased to recognize CounselGO with ‘Vendor Management Solution of the Year!’” 

About Onit

Onit is a global leader of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement.

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit onitprostg.wpengine.com.

About SimpleLegal

SimpleLegal, an Onit company, streamlines the way corporate legal departments manage their matters, track and interpret spend, and collaborate with vendors and law firms. As the first solution tailored for legal operations, SimpleLegal combines e-Billing and spend management, matter management, vendor management, and reporting and analytics into one comprehensive application to optimize and manage the entire legal department. The company was founded in 2013 and acquired by Onit in May 2019. For more information, visit www.simplelegal.com.

About LegalTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the LegalTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in legal technologies, services, companies and products. The LegalTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of LegalTech companies and solutions in categories including Case Management, Client Relations, Data and Analytics, Documentation, Legal Education, Practice Management, eDiscovery and more. For more information visit LegalTechBreakthrough.com

Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Quickly and Accurately Draft, Review, Redline, and Edit Contracts in Minutes

HOUSTON, Sept. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Onit, the global leader in AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for the legal industry, announced significant enhancements to its groundbreaking ReviewAI product, powered by generative AI technology. This launch marks the first of several major AI-driven product releases scheduled for this year, underscoring Onit’s commitment to remaining at the forefront of AI innovation. Onit’s continued leadership in AI stems from years of investment and expertise, positioning the company well ahead of competitors.

“AI has been our fastest-growing product line for the past three years, and that momentum is accelerating,” said Michael Farlekas, CEO of Onit. “The launch of ReviewAI into the mid-market is just the beginning, with three more major AI-driven releases coming this year, targeting legal spend management, contract management, legal operations, and service requests.”

Leading the AI Transformation

Onit has been pioneering AI capabilities designed specifically for legal workflows for years, building its reputation as a leader in legal tech. The launch of ReviewAI is a testament to the company’s advanced generative AI capabilities, transforming contract lifecycle management by offering tools that can read, write, and reason like a lawyer.

“Eight years ago, we became one of the first companies to deliver software that could emulate legal reasoning with ReviewAI,” said Jean Yang, VP of Onit’s AI Center of Excellence. “Today, we’re proud to offer ReviewAI as a standalone product, powered by the latest advancements in generative AI and large language models.”

ReviewAI’s Impact on Contract Management

ReviewAI delivers intuitive, AI-driven tools that streamline the contract management process from drafting and negotiation to review and execution. Designed to integrate with any contract management system, it allows legal teams to enhance their workflows without disruption.

With ReviewAI, legal teams benefit from:

• 4x faster contract audit and migration
• 70% faster contract negotiations
• 400% faster data entry and validation with Onit CLM

The generative AI-powered contract chat feature provides instant answers during reviews, while pre-configured playbooks enable faster and more accurate contract assessments customized to align with business standards.

Looking Ahead

ReviewAI is just the first of four AI-driven launches for 2024, reinforcing Onit’s dedication to delivering innovative solutions for legal departments worldwide. The company’s future AI-driven products will continue to enhance operational efficiency and client value.

About Onit

Onit is a global leader of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement.

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Groundbreaking Feature Adds Status Sharing and Management, Permissions Control, Notification System to SimpleLegal

HOUSTON, Aug. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Onit, the leader in software solutions for legal operations teams, announced a new feature for matter and spend management that will continue to transform how in-house legal teams work with their service providers.

Shared Matter Updates, a new feature in SimpleLegal, centralizes communication and ensures all stakeholders remain current on the status of legal matters throughout the matter’s lifecycle.

“We’re proud of the success of the initial phase of our groundbreaking vendor collaboration has had in helping establish clear communication and efficient collaboration between in-house vendors and outside counsel,” says Shri Iyer, SVP of Product Management and Design. “With the introduction of bidirectional Matter Updates with outside counsel, we’re taking this to a new level by centralizing communication within our platform. This ensures that all matter updates are stored securely and remain accessible, preserving historical information and guaranteeing continuity.”

Enhanced bidirectional vendor collaboration offers three key capabilities to improve and expand your collaboration efforts:

• Status sharing and management: Enhance real-time communication to update and manage the status of legal matters
• Permissions control: Tailor who can see and update the status of matters
• Notification system: Maintain a single source of truth about the latest status of matters, with visibility into in-house and outside counsel conversations

“Rapid collaboration and communication are the foundations for success in the fast-paced modern legal environment,” Iyer says. “With vendor collaboration’s new features, in-house teams and outside counsel have the powerful and secure real-time tools they need to collaborate and communicate with speed.”

Matter Updates is available today for all SimpleLegal customers with a matter management plan.

To learn more about Matter Updates and vendor collaboration with SimpleLegal, request a demo or learn more on the blog.

About Onit

Onit is a global leader in AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management, and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement.

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Onit product brands are OnitX, SimpleLegal, ContractWorks, ReadySign, BusyLamp, and SecureDocs.

The appointment further accelerates Onit’s success in building AI solutions for the world’s best companies

Houston, TX, June 25, 2024 – Onit, a global leader of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for the legal industry, today announced the promotion of Nick Whitehouse to Chief AI Officer. This strategic move extends the company’s leadership in AI-enabled products for legal departments by putting even greater focus on continued AI innovation for Onit’s global customer base.

“Nick’s track record on the cutting edge of AI development makes him the perfect person to lead Onit’s AI strategy for our customers and business,” says Michael Farlekas, CEO of Onit. “The legal industry is at an inflection point and AI-embedded tools – like our Catalyst Generative AI Paralegal and ContractWorks Taggy – are examples of how Onit is already transforming legal departments around the world. Nick’s leadership will help Onit deliver new AI-enabled products, integrate AI even deeper into our existing portfolio, and drive greater customer adoption than ever before.”

In his new position, Whitehouse will lead Onit’s AI strategy and development, focusing on creating unified AI solutions that deliver real productivity gains. Whitehouse has already led the integration of AI into more than 50% of Onit’s products, serving Legal AI to more than 1,300 customers worldwide.

“Onit customers interact with our AI solutions millions of times a year, solving critical problems for their businesses,” says Whitehouse. “With continued focus and investment in AI, we are well positioned to extend our market leadership and see our customers leverage AI tens of millions of times a year, dramatically improving the efficiency of their legal operations.”

Onit’s investment in AI-embedded products began more than 8 years ago. Today the company offers three standalone AI products that serve more than 50 enterprise clients. Whitehouse owns an aggressive product roadmap that will deliver multiple AI releases before the end of the year, aiming to more than double the number of customers that use Onit AI capabilities.

With a formidable background in transformation and AI that spans two decades, Whitehouse has been a pioneering force in the legal industry. His achievements have earned him numerous accolades, including the IDC Australasian Digital Transformation Leader of the Year and the Global Most Disruptive Leader, awarded for his innovative contributions to technology in law.

Whitehouse previously served as the Managing Director of Onit’s AI Center of Excellence and joined Onit following its acquisition of McCarthyFinch, a legal AI company he co-founded. During his tenure as Chief Digital Officer at MinterEllisonRuddWatts, Whitehouse was recognized as a world leader in legal digital transformation, where he was instrumental in executing digital initiatives and securing the firm’s reputation as a leader in innovation.

About Onit

Onit is a global leader of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement.

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit onitprostg.wpengine.com.

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Onit Catalyst’s generative AI technology is further integrated within Onit Contract Lifecycle Management to enable the easy automation of data extraction from contracts.

Houston, TX – April 30, 2024—Onit, the leading provider of legal workflow solutions, today announced the deeper integration of its leading Catalyst generative AI technology with its legal business process automation platform. Onit Catalyst delivers a natural language chat feature to automate the extraction of vital data from a company’s library of contracts. The Onit platform has also been further enhanced by adding a new best practice Vendor Suite template that provides legal departments with better law firm analytics capabilities and the deeper integration of its Legal Holds management capability with Microsoft to ensure more robust preservation of digital records.

Companies are often hampered by their inability to collect their contracts within a single contract lifecycle management platform and extract critical information efficiently and rapidly, as traditional extraction tools can retrieve only a limited number and type of attributes. This need arises from consolidating legacy contacts, expanding the range of attributes collected in a contract database to better manage commercial agreements, and conducting compliance audits.

Onit Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) leverages Catalyst generative AI technology to support “smart fields,” additional attributes that can be extracted from contracts using natural language chat powered by an LLM. This flexible system allows for the easy addition of new custom data fields to the contract database, empowering users to adapt the system to their specific needs. By accurately extracting these attributes, customers can effectively manage their contracts, ensure compliance, monitor performance, and make informed decisions based on contract data analysis. The integration also allows contracts and contract data to be easily imported into Onit CLM for seamless analysis, giving users complete control over their contract management process.

In the fall of 2023, Onit introduced Matter Suite and Spend Suite best practice templates that allow legal operations professionals to track key performance indicators and have better visibility across invoices, budgets, matters, and more. Onit has now added Vendor Suite, which provides greater insights and analysis capability of critical law firm metrics so legal departments can make informed decisions regarding the efficiency and competitiveness of law firms concerning their timekeeper rates. It presents trends and details of timekeeper rates, segmented by staff classifications such as Partners, Of Counsels, Associates, geography, and more. Vendor Suite enables users to quickly evaluate how the average rates align with fairness, adequacy, or excellence standards across similar law firms.

The Onit Legal Hold capabilities have also been enhanced to provide greater flexibility and more complete, easier-to-manage digital records preservation. Legal departments can customize Legal Holds Management to meet their unique workflows, including custodian notification, categorization, and approval matrices. The recently added integration with the Microsoft Purview compliance portal allows for preserving records across the Microsoft landscape (including OneDrive and SharePoint) from within Legal Holds Management. Lastly, when IT modifies preservation settings, these changes can now be audited within Onit to ensure necessary legal holds remain.

Learn more about Onit’s ELM and CLM solutions at CLOC Global Institute 2024 in Las Vegas from May 6-9; Onit is a proud platinum sponsor of the CLOC Global Institute.

• Onit’s CLOC presence features: Jean Yang, Vice President of Onit’s AI Center of Excellence, will moderate a panel titled “Complexity to Consistency: Three Keys to Empowering Legal Excellence with AI” on May 8 at 12:20 p.m. PDT.
• Visit us at Booths #309 and #402 to learn more about these product updates, book a demo, or arrange to meet the team at CLOC.

Additional Resources

For more company news, industry trends, and best practices from corporate legal innovators, read the Onit blog and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Onit

Onit is a global leader of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement.

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Strategic hirings are part of a larger investment strategy to build on Onit’s success and further scale the business.

Houston, April 9, 2024 - Onit, the leading provider of legal workflow solutions including enterprise legal management (ELM) and contract lifecycle management (CLM), today announced three new senior executive leadership team members. Michelle Culp has joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer, responsible for all go-to-market functions. Nathan Peirson has joined as Chief People Officer, leading the company’s global human resources organization and driving Onit’s strategic talent goals. Laura Fese has joined Onit as Chief Legal Officer, leading the company’s global legal operations. Melanie Shafer has been promoted to the new Chief Customer Officer position, where she will be responsible for the company’s services and customer success functions. They join recently appointed CEO Michael Farlekas and CFO Austin Owens, who joined in June 2023.

Michelle Culp will focus on implementing an integrated, global go-to-market strategy for Onit. This strategy will benefit customers of all sizes by enabling them to better understand the benefits of the entire portfolio of Onit’s ELM, CLM, and custom workflow automation applications. Culp brings a demonstrated history of transforming and leading SaaS sales and marketing teams across multiple customer segments. Before Onit, she served as the Global Vice President of Sales at Sovos, a leading compliance software company serving over 100,000 customers, including half of the Fortune 500, across 70 countries. Culp also served as the Vice President of Sales, Small Business at SAP Concur.

Nathan Peirson brings over twenty years of global HR experience to the Chief People Officer role, with considerable expertise in high-growth SaaS and technology companies. In his role, Peirson will drive Onit’s enterprise talent strategy while building a best-in-class Human Resources function. Prior to joining Onit, he served as SVP of Talent and Employee Experience at Paycor, a leading provider of human capital management software. He also served as Worldpay’s Global Head of Culture and Talent and held multiple global HR leadership roles during his tenure. He was recently nominated as one of OnCon’s top 100 HR Professionals of 2024 award.

Laura Fese has joined as Chief Legal Officer, bringing over twenty-five years of experience in managing legal operations for private and public multi-national supply chain and ERP SaaS businesses.  Recently, Fese served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of E2open (NYSE: ETWO).  Fese is an effective leader with expertise in accelerating growth through developing exceptional legal talent and implementing critical process and automation improvements.

Melanie Shafer has assumed the new role of Chief Customer Officer. Shafer most recently served as the SVP of Customer Experience of Onit’s Commercial Business. Shafer’s primary focus is to create a scalable service experience for Onit customers, regardless of their maturity stage in legal operations. This comprehensive strategy enables Onit to act as a trusted advisor to its customers, enhancing efficiency, cost containment, and risk mitigation for the General Counsel’s office. Before Onit, Shafer served as VP of Professional Services and Support at Zywave, a pioneer in the insurance technology industry, where she led teams responsible for the implementation and ongoing support of 15,000+ customers through multiple acquisitions and international expansion.

Austin Owens joined Onit in June of 2023 and has focused on improving finance practices to support scalable growth. Owens has brought expertise in financial planning and analysis, business analytics, and business process design to Onit, along with experience in global operations. Owens most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at Data Axle, a leader in data-driven marketing and business intelligence solutions, supporting various activities ranging from business unit partnerships with sales and operations leadership to corporate and treasury-focused responsibilities related to cash management and business development. He also served as the lead across the entire lifecycle of merger and acquisition engagements.

“I am excited by the addition of these outstanding senior leaders with diverse experiences. “Together with our exceptional employees, they will be instrumental in transforming Onit into the leading legal operations software platform company serving companies of all sizes worldwide,” said Michael Farlekas, CEO of Onit. “The industry is at an inflection point, with corporate legal departments needing to adopt a core business platform with AI embedded that supports better productivity, higher efficiency, and data-driven decision-making so legal leaders can focus on helping create business advantage for their corporations.”

About Onit
Onit is a global leader of AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement.

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Modernized event management decreases risk for legal departments where the stakes are higher for missed deadlines

HOUSTON, March 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — SimpleLegal (an Onit company), the industry leader in easy-to-learn and implement e-Billing and matter management software, announces the launch of its purpose-built event management feature within its matter management solution.

Compared to available market options, SimpleLegal separates task and event management, functionality traditionally tied together in matter management applications. The separation draws attention to the importance of events, such as court dates, filing deadlines, and depositions, and the negative consequences when events are mismanaged.

“We all work in tools like Outlook and Google where creating a meeting, inviting the right people, and adding relevant details is simple,” says Shri Iyer, SimpleLegal’s SVP of Product Management and Design. “We set out to replicate this ease of use, designed specifically for legal departments, after our customers vocalized that deadlines are too important to be viewed as mere tasks that are checked off a list.”

When it comes to missed deadlines, the stakes are higher for legal departments. Failing to file court documents on time or overlooking statutory limits, for example, can pose significant risk to a business, potentially resulting in lawsuits, attorney sanctions, and case dismissal. The robust calendaring provided by SimpleLegal’s event management gives legal departments the centralized, matter-specific view of upcoming events that has been missing in the market. Better visibility and accountability make collaboration effortless and keep key stakeholders informed.

SimpleLegal’s event management further integrates with CalendarRules, the most comprehensive and reliable court rules platform offering over 1,800 rule sets nationwide. As the first matter management solution to offer this integration, legal departments can confidently prepare for and manage upcoming events and deadlines thanks to automated, real-time data from CalendarRules to SimpleLegal.

“After extensive research and conversations with legal ops professionals, we knew separating tasks and events was the right call. It didn’t make sense to treat a deadline-driven event the same way as a task,” shares Iyer. “To successfully and continually build value for our users, we can’t lose sight of how legal teams operate and must adapt our product accordingly.”

SimpleLegal streamlines legal operations by packaging event and task management into a single matter management solution. This unified approach enhances visibility into team capacity, supports strategic decision-making, and simplifies matter intake and management, increasing workflow efficiency and productivity.

Additional Resources
To learn more about SimpleLegal’s event management, request a demo or learn more on the blog. For company news, industry trends and best practices from corporate legal innovators, read SimpleLegal blogs and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Onit
Onit is a global leader in AI-enabled workflow automation solutions for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. With Onit, companies can transform best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. With a focus on enterprise legal management, matter management, spend management, contract lifecycle management and legal holds, the company operates globally. It helps transform how Fortune 500 companies and billion-dollar corporate legal departments bridge the gap between systems of record and systems of engagement.

Onit helps customers find gains in efficiency, reduce costs, and automate transactions faster. For more information, visit onitprostg.wpengine.com.

Onit product brands are OnitX, SimpleLegal, ContractWorks, ReadySign, BusyLamp, and SecureDocs.