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Transforming legal operations in financial services

11 July 2025

In the fast-evolving regulatory landscape, financial institutions face mounting pressure to ensure compliance, manage risk and drive operational efficiency. Our Legal Operations & Technology Consulting team understand the unique challenges financial services companies face, particularly when it comes to managing complex contract lifecycles across global entities. 

The financial services challenge

Our client, a leading global financial institution, was struggling with fragmented and manual contract lifecycle processes across multiple entities within its Group. These legacy systems lacked the flexibility to adapt to evolving regulatory requirements and internal policy changes which resulted in operational inefficiencies, hindered strategic decision making, created inconsistent compliance practices and increased risk exposure. Their key issues had been identified as delays in contract processing and contractual data management, data inaccuracies and limited visibility into contract status and obligations.

To address their challenges, our client sought to implement a centralised, end-to-end automated CLM system to streamline workflows, enhance user experience and ensure consistent application of corporate policies and regulatory requirements across all Group entities.

Our partnership approach and structured delivery

To deliver a solution that truly met the client’s needs, our team embedded itself with their legal operations function, acting as trusted partners throughout the journey. Over 2.5 years, we executed a structured, 3 phase implementation plan and facilitated cross-functional collaboration between the business, legal and technology teams to ensure alignment and buy-in at every stage.

Our implementation included:

  • Discovery & Mapping – We conducted a comprehensive review of existing processes, documentation, and contract templates across departments.
  • Design & Standardisation – We collaborated with departments to standardise templates and align with regulatory and corporate policies.
  • Implementation & Support – We rolled out the new CLM system with robust change management, training, and a dedicated support framework.

The results: a future-ready CLM system

The transformation delivered enterprise-wide benefits:

  • Contract automation: frequently used templates were automated, allowing users to generate contracts by answering simple structured questions which reduced manual effort, minimised errors and accelerated turnaround times.
  • Enhanced reporting capabilities: real-time visibility into contract status, obligations, and risks, empowered better decision making and regulatory compliance.
  • Comprehensive support: a dedicated helpdesk provided real-time assistance, resolved system issues promptly and served as a central point for feedback and process clarifications which ensured high user confidence and rapid adoption across departments.
  • Scalability: the CLM system now supports 554 users across 75 departments and 7 entities, consolidating over 700,000 contracts and 1,234 templates from three legacy systems.
  • Streamlined workflows and consistency: The solution ensures consistent application of standardised processes, corporate policies and regulatory requirements across all Group entities that is resilient and future ready.

In a sector where compliance is non-negotiable and operational resilience is critical, our approach to CLM implementation demonstrates how financial institutions can modernise their legal operations without compromising on control or agility. By combining deep legal expertise with technology enablement, we help clients navigate complexity, reduce risk and unlock strategic value.

To learn more about DWF's services, contact our expert below.

Further Reading