Agiloft has announced that it has appointed Prashant Dubey as its new Chief Strategy Officer and Research Chair. Dubey has a wealth of experience in the CLM industry and is recognised as a visionary. He founded his first company, Sumati, in 2009. He led it as CEO and president for nine years before Elevate acquired it. Sumati was a legal technology company that developed the first AI-driven contract analysis and workflow patterns. The company successfully grew to over 200 employees, with a 50% growth annually before its acquisition by Elevate in 2018.
At Elevate, Dubey became VP & GM, Contract Services leading a team of 350 lawyers, para-professionals and technologists. In 2021 he became Vice President of Contracts Solutions and Disability Inclusion. An experienced leader, the years at Elevate have seen him at the cutting edge of legal technology. At Sumati, investing in AI so long ago is a testament to his vision. One wonders what Sumati might have done had he taken VC funding at that time rather than the Elevate deal.
Some of his experience is condensed in a book he co-authored with Eva Kripalani, “The Generalist Counsel: How Leading General Counsel Are Shaping Tomorrow’s Companies.” (Amazon Aus, UK, US). Published in 2013, the book aims to guide lawyers towards company leadership, though this is perhaps now dated from the recent reviews.
Eric Laughlin, Agiloft CEO, commented, “The CLM market is white hot, given the revenue-enhancing power of CLM in challenging market and macroeconomic conditions. We sincerely could not be more excited to bring Prashant’s deep CLM, legal, business, and technology expertise onboard to help refine our strategies to capture market demand and also provide thought leadership to our customers and the industry.”
Why does Agiloft need a Chief Strategy officer?
This is an interesting question, and the answer may evolve. Laughlin indicates that Dubey’s role will be to refine the existing strategy to capture market demand. The inference is that Laughlin perceives that it is important that Agiloft remains at the cutting edge of legal technology. In Dubey, he has found a visionary and evangelist that should present a voice for Agiloft and its customers to listen to.
According to the press release, Dubey will lead the “advancement” (rather than development) of the company’s three-year strategic plan. The inference is that he will influence rather than define the Agiloft strategy, supporting Laughlin as the company evolves. He will also lead Agiloft Insights, its research team that carries out surveys and provides insights for the wider company. To date, it does not have much prominence on the Agiloft website. One of its most noticeable pieces of work is the 2022 Global Enterprise Study. Agiloft Insights is a data-driven market research team that uncovers actionable insights on customer needs and industry trends to accelerate and transform the CLM market.
Dubey commented, “I’ve spent decades helping customers create real business impact from their CLM, and it’s an honor to join Agiloft to help bring those learnings to one of the largest and most loyal CLM customer bases in the industry. In an industry where churn is pervasive, I am excited to build upon Agiloft’s sterling reputation for successful implementation, industry-leading customer retention, and customers who come back again and again to solve additional business problems with its flexible, no-code platform.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Dubey joins Agiloft at a time when the industry is maturing. The larger firms are starting to cement a hold on their market share, yet start-ups are still emerging with both niche and AI-powered solutions. As the recession unfolds, contracts hold a lot of unrealised value.
Elevate aims to help law departments and law firms with practical ways to improve efficiency, quality, and business outcomes. That experience places Dubey in a unique position of practical experience across a wide range of challenges within legal firms. That experience should help keep Agiloft on the pulse of customers’ wants as he starts to influence strategy.
His exposure to what law firms need and his understanding of Legal technology makes him a great hire for Agiloft. What will be interesting to see is how Agiloft’s strategy evolves over the coming year.
