TLH Ep. 35: Marie-Claire Le Houerou of Intapp on Transforming Legal Operations, Compliance, and the Quote-to-Cash Journey

Hello, Legal Helm listeners!
Today, we?re thrilled to welcome Marie Claire Le Houerou, also known as MC, the Senior Client Experience Director at Intapp. Intapp is revolutionizing the way leading firms across industries like legal, accounting, consulting, investment banking, and private capital operate by leveraging applied AI and industry-specific SaaS solutions to modernize operations, enhance compliance, and drive growth.

MC brings over 15 years of expertise in risk and operational roles. Before joining Intapp, she served as the Global Director of New Business Intake at Baker McKenzie, where she led transformative client onboarding operations, including conflicts management, new business intake, client terms management, and AML KYC compliance.

Today, MC will share insights on how Intapp?s innovative solutions are helping firms revolutionize their legal operations, from compliance to the wider quote-to-cash journey. Stay tuned as we dive into her impressive career and discover how these strategies can empower your organization!

Your host

Bim Dave is Helm360?s CEO. With 20+ years in the legal industry, his keen understanding of how law firms and lawyers use technology has propelled Helm360 to the industry?s forefront. A technical expert with a penchant for developing solutions that improve business systems and user experience, Bim has a knack for bringing high quality IT architects and developers together to create innovative, useable solutions to the legal arena.

Our Guest

Marie Claire Le Houerou is an experienced executive with over fifteen years of experience across global financial services, legal, and software organizations. Skilled at rapidly identifying areas requiring improvement, she is dedicated to delivering results that drive efficiencies and foster positive, necessary, and systemic organizational change. Her expertise includes client service and experience, client onboarding, risk and compliance, operations, and organizational transformation. She is passionate about leadership, enjoy mentoring, and committed to contributing to a positive and inclusive work environment for all.

Bim Dave: Hello, Legal Helm listeners. Joining us today is Marie Claire Laweiru, also known as MC, who is the Senior Client Experience Director at Intapp. Leveraging applied AI and industry specific SaaS solutions, Intapp modernizes operations, enhances compliance, and fosters growth for leading firms across legal, accounting, consulting, investment banking, and private capital. MC has over 15 year?s experience working in risk and operational roles. Prior to joining Intapp, MC served as the global director of new business intake at Baker McKenzie, where she was responsible for client onboarding operations and transformation, including conflicts, new business intake, client terms management, and AML KYC compliance. today I’m going to be speaking with MC about how you can revolutionize your legal operations Through Intapp solutions in compliance and the wider quote to cash journey.

MC. Hello and welcome to the show

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Hi, Bim. Um, thanks for having me. I’m delighted to be here.

Bim Dave: Great. So, before we dive into the topic at hand, it would be great for you to just kind of give us a, a summary of your role at Intapp and the background and journey that led you to that role.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Sure. Uh happy to so my role is, as you mentioned, is the Senior Client Experience Director. Um, I, uh, work within the Compliance Business Unit within Intapp. I joined the company in May of 2022. Um, so hard to believe I’ve been here, uh, over a few years now. I Primarily, my, my role is focused on, um, as it, as it says, client experience, so very much representing the voice of the client.

I deal with a broad spectrum of clients, particularly across the EMEA region, and APAC, and I have a counterpart, Alexa Pothier, who is based in the United States. And we very much liaise with the clients and then bring together many of our internal teams to ensure that we’re servicing those clients. So, an example of one of the things that would be very prevalent in the role that I perform is working with our clients to understand, you know, product enhancements or any technical issues and understanding any challenges that they might have operationally and then speaking to the right people internally to make sure that we can respond to those in the right ways.

Bim Dave: Fantastic. And. I’m interested to know, so you, you’re in the client experience space now, but when you started your journey, like way back, um, or not, maybe not way back, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re pretty, pretty young in comparison to me, but, but like, it would be great to just kind of learn a little bit about the education that kind of led you to that, that destination.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, of course. That’s a great question. So, um, I must say if someone said to me when I was, um, you know, sort of 18 or 19 that you’d be working in a software company, I would say, are you sure? Um, so I, I was very much an art student. So, I studied English literature, politics and history. Um, I went on to study that, um, as a degree at university.

Um, At that point, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career. So I, um, I took a gap year. I ended up actually working in a chocolate shop, a delicatessen in Edinburgh and took a little bit of time to find out where I wanted to go. Um, you know, career wise. So I was then recruited actually by a company in Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Um, so I started my career out, um, in a boutique, um, trust company, um, servicing high net worth clients. And if I reflect now, I think that was a fantastic start to my career because, you know, the demands of a high net worth client, um, you know, that they’re really, um, up there. And I think that it really was just a great experience to have very early on in my career.

Um, I then went on to stay for a few years within, um, that kind of fund admin, um, sort of world in Jersey. Um, and eventually ended up working in real estate and private equity fund administration where I managed quite sizable teams. Um, we were involved in providing, um, Corporate secretarial and fund administration services to corporate structures and within the private equity world, for example, and again, reflecting on my experience there, it was very interesting to be dealing with investor onboarding, um, you know, having to take, Those investors, through that onboarding process, um, but also work to the demands and the challenges of internal processes and, um, sort of make sure that your AML was done on time.

And, and also, meanwhile, making sure that your investor experience was, um, As a seamless and as positive as it could be. And again, you know, I think that I used a lot of my experience with high net worth clients to kind of, um, make sure that that was a seamless, um, and as positive an experience as it could be.

Um, so, yes, it was, it was interesting to sort of move from. a very small boutique firm environment then into, you know, an organization the size and scale of State Street, um, and be able to sort of pivot my expertise, um, within that offshore industry. Absolutely.

Bim Dave: it sounds like a fantastic, um, journey and very, like an unusual journey as well, right? In terms of what you originally intend intended to, to kind of do with your, your arts, um, degree. But yeah, glad, glad to have you, to have you in the technology space. So it’s good. it’s good.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: It was interesting you know, then I stayed with State Street for a number of years, and I know we’ve spoken before. I was asked, um, after being client facing for a number of years to establish an EMEA client onboarding function and, um, I mean, that was a bit of a risk because it didn’t exist. And I was going from a very sort of settled kind of job with it, with a sizable team.

Um, but it was, it was interesting. And we had a number of offices across the region, um, with clients that, that, that spanned those, those offices. So they were experiencing very different, you know, pricing and very different experiences depending on the office they were dealing with. So it was, um, you know, A very exciting and interesting time to build something from the ground up.

Um, and I mean, we started out with collecting the information in a PowerPoint deck, so it was um, rather, rather time consuming, but it also allowed us to really hone the process, hone what the team needed to look like. like the, the, you know, the kind of process overall, um, and then to build it from the ground up.

As I said, I think it gets, it gave us a lot of control over, you know, how, how we wanted it to look and feel. Um, and we were able to overlay that with a lot of governance in terms of, you know, what type of business do we really want to be taken on? What is, what is the risk profile of this business? Um, and, [you know, it was, it was, uh, you know, Kind of a good opportunity to kind of, um, build, build over time and create also that sense of standard across the offices and ensuring that the client experience was as positive again as it could be.

And then, of course, as you know, I stepped into Becker Mackenzie a few years later, um, where that was really on a global scale, then, where we, we, um, sort of established centers of excellence, um, and centralized many of our client onboarding functions within the legal space. So, again, um, One thing I was very sort of clear and reflecting on over the years was I had heard, you know, there’s a lot of differences between industries, but I could very seamlessly and quickly see, well, essentially you’re doing the same job.

It’s just, you know, there are different components that come into play across financial services versus legal and elsewhere.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, absolutely. I love the, um, I love, I love the comment about PowerPoint, um, data entry. Excellent.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: I think it was running to 40 pages at one point, but I do recall at the time, You know, I think at the time I was working sort of 16 hour days because it was me and, well, me and a senior sponsor who had asked me to help establish the function. So, um, there were, there were no people, you know, and we had to deliver the, um, and exhibit the success of the function before we were able to get some, some kind of team members, you know, which is very often very common in, in organizations.

You have to sort of deliver the value before you get the to build it out. Um, but yes, it was quite challenging. A comical now looking back that we had this sort of rather large PowerPoint deck that we were building out and again, you know, at the time, I thought, wow, it would be brilliant to have a solution that, you know, a workflow solution where we could, you know, work with our clients and collect the information directly from them and have the, you know, the client relationship teams build on that and move it between the various teams are involved in that client onboarding process.

And again, you know, fast forward a few years and I joined Baker McKenzie and two weeks prior, they had just. Implemented Intapp conflicts and intake and intake was that answer to that PowerPoint deck that I had been filling out for years for our team. So, yeah, it was, it was quite a fascinating journey.

Bim Dave: No, that’s, that’s really good here. I’m just, just one, one final piece on, on, on the back, on, on your background that I’m just keen to kind of learn a little bit more about is that, you know, Obviously that experience at Baker was fantastic because you were getting that full global law firm experience in terms of how they operate and, and how some of these products can really help streamline some of the processes, et cetera. When you’re, when you’re considering some of that background and experience, how, how does that differ in terms of then thinking about your role today and how you make Products that are relevant to other types of, um, right. That may be sitting in mid, mid market and perhaps smaller. Um, are there things that you’re taking from the Baker experience to, uh, to then, you know, make your products relevant or, you know, I’m interested just to kind of how you, how you figure out like the differences in terms of the persona of client that you’re dealing with.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, that, that’s an excellent question. I think, um, you know, reflecting on the experience that I had in Baker, obviously, you know, working within a global firm has, there are very different, You know, budget resources needs that a firm of that size and scale will have to, you know, perhaps a smaller to midsize firm.

I think, um, In my experience, again, having worked in small boutique firms right up to some of the largest organizations in the world, there, there are, um, and obviously cross, cross industry, as, as you mentioned, there are differences and we have to recognize that. We have to recognize that, you know, the language that’s used, the, the, the, um, the way that the processes operate, um, you know, that there are, Absolutely distinguishing factors there that we have to take into account.

And, but what I would say is, um, every firm, regardless of size is the opportunity to really explore how they’re operating, you know, our, our, to take a step back. There are efficiencies that can be built into a small to mid sized firm versus a large scale firm. Um, you know, really taking a step back, looking at processes, looking at, um, you know, What’s efficient, what could be improved, um, operationally, um, and building in those efficiencies where possible.

And I know we’ll talk about AI a little bit later, but, you know, there’s lots of components that come into play. I think. If we look at Intapp specifically, um, we know that these business relationships are complex and regardless of the size of the firm, and we really have to, in a competitive market, that our clients are, you know, increasingly focused on making sure that those clients are serviced effectively, but also that, you know, The software can be used to the greatest possible value and effect to help those fee earners, those client relationship, um, individuals who are, you know, up against it really, when you think about it, they have to get the responses back to their clients quickly, get that service delivered and also, as I mentioned earlier, move those processes through as effectively and efficiently as possible.

And I think that becomes hard when you’re dealing with things like that. Compliance checks and AML. So, um, again, to your question, if you look across industries, many of them are operating within regulated, um, you know, environments, uh, they’re, you know, at the sort of disposal and impact of what’s happening geopolitically.

Um, and I think that Intapp is able to help with the, um, exposure and experience we have with working across industry. And, you know, I, I’ve worked with Intapp, um, as a client from sort of early 2015 and really seen that, um, partnership and that, um, value of Intapp being able to bring together, not just clients within the one industry, like legal, you know, for example, we have, um, sort of, um, advisory boards and groups that we bring together regularly to discuss industry issues, but actually now expand that across industries.

Um, and that really is ultimately. Fantastic collaboration, ensuring and ultimately impacting the clients of these organizations that have to collaborate, um, day to day also. So I think, you know, breaking down that fragmentation internally, but also then being able to build those, those networks and those collaboration opportunities is absolutely essential.

And I think, you know, Intapp’s very focused on partnering wherever possible to, um, help, you know, that success, um, you know, continue.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, that’s really, really good here. I think there’s, there’s a huge opportunity across, you know, any, any type of law firm that’s out there to, to look to products like Intapp solutions to kind of standardize and improve processes. Like, I was literally just talking to a firm recently, just before Christmas about, um, how they do intake today.

And, um. Going back to your earlier point about, you know, using Microsoft solutions and other solutions to kind of do data entry, like they were actually, or are actually using a Google spreadsheet to initiate the process of, of intaking a client. And there’s a lot of manual steps that they’re going through to be able to get to the destination of onboarding a client. Which, um, ultimately these solutions are very relevant for firms like that, that may think that actually they’re too small for a solution that the interact can provide, but actually there’s a huge amount of efficiencies that can be gained. Um, but also other, um, benefits in terms of reducing risk, right?

Which we’ll, we’ll kind of dive into, um, right now, actually. So, so let, let’s, let’s talk about how. firms can modernize, um, risk management and compliance as part of that wider quote to cash process. Um, let’s start with what, why law firms need to think about this and why, why this should be top of their mind.

Perhaps you could kind of dive into some of that, um, aspect of it.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, well, I think just to touch on your last point there, and it is relevant to modernizing is that, um, there are still a lot of firms that are managing processes in an extremely manual way. So to your point, Excel spreadsheets or, you know, um, their teams are having to do a lot of, um, sort of pivoting in and out of.

Um, you know, there’s a lot of fragmentation in handoffs between teams, um, information gets lost or mixed up, and then that means that the fee earner, the client relationship individual has to go back to the client for additional information or indeed information that’s already been collected. So I think the first point in terms of modernizing is, um, to really look at the processes in those handoffs and, and, um, I’m a big fan of actually mapping things out, you know, so, um, when I had joined, um, Baker MacKenzie, I think one of the first things, you know, I had sort of done was map out the existence process.

So, what is the existing process today? And it was quite fascinating to have the various swim liens of the various teams, including the partners and secretaries, et cetera, um, And to really see the back and forth, you know, between each of the individual teams that sat along that cycle, um, and, and then to be able to, um, build that future vision.

So, what, what, what’s the before, what’s the existing and what, what should the after look like where you’re trying to actually collect information right first time. And I think that is a, is a term that I have heard increasingly over the last few years is, you know, it’s, it’s. It may seem a small point to just have, you know, a BD team, um, you know, that does their job and a compliance or in tech or complex team that does their job, you know, alongside AML, for example, and a billing and a collections team.

But. When you have these various teams working in silos and, you know, going back and forward for various pieces of information to the partner and who subsequently has to reach back to the client, it’s extremely time consuming, number one, but also it’s, it’s very impactful on that client and it’s not sending a very good message.

Good message in terms of the fact that this, you know, firm is having to come to us three or four or five times to collect multiple pieces of information to get this through effectively an internal, um, you know, process. So I think that’s the first thing is to take a look at the process, map it out. Um, work collectively with the teams.

You know, I know that sometimes that can be a bit of work because you’re having to sort of take different opinions in and, you know, sort of collaborate. And, um, but actually, that’s very meaningful because I think then everybody starts to really align, um, on what that process should look like, um, optimally, you know, in the future.

Checks and then move through into your billing and collections. And the benefit of bringing that all together, um, you know, in a more end to end fashion is, is again, focused on enhancing that client experience, um, ensuring that fee earner time is, you know, there’s as much billable time there as possible that they can spend as opposed to giving it away.

Becoming pulled into operational elements, um, you know, and processes that maybe aren’t working so well, um, and also then making sure that. As I mentioned before, the compliance checks are done right the first time, the bill accuracy is as best as it can be right the first time, and you’re able to collect that, um, that kind of, uh, you know, revenue and in the swiftest possible way.

Um, so again, you know, it’s, it’s kind of looking at that process more holistically.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, that’s, that’s fantastic. And are you able to break down the, the kind of journey a little bit deeper in terms of some of the considerations that law firms need to. Need to be thinking about if they’re, so if I’m, if I’m, let’s just say I’m one of those firms that kind of fall into the category of I’ve got like, um, siloed way of doing intake at the moment. How would you break down that kind of the, the problem that needs to be solved there and, and to, to your point earlier, like how, how do you connect the dots between actually getting, getting the firm aligned with implementing a solution that’s going to kind of solve some of those, those challenges of silos?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, I think it’s essential to have sponsorship. Um, so, I mean, What’s interesting, if you look across the cycle, there’s a lot of different individuals who, you know, at an executive level, need to be sort of involved and sponsor that, you know, so you’d have the likes of the COO, the CIO, um, you’ll have the, you know, the head of business development, head of intake, AML, conflicts, compliance, and you’ll also, I think it’s essential to have the Office of General Counsel involved because they really sort of sit across that whole cycle to some extent, um, you know, the, the, um, you know, CFO, So I think That’s a very good and a very, a very important starting point is to make sure that you’ve got that kind of core committee or team that’s aligned on what that vision should be.

And I think subsequent to that, then it’s really important to bring the sort of operational heads across those teams together to be able to again act as that, um, Sort of collaboration group that can deliver on the changes because, you know, each of the areas have their own demands on their own interests, but ultimately coming together will help to solve a lot of the processes that exist in each of the steps.

And again, I think where the software comes in, it can really help those the teams on the ground to collaborate more effectively. Um, and I think that that’s, you know, a really good starting point because let’s face it, you know, the, the, You know, it’s the process and getting that right having the sponsorship around, you know, making sure that that project or that program can be delivered on, um, bringing people together to get that delivered.

Um, but also to make sure that, you know, the people that are doing the job day to day are part of that journey. I think that’s really vital. And I don’t know what your experience is in that, you know, with Helm 360 and the work that you implement and do is fee earners, uh, lots of different stakeholder groups are involved and you have to kind of try and bring them all together to feel that they have a voice in You know, what does that process look like?

What is that experience of, you know, maybe a conflicts analyst or an intake analyst working in an interrupt system for a good project? you know, part of their day, what’s working well for them and what can be improved. And I think it’s, it’s, um, there’s a great opportunity to involve them in that conversation.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, totally. I think, um, if I, if I think back to some of the projects that we’ve, we’ve been part of, the most successful ones are the ones where the people that are actually doing the job are involved in the project team and hands on and giving feedback in terms of some of the pain points that they’re experiencing. Um, versus the others where it’s more the, the kind of, uh, a team is formed outside of the, the kind of day to day business as usual operations. And they’re delivering a solution back to the business. And that tends to have a lot of resistance, um, because ultimately people don’t feel like they’re part of the solution anymore. Um, so yeah, absolutely.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: I think what’s interesting as well is that when you’re involving them in the process, they understand, they have, they A more thorough understanding of what that vision is. And I think that really makes, you know, a difference for them in their day to day work and because it’s, you know, it’s really helping to align them to the strategy and the purpose of the project and program.

And again, I think that’s, that’s vital. And I think. Where the process improvements are applied, um, and the software, um, you know, sort of is, is, is, is really considered very carefully in terms of, are we getting the best use out of what we have, you know, because it’s not just about implementing the new software along that, that, that process.

It’s actually looking at, well, are we getting the full value and benefit of the, um, Um, The software solution that we have, um, and I think, you know, we have teams, for example, and Intapp our solution advisory, um, the partner with clients to make sure that they’re, you know, getting the best out of the products day to day.

And I think the other thing about introducing the software solutions is that, um, you’re really able to build in efficiencies for the team themselves. You know, they’re being able to pivot away from doing those manual tasks as we discussed to actually, um, higher value work. And I think that that, you know, that that impacts all sorts of things like staff retention, etc.

Bim Dave: Yeah, absolutely makes a big, big difference. So, uh, so, so there’s, there’s a few areas that we’ve touched on. Are there any other tips or tips or tricks that you’ve learned along the way in terms of implementing some of the Intapp solutions, um, that you would want to share at this point in terms of customers considering, again, I’m thinking about the firm that’s, That’s not got some of the, the software piece of this, right?

Um, and you’ve kind of touched on some really good points in terms of, um, the people aspect, um, and understanding that actually stakeholder, um, representation is so important to make sure a project is successful. Um, and I think you, you, you alluded to earlier about, um, thinking about process definition and actually taking the time to document processes.

Um, so that you understand what that looks like. Any other areas that the firm should be thinking about? Um, in terms of this quote to cash cycle.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, I think one area, um, and again, I think the products lend themselves well to this is to consider whether your operations should be decentralized or centralized. We do see a growing trend of, uh, firms, regardless of size, moving towards some form of centralization. Um, you know, again, it depends if you look at the spectrum of the size of firms, you also have to consider the, um, you know, where they’re based, you know, is it, is it a, you know, a firm based in a soldier jurisdiction or, you know, a region or are the, Are they those that are spanning, uh, you know, sort of globally?

And again, those sorts of considerations can be very helpful in terms of deciding whether to stay with more of a decentralized model versus a centralized model. And I’m sure you’ve come across both of those, um, examples, but, um, I think that again, you can have sort of a hybrid approach where certain tasks will have to remain with a local practicing office and then certain tasks and operations can be centralized.

An example of that is where you have anti money laundering regulations. You might have to have someone based in the practicing office in that particular jurisdiction that’s regulated. And again, You know, they can sort of have a handoff to a centralized team that does a component part of the checking, um, and support, again, using that software because, you know, the, the workflow within the intake process, for example, um, and the conflicts, um, system really helps to, um, support those, those work, those handoffs, um, and support both the decentralized and centralized model.

Um, you know, I’ve worked in, in an industry and in, in roles where everything’s been on. Email, Excel spreadsheets, you know, um, PowerPoint decks, as I mentioned, to, um, using software, um, as best you can to actually, um, you know, sort of support that, that job. And it’s not just about. The experience for the teams themselves is actually I think it helps to mitigate risk overall, because you’ve got an audit trail within the system.

You’ve got, you know, you know, you also are able to track, for example, um, where things are held up within an operational timeline. So, for example, if that would be if a partner or secretary submitted, you know, a matter through the system, you’re able to see when that when that form was created. You know, who approved it.

You can see when it came into the intake team, the conflicts team for checking. You can see if the analyst returned it back to the office for additional information and you can see how long it sat there. So you’ve much more control over being able to, I think, move things through the process much more efficiently by having that, you know, within the system.

Um, and I think, again, that’s another great benefit that the intake products spring and that’s across that entire life cycle.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, I understood. Thank you. Um, can you talk a little bit about data quality? Because obviously the stuff that’s going into some of the things that you, you talked about, like, um, the conflicts checks that, that a customer will need to do, how important is the quality of data going into those, um, workflows and, and processes, and. How do we ensure that either from a technology perspective or from process perspective, that, um, that we’re kind of managing that we’ve got some level of governance that’s happening at that level.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, it’s a fantastic question and it’s a very, um, hot topic, um, at the moment. Um, you know, again, on reflection, it’s the information that comes in, um, as part of the onboarding process is ultimately going to impact the outputs and it’s easy to forget. Um, I spent a lot of time, you know, over the years, um, whether in financial services or legal, et cetera, um, training, um, and, and really having conversations around the importance of the, the quality of the data.

Um, as I mentioned earlier, the, the data coming in. accurately, um, right the first time means that it can progress through those stages, um, as efficiently as possible. You’re able to get the compliance checks done more accurately and effectively, get that bill raised, get it out to the client and have it paid, um, and also mitigate and really work down that back and forth.

Um, I think as we, you know, continue to see, um, firms wanting to, um, Improve their operations, um, and become much more efficient with their time, we’re going to see more and more focus on data quality and also, you know, we, we, we look at AI coming in now with a eyes is really going to revolutionize how we work.

It is already, but it does rely on having quality data. Um, and I think that probably any, anyone who’s working in a law firm who sort of is involved in this cycle, um, will, will be really, uh, sort of, um, aware of how impactful the quality of the data can be, even in terms of, you know, closure of matters and making sure that there’s sufficient governance levels around data management and privacy.

We obviously know there’s, you know, regulations around this area as well, and we know, too, that there are, um, Increasingly, firms focused on data retention, you know, so record keeping, et cetera, things like that. So I think it’s important to understand the regulatory environment and what impacts, um, but also what best practice practices can be built in, what policies govern within the firm.

Um, and it really is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that the quality of the data is where it should be. You know, if you think about it, the fee earner secretary might be liaising with the client. So That’s the very first step to make sure that they know what are the questions we need to ask the client, what’s the information we need to bring it through that entire process, um, right the first time.

Bim Dave: So just, just moving on to the journey that customers are facing today, where a lot of them are kind of looking at their footprint of applications that they’re leveraging in house and some of them are, or a lot of them are on prem and then considering how they then migrate those to cloud. What are some of the advantages that, that you see that firms can leverage as part of that journey to cloud?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, it’s a great question. And, you know, I know there are many of our clients, um, in the process of moving to cloud. And some of them are sort of working on the, on the plans to do so, um, at the moment. Um, and again, you know, that’s one of the big things. You know, big aspects of my role is speaking to clients about that journey.

Um, I think the first thing is, you know, having implemented large scale transformational, um, through waterfall projects and within the legal space. I would say one of the biggest benefits is actually the, um, the impacts on implementing the. Improvements to projects and the addition of features and functionality on cloud versus on prem.

So, um, I’m sure you have experienced that a lot of law firms will have implemented with a big bang approach on prem. And the change management effort, um, across the firm is pretty significant to say the least. And I think when you move on to cloud, um, there is a much more iterative, um, and sort of a softer approach to being able to expose features and functionality to different users at different times.

And I think therefore it gives the firm, um, much more control over, um, that change management piece and how to manage it. You know, it’s, it’s not an easy, you know, Piece to manage, and I think a lot of these firms are responsible for the training and development of their staff across the stakeholder groups.

So, I think that’s probably one of the sort of significant, um, you know, benefits of moving to cloud. I think the other ones involve, you know, there’s a lot of innovation and AI. Um, that’s coming into cloud. I think, you know, Intapp has had AI applied to their products for many years. Um, you know, if you look at our terms product and our conflicts product, we have an AI that has been tried and tested.

We’ve worked very, very closely with our clients on the AI. We’re now working to waive AI within. Our other products and, you know, including intake, and I think I’m very excited to see where that will go. So I think it’s really good and important for firms to, you know, sort of remain up to date with that and current and I think that those AI, you know, we’ve talked about the efficiencies that can be brought with the software together with improving operations is really, it’s going to be exciting to see where that will go with, with firms that are on cloud.

And I think. Ultimately, also enhanced UI. So, for example, in our intake product, we’re, um, updating our, our UI experience. Um, and I think that that’s going to be a great leap for, for, you know, the teams that are using the system day in and day out. So, and we’ve got enhanced security come on with cloud as well.

So, there are a whole host of, um, you know, improvements. And, you know, it’s, it’s really, um, essential. I think that the clients and law firms are considering that move to clouds. Um,

Bim Dave: Yeah, I think there’s, this is, this is a very interesting area at the moment, because I think what a lot of firms and, and we’re quite excited about is the ability to kind of take some of the things and features and some of the kind of innovations that you talked about a lot quicker than what may have traditionally happened in a law firm, right?

Like, again, I was talking to. Um, uh, UK firm who is so used to going down the, the route of updating systems on prem on like a 12 to 18 month cycle. And, and the amount of pain that they have to go through during that cycle of change is so much because there’s so much changing, right? Because you’re, you’re basically taking a new release of a product. Um, and this, there’s not necessarily in tab, but in any, any solution really that that’s sitting on prem. Where you’re bundling up a whole bunch of features, bug fixes, et cetera, into a release that then needs to have a full regression test. And ultimately there’s a lot of resource that goes into it from the law firm’s perspective to go and, um, you know, adopt that new version of a product.

Whereas actually one of the big benefits that I see, and I think a lot of firms I’m speaking to at the moment are starting to kind of look at as, as a real pro of, of kind of moving to cloud is the ability to be able to say, yeah, there may be a, an initial, um, Effort to kind of make that move to cloud, but actually from that point onwards, it becomes much, much easier to actually get incremental benefit value out of the solution because like, like you quite nicely said, you’re getting incremental change being pushed out, which is much less pressure on the firm to be able to then go and test and, and, and really kind of adopt the new versions.

Plus, I guess there’s certain things. The, the, just not possible in terms of delivery, uh, using like on prem technology versus a pure cloud, cloud solution as well.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, that’s, that’s correct. And I think to your point, I mean, you know, it can take so long, I mentioned earlier about involving stakeholder groups along that quote to cash cycle. And, um, it can take a lot of time to, you know, build a requirements site, uh, for a, for a project or a, you know, or, or a program.

And I think that, you know, to your point, if, if you’re taking months to do that, then the firm is changing constantly. And I think that the cloud. technology is helping that, you know, to keep the firm current. And I think that the, you know, the features and functionality again, as I mentioned, you know, you’ve got the likes of mobile apps, um, that partners V earners can use on the go.

Um, I think that, you know, that, It’s a really great step forward for law firms. And I know to your point that, you know, it is it is an initial and a rather large step to take from on prem to cloud. But absolutely, to your point, once you’re once the firms there, I think the benefits are, you know, are very strong.

And I think that, you know, we continue to see clients move to cloud and, um, You know, I, I was just recently speaking to a client that had moved to cloud and they were absolutely thrilled and they were, you know, sort of saying, well, can we get on calls now to just sort of understand what features and functionality we can we see coming over the next sort of, you know, six months that we can start thinking now about switching on.

Um, those are, you know, very relevant for the fee earners versus those that might be more relevant for the intake conflicts teams etc.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, that’s, that’s great. That’s great. And, and, and again, it all comes down to value of, of product, right? Like, as in you start to recognize some of the value of the solution, um, a lot more quicker.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yes, yeah, more current, it’s more current and up to date. I think the other thing, um, is that, you know, talking about integrations between products, and I know we were speaking about, um, you know, data privacy and security etc., is, um, Where we’ve seen great development, a lot of clients asking about, you know, rather than relying on people keying in data, how do we drive data?

How do we drive the quality of the data? And so an example would be, you know, if we look at our terms product, um, you know, the integrations that exist with the other products, um, where you’re actually uploading your client terms and being able to drive, you know, your, your conflict waivers and whether they’re needed or your, your billing terms, etc.

So. Um, it doesn’t, I think historically. The industry, and we all sort of relied on, you know, having sort of intake forms that were maybe hundreds of fields long, requiring a secretary filling the information and then having an analyst review it. I think we’re moving into a place where we’re being much, you know, the clients are being much more discerning about the fields, the data collection points, and also trying to drive some of that data collection.

We’re also seeing the integration of third party data. providers, um, where we’re actually integrating the data onto the intake, uh, form into our conflicts database with corporate trees to help drive that information and tracking, as opposed to, again, having, um, someone within the firm having to put that onto a form to collect it, um, but also someone having to pivot out of the system to take, undertake those checks manually.

Bim Dave: So, um, so let’s, let’s switch gears a little and talk a little bit about, um, the different, the different challenges involved in terms of regulatory trends in different jurisdictions. So, firstly, this is, If we kind of think about the context of a firm that has, um, that’s doing business in different jurisdictions across the world, I’d be interested to get your take in terms of a, how do firms like that need to approach keeping on top of some of the changes that can be happening? Where, where does Intapp play a part in terms of some of the education around that? Um, and then maybe we kind of move to, you know, what kind of things you’re seeing current, right? Like, what, what are you tracking at the moment in terms of some of the emerging, um, trends, uh, across the globe?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, so great question. Um, I think, um, I’ve spent a large part of my career, but also particularly within Intapp, Tracking anti money laundering. So we could use that as an example. Um, we touched on this earlier. It is complex. If you, um, have a firm that spans, uh, you know, a region or spans the globe, they are exposed to a series of regulations across jurisdictions.

And, you know, for example, if you take EMEA, we have had anti money laundering regulations in place for many years. They continue to evolve. You know, we have new, um, AML governance bodies been established, um, you know, across the region. Additionally, then we have the likes of the SRA further developing. The compliance and regulations that apply, um, you know, and I would attend the sort of conferences, you know, on this and speak to many of our clients about the demands of that places on a continued basis on the compliance teams and where, for example.

You know, ultimate beneficial ownership checks, um, and things like that are really sort of been built out and indeed the, um, the fines and the kind of ramifications of not doing so. Um, and we know that, you know, reputationally firms do not want to be in the press for those very reasons. Um, um, so I think if we then sort of look.

So again, rather than having to meet various AML regulations across jurisdictions, they create that baseline. And again, that really helps the firm operationally manage AML regulations across multiple jurisdictions, but also to support that client experience. Um, And then obviously, um, I’m not sure if you’ve been tracking the news, Bim, but in Australia, there has been a rather significant, um, sort of reform bill passed where anti money laundering regulations will be, uh, you know, sort of enhanced over the next period of time.

I think that’s coming in, in 2026. So it’s, there’s various things happening across the globe and, and, um, it’s been interesting to see that unfold. To your, the second part of your question, um, Intapp. You know, we partner with our clients, so we, um, work with our clients, regardless of size across industries, um, across jurisdictions, and we would produce a lot of thought leadership and really share what we’re seeing across the, the regulatory environment, but also what are we hearing from a different clients, you know, Um, they want to hear what the others are doing as well, you know, so I think it’s important to be able to help facilitate those discussions and share, you know, what we sort of see is happening in the industry and how we can help to support, you know, meeting those regulatory needs.

I think a lot of firms, um, sort of, you know, they need to. Stay on top of tracking those regulatory developments, but then the more difficult part can be, how do we adjust our operations? How do we adjust our workflows in our systems to be able to meet those regulations? How do we, or what do we have to do to adjust our policies, etc.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, absolutely. It’s definitely, um, an interesting area. And I guess as time goes on, we’ll continue to be 1 of those areas that, um, firms will experience kind of, you know, some level of challenge with. And it’s great to hear that you guys are connecting the dots between, like you said. I think being able to speak with other firms, being able to set up forums to be able to kind of discuss what’s happening in the world is, is always, always a good thing, right?

So, it’s great to hear some of that thought leadership coming from Intapp, um, that’s being shared.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: What’s been really interesting about the, uh, legislation in Australia is that, you know, some firms have obviously practicing offices elsewhere and they’ll be able to fold within the operations, you know, sort of at a, at an advantage, but where you’ve got, you know, locally based Australian firms, they’re really having to build that from the ground up.

And that’s, you know, that’s no small task. Um, and I think what we, uh, Um, and so what we’ve been able to do is share our experience and, you know, myself, you know, I’ve worked in legal, I know sort of what it’s like, and there are others in NTAP as well that have done the same, and we’re able to also learn lessons from, you know, what’s happened in EMEA, how can, you know, Australia, maybe sort of, you know, take some of what works and works well and apply that, and so it’s going to be interesting to see how that develops over the next few years, you know, in Australia specifically, but also globally.

Again, being able to. To my point earlier, use the Intapp solutions, um, to help make that as effective and efficient as possible, but then tagging things like third party data integrations to help, um, do that job as effectively and efficiently as possible, because we know that, uh, again, the compliance and AML checks can be rather timely, um, and, and, you know, You can’t not do them.

There’s no choice. So, um, I think, I think it’s, it’s going to be interesting to see also how things like AI overlay that, that whole, um, a ML and compliance, um, sort of area.

Bim Dave: Yes, indeed, indeed. And talking of AI, um, what are some of the, if we, if we kind of think to the future now, um, what are some of the key legal technology trends that, that you foresee for 2025?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: So I think, um, certainly we’ve touched on this, I think innovation and AI generally. So as I mentioned, Intapp will be applying AI across our products. Um, very excited to see how that will develop. Um. Particularly with the likes of the AI to Intech. Um, I think AI governance is a big topic. I’m not sure if you’ve sort of heard that one, but I’ve heard increasingly that coming up with the likes of, you know, compliance individuals and Office of General Counsel.

Um, The firm having to understand and look at where they can apply AI. Um, but also putting the mechanisms in place to be able to govern that. Um, and, you know, for example, some client terms coming through with, you know, limitations in terms of where. Their, their representative law firm can actually apply the use of AI.

So I think there’s a, you know, huge, um, sort of necessity, um, and opportunity to for compliance, um, individuals and, and the Office of General Counsel to sort of play a very active role in that, um, and, and I think that’s going to be very interesting as it sits alongside the innovation that, you know, I think will continue to Continue to be very rapid across compliance, sort of a software, uh, solution industry.

Um, I think other trends, you know, we’ve talked about on prem to cloud. So we continue to see that as a, you know, clients are becoming very active in their move to cloud and a lot of continued focus on data quality and governance, as we’ve said, um. The automation of manual tasks. I don’t think that’s ever going to stop.

I think, you know, again, um, there’s a component of bringing AI into that, but there’s also a component of making sure that you’re very operationally, uh, you know, effective and efficient and how the firm is working. Um, so, yeah, I think there’s some of the, the core sort of subject areas that we’ll see coming into this year.

Bim Dave: Yeah, I think it’s going to be quite an interesting, exciting, challenging year from, from the AI standpoint, because I think, and, and it’s interesting that you hear that you talk about AI governance, because I think even when you kind of connect the dots between that and some of the automation that the, the, um, AI can kind of bring to the table, like we see a lot of the use of, um, or an increasing use of AI agents to be able to do some of those manual tasks.

And actually, The governance piece plays a big role there, because actually now you need to kind of understand what’s actually happening at the agent level to be able to do some of those manual tasks. And how do you actually ensure that the outcome is good, right? Like, as in, because it’s happening at scale in some cases, and being able to have some kind of confidence that it’s being that it’s happening correctly is also is also an interesting area.

So, I think it will definitely be an interesting area to watch this series to see how that how that unfolds.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah. And I think to your point, you know, the, the, uh, The job that an analyst does fascinates me, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s not black and white always. And it’s a judgment call. And I think that’s where it will be fascinating to see, you know, how that AI sits alongside that, you know, I think where it immediately is bringing in efficiencies is certainly to your point around really quickly reducing the manual effort involved.

And then, you know, um, I sort of tend to err on the positive side of thinking that, well, if we can reduce down that manual effort, if you look at compliance over the years, it’s been extremely sort of manual in terms of all the checking, et cetera. Um, and, and, you know, these, these teams, you know, have had to sort of really spend lots of time doing those manual checks if they can then be sort of.

You know, spend more of their time on the higher risk work, you know, then, you know, I think, I think it’s going to be interesting to see how that develops out. And also again, you know, to the, um, interest for them of the work that they’re doing. I think, you know, we could actually end up seeing actually a honing of the work and the role that they’re performing within the firm.

And that, that provides opportunity for them to develop in other ways that they might not be able to, if they’re performing all these manual tasks as they might be today.

Bim Dave: Yeah, so, so true. I was, I was reading something recently where, um, they were describing kind of this, the, the kind of concept of an AI agent really being seen as a helper, an employee that you still need to manage, right? You still need a human to manage the employees. You still need to coach them. You still need to kind of, um, nurture them.

You still need to be able to make sure that they’re delivering to the right level of standards. So, nothing like that. So fundamentally nothing changes in terms of your. approach to managing those things. So the only difference is instead of educating them through, you know, um, your one to ones, you’re actually building out new prompts or you’re refining the way, um, that the models are working.

And, and I think it’s, it’s actually quite an interesting space because I think the people that are playing some of these roles at the moment will, Actually get exposed to some of the stuff where they become a little bit more of a hybrid role, right? Where they’re actually kind of stepping into the technology space and actually doing some of that education through, you know, prompt engineering or other ways of being able to train these agents.

So, yeah, very, very exciting times ahead. I think.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: I like the way you articulate that of sort of aiding and prompting as opposed to taking that decision making completely away. And I think that’s, you know, it’s going to be interesting. I think that would be, uh, yeah, fantastic to see. And certainly as having managed teams for many years, I think that, you know, um, where you do want to sort of, uh, lead those teams and make sure that they’re finding their roles interesting and, you know, that they, um, can, you know, You know, get involved in doing new things, different things in a different way.

And it does mean that we all have to be very open to sort of change and all of those things. But, um, yeah, it’s going to be interesting where that goes over the, over the next few years. Indeed.

Bim Dave: Great, great. so from a, from a product, um, perspective, is there anything you can share in terms of Intapp’s product vision, um, going forward and what customers can expect?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, I know that I touched on some of this earlier in a conversation, but I think, you know, the really our innovation in the cloud is exciting. The application of AI, we are working very actively with our clients to take feedback and where we might actually apply that AI. And I think that’s, again, it’s great that We are involved in our clients as part of that conversation because it.

You know, I think that there’s been a lot of talk about AI over the last, you know, year or so, but it’s sort of can be very theoretical and conceptual. Um, what, what is exciting is that we’re working with clients to actually understand, you know, day to day real life examples of where we can apply AI to make a big difference, you know, decision making, helping to improve the way people are working.

Helping to improve it quickly. We can move things through the process with them. So again, having had the experience that we have had with the application of AI in terms and conflicts and then to be able to Expand that within those products, but then to also Um, you know sort of bring that across our other solutions.

I think that’s going to be really exciting and again Um, I think we’re in a very sort of good position to be able to do that and support our clients across financial services and professional services Um, so I think that for me is is going to be interesting and again Bim, I mentioned things like, you know, an improvement to the, the UI.

Uh, so the interaction with the system, I think, is also, um, a very exciting, um, area that we continue to focus on, um, and the integrations then between solutions. So again, it’s that seamless handoff. Um, an interaction between, uh, the products themselves and within the products.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, it sounds like there’s a lot of fun stuff ahead. Intapp’s going to be busy. You’re going to be busy. So good, good to hear.

So,

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Yeah, I do a lot of work directly with our product team. So, it’s,

Bim Dave: Yes,

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: it’s nice to kind of, um, you know, work with the clients directly, but also to, um, be discussing the, the developments that we see coming through our solutions directly with the product team.

Bim Dave: indeed, indeed. So, um, I want to just move to some wrap up questions, if I may. The first of which being, if you could borrow Doctor Who’s time machine and go back to MC at 18 years old, what advice would you give her?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Wow. That’s a great question. I guess I’d say to the question.

Bim Dave: It’s a big, it’s a big one. It’s a big one. Right. Um, yeah, you, you have, you have one, one moment to change the trajectory of your life.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: I wouldn’t do it differently. Um, okay. Well, maybe, maybe I say that, you know, um, I guess just trust the process. Uh, and also just, I mean, I have had so, so much fun along the way. I have built a function from the ground up with a PowerPoint deck. I have, uh, you know, worked in a global firm and been able to, uh, you know, lead, um, you know, fantastic people.

Um, so there’s not much else I would actually change. I love working in Intapp. It’s a fantastic organization and, you know, working with, uh, individuals like yourself. Uh, um, so there’s not, there’s definitely not much I would change. What I would say is probably. 18-year-old me, I would say, um, with AI and everything that’s coming in the future, super excited.

And, uh, you know, I think that’s, that’s kind of like you, you, you, when, when I was 18, I wouldn’t believe that, that I’d be sat where I am now looking at AI and how we’re, we’re kind of developing, um, and, and how we’re going to be able to work in the future.

Bim Dave: Excellent. That’s good. And I, I like to trust the process. That’s, that’s a good, a good, a good, a good takeaway. Good takeaway. Um, and just, just finally, I’ve realized that, um, these wrap up questions are actually very helpful for me to build my travel bucket list. So, I’d love to learn from you as to where, where would you.

What, what, what place have you visited that you would recommend someone else visit that may not be one of the obvious places?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Wow, that is a good question. Now, I’ve been to Chicago many times and I have to say that is one of my favorites. So, if you’ve never been, then get yourself over to Chicago. It is super. Um, I, Hong Kong, I think I’d like to go there again. I would like to get over, yeah, to Hong Kong again, spend a bit more time there.

I’ve spent a lot of time work traveling and sort of passing through airports. I’m not sure if you’re the same, but I, I kind of want to make sure that some of the places that I have. Not managed to stop off, uh, in that I get a bit more time to explore. So, um, Hong Kong, but I also, um, a random one would like to make it at some point to the Nordic region and sort of experience, yeah, that, that whole, um, that whole piece of the snow.

So, yeah, maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, uh, that, that, that want to experience some sun, but that’s definitely on my list.

Bim Dave: Absolutely. And, and for me, actually, one of the places that I really want to spend some time, um, visiting is Ireland actually, because I’ve been, I’m obsessed with bad sisters. I don’t know if you’ve seen that haven’t yet, but it’s on my list.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: So, yeah. It’s so, it’s so good. I highly, highly recommend it. Um, but some of the scenery, uh, that you see there is, is

Bim Dave: Amazing. So, um,

So yeah, would love, I have spent a lot of time in the West of Ireland, so you’re, you’re, welcome anytime you’ll have to stop in and say hello.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, MC, in terms of book recommendations, do you have any recommendations that you would have for the audience?

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: I would recommend, I, I follow, uh, Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind. And I know that Richard has a new book coming out. I’m, uh, anticipating that. That’s in March, uh, regarding, um, AI. Um, I think beyond that, I always like to read the Bresler Risk blog. Um, and there’s, as I mentioned earlier, there’s, um, much thought leadership that we put out, you know, via the Intapp website.

Um, and I am also happy for anyone to reach out to me directly on LinkedIn.

Bim Dave: Fantastic. Thank you. Well, MC, that brings us to the end of our session. I just want to say a big thank you. Um, this has been great. This is our first of 2025. Um, so happy new year to all the listeners and thank you for sharing so much with the audience. It’s been really insightful.

Marie-Claire Le Houerou: Thanks for having me, Bim

Bim Dave: fantastic. Thank you.

Conclusion

Marie-Claire shared the following resources and recommendations inspired by the topics discussed during the podcast:

Books

Richard Susskind?? Stay tuned for the release of Richard?s new book on AI, expected in March 2025.