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An Outdoor Products Brand Cuts Contract Cycle Times 52% and Scales Legal Operations for Global Expansion with Leah

An outdoor products brand, a premium outdoor consumer products company, faced mounting operational pressures as aggressive international expansion and recent acquisitions dramatically increased contract volume and complexity. The legal team managed diverse agreement types spanning NDAs, licensing, production, transportation, services, and sponsorships across departments including procurement, finance, sales, IT, and supply chain.

An Outdoor Products Brand Cuts Contract Cycle Times 52% and Scales Legal Operations for Global Expansion with Leah
Challenges
10,000+ contracts

Active and inactive agreements requiring centralized management across multiple business entities

400+ business users

Distributed workforce across US, UK, Europe, and Asia requiring coordinated contract operations

Doubled in size

Recent acquisition integration adding operational complexity and multi-entity contract requirements

Our contract volume is consistently high, creating pressure to speed up review processes and become more responsive in supporting business operations.

Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, An Outdoor Products Brand

Challenge

An outdoor products brand, a premium outdoor consumer products company, faced mounting operational pressures as aggressive international expansion and recent acquisitions dramatically increased contract volume and complexity. The legal team managed diverse agreement types spanning NDAs, licensing, production, transportation, services, and sponsorships across departments including procurement, finance, sales, IT, and supply chain.

Manual redlining processes consumed excessive time, particularly challenging when reviewing unfamiliar third-party contract formats. The team operated without documented playbooks, relying entirely on institutional knowledge with only outdated spreadsheets for clause standardization. As the business pushed into new international markets across Europe and Asia, the legal department needed to create region-specific templates and compliance frameworks while maintaining quality standards.

The organization required dramatically accelerated review cycles to support international expansion timeline pressures while managing complex multi-entity contract structures with region-specific legal preferences for Texas, England and Wales, and Netherlands jurisdictions.

Solution Search

An outdoor products brand selected Leah comprehensive CLM platform for its sophisticated workflow automation capabilities, extensive customization flexibility, and ability to scale across their global operations. The solution provides centralized contract repository management supporting 10,000+ agreements with advanced search and retrieval capabilities across multiple contract types and business entities.

Key platform capabilities include:

Workflow Automation and Approval Routing: Configurable approval processes based on legal entities, geographic conditions, and business requirements, enabling department-specific workflows while maintaining governance controls. The system supports complex conditional logic for routing contracts through appropriate stakeholders based on contract type, value, and organizational rules.

Electronic Signature Integration: Seamless DocuSign integration enabling efficient contract execution without manual coordination, supporting both simple and complex signing workflows across internal and external parties.

Template Management and Configuration: Centralized template library with version control and customization capabilities, allowing the legal team to maintain standardized agreements while accommodating business-specific requirements and regional variations.

Reporting and Analytics: Comprehensive reporting capabilities providing visibility into contract status, approval bottlenecks, cycle times, and departmental performance metrics, enabling data-driven process optimization.

Multi-Entity Support: Platform architecture designed to handle complex organizational structures with multiple legal entities, supporting the company's distributed operations across US, UK, European, and Asian entities with appropriate legal jurisdiction configurations.

We enjoy our ability to put our own workflows into the process and customize them for different business needs.

Senior Legal Operations and Litigation Manager, An Outdoor Products Brand

Implementation

An outdoor products brand's implementation journey reflects a strategic, phased approach to CLM adoption across their 400+ user organization. The legal team established a comprehensive deployment plan coordinating across departments, business entities, and geographic regions to ensure smooth organizational adoption.

The implementation included extensive workflow configuration to support the company's complex approval requirements, custom field development for business-specific metadata tracking, and DocuSign integration configuration for electronic signature workflows. Leah customer success team provided hands-on training for legal administrators, contract specialists, and business users, enabling rapid skill development even for team members without prior CLM experience.

"After initial setup with our project manager, we developed the knowledge to copy what works, tweak configurations, and manage changes independently."

— Senior Legal Operations and Litigation Manager, the company

A critical mid-implementation initiative involved strategic workflow consolidation to reduce long-term maintenance overhead. The team combined multiple application types under broader categories, streamlining system administration while maintaining business process integrity. This architectural optimization demonstrated sophisticated platform thinking and commitment to sustainable operations.

Leah provided comprehensive support throughout implementation phases, including weekly configuration sessions, detailed training resources, and responsive technical assistance. The partnership approach enabled the company's team to develop deep platform expertise and achieve operational self-sufficiency, managing day-to-day operations and business changes independently.

Outcome

52% reduction

Sponsorship agreement cycle times decreased from 25 days to 13 days year-over-year

Zero proportional headcount increases

Scaled legal operations to support business growth without adding staff in proportion to volume

3-year renewal commitment

Immediate agreement to extend partnership reflecting strong satisfaction and value recognition

An outdoor products brand achieved dramatic operational improvements through their Leah implementation, fundamentally transforming how the legal department supports business growth. The 52% reduction in sponsorship agreement cycle times demonstrates quantifiable efficiency gains, enabling faster business execution while maintaining quality standards and compliance requirements.

The platform enabled the company to successfully integrate their Montana-based acquisition, managing new entity contracts and workflows without external consulting support. This organizational self-sufficiency represents successful knowledge transfer and platform maturity, with the legal team confidently handling business changes independently.

"We're committed to Leah for the long term, confirming our three-year renewal without hesitation."

— Senior Legal Operations and Litigation Manager, the company

Strong DocuSign integration has streamlined contract execution across the majority of the company's agreements, eliminating manual coordination and accelerating closing timelines. The electronic signature workflow supports both simple and complex signing scenarios, providing business users with seamless execution capabilities.

The implementation has fundamentally changed how the company approaches international expansion, with the legal team now positioned to rapidly create region-specific templates and compliance frameworks supporting aggressive market entry timelines. Platform flexibility enables them to adapt to new regulatory requirements and business models without extensive system reconfiguration.

Organizational adoption reflects deep platform integration, with 400+ business users across departments actively managing contract workflows. The team has invested in dedicated CLM administration resources specifically to support continued platform optimization and user enablement, demonstrating recognition of strategic system value.

"We don't want to go to a new CLM platform. We'd rather improve the tool we have and solve these workflow challenges."

— Senior Contract Manager, the company

Looking forward, the company continues expanding their Leah capabilities to support next-generation requirements. The legal team is actively evaluating AI-powered contract analysis to further accelerate review cycles and enhance international expansion support, building on their successful CLM foundation to drive continued operational transformation.

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