Norton Rose Fulbright wins innovation award for N-Accelerate

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has been awarded ‘Best of Legal 2021 - Technology and data management’ at the WirtschaftsWoche Best of Legal Awards 2021.

The annual awards, hosted by German business news magazine WirtschaftsWoche and supported by the Handelsblatt Research Institute, recognize innovation in the German legal industry.

Norton Rose Fulbright won the ‘Technology and data management’ for its product N-Accelerate, created in-house. N-Accelerate is designed to automate large volumes of complex documents in a fast, secure and cost efficient way and improve workflow efficiency.

Document types include Loan Market Association (LMA) templates for banking transactions, legal opinions, sale and purchase agreements for M&A and aviation transactions, distribution agreements in the insurance sector as well as debt and equity capital markets documents. 

With N-Accelerate, highly complex documents can be produced accurately in minutes rather than days with new precedents rapidly created. Documentation results are presented in real-time on interactive user-friendly data visualisation dashboards. 

N-Accelerate is a key offering from Norton Rose Fulbright’s global change and innovation program - NRF Transform - which aims to change how the firm works internally and with clients, driving effectiveness in the deployment of people, processes and technology. 

Bernhard Fiedler, the Frankfurt-based banking and finance partner who led the development of N-Accelerate, said:

“Through NRF Transform, we aim to provide effective solutions to client’s most pressing business needs and to deliver services in a more effective way, leveraging people, processes and technology. N-Accelerate automates some of the most time-consuming aspects of complex transactional document production ensuring services are delivered in a more efficient and accurate way.”

The cross-border, multidisciplinary team that worked with Bernhard Fiedler included associate Mid-Eum Joo (Frankfurt), NRF Transform senior manager and head of document automation (EMEA) Helen Hannon (London), and trainee Fabienne Pollmeier (Frankfurt). Oliver Sutter, head of the firm’s German banking team, is the overall sponsor of the initiative.