Elizabeth Basten shares how being UK-based has aided Clarilis' success.

Clarilis is a UK-based legaltech firm that helps law firms and in-house legal teams automate complex legal document suites. Based in Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, Clarilis works with 30 of the top 100 UK law firms and has growing numbers of customers around the world. These customers use the Clarilis platform and team of professional support lawyers who work directly with them, on a peer-to-peer basis.

We spoke to Elizabeth Basten, chief marketing officer at Clarilis, about the company's international growth plans and how being UK-based has aided its success.

What does your company do?

Clarilis is a legaltech business. The Clarilis tech platform, developed over time, underpins our team of professional support lawyers (PSLs) who work with our customers throughout the relationship with Clarilis. We offer a ‘peer to peer’ service in that sense. This is designed to deliver deep structured automation of multiple documents connected with complex matters.

Our customers use us to avoid wasting time and resource on inefficient drafting. They also look to gain competitive advantage by differentiating themselves with greater agility and speed.

We were founded seven years ago and two of our key founders are brothers from the West Midlands, one of whom is an experienced lawyer and the other an experienced tech genius!

We got our second round of funding last year so effectively we have moved from start-up to scale-up as our investors have seen the potential in what we do and want to support us reaching a wider audience, more quickly.

In terms of talent, the Birmingham-based Silicon canal area is rife. There is a real high quality of talent based in the Midlands and there are quite a lot of tech hubs from fintech through to legaltech around here too.

Tell us about your UK and global operations.

We are based in Leamington in the UK and we encourage local talent to come forward and work with us. But it doesn't really matter where you are, we are keen to promote the fact that flexible working is very important and we strive to be an inclusive and diverse employer. I myself have joined the board as a part-time working mother and have found that in the Midlands there is an abundance of tech firms who embrace flexible working and a ‘location agnostic’ approach. This has proved particularly helpful during the pandemic, when it comes to adaptability!

In all, there are just over fifty of us. We also have an office in Singapore and are planning our expansion into wider global markets.

The UK has a strong (and well deserved) reputation when it comes to best practice and setting the bar and that stands Clarilis in good stead when introducing ourselves on an international stage. The UK legaltech sector in particular, is often referred to as ahead of the field internationally.

What are the benefits of being UK based?

The UK has a strong (and well deserved) reputation when it comes to best practice and setting the bar and that stands Clarilis in good stead when introducing ourselves on an international stage. The UK legaltech sector in particular, is often referred to as ahead of the field internationally. That alone opens up conversations for Clarilis as a UK-based organisation in places like Canada, the US and southeast Asia who see successful pioneers that have already proven the business benefits of deep automation, can foresee the challenges they may face – and help them overcome them. This builds trust. It also helps create some healthy competitive tension!

Professional services markets are heavily regulated and quite rightly so. It is vital to have trust and use the trust placed in us by our customers already - that has paid off in so many ways, and inspires others. For Clarilis in particular, that has been particularly significant in terms of their growth.

What are your company's growth ambitions and how does the UK feature in these?

Tech is a great leveller. It allows mid-tier firms to compete with larger firms, with deeper pockets. This is universally attractive. We want to continue our growth trajectory in the UK and overseas. From the heart of the UK, what we do as a tech community is too good not to share.