Align Technology is a fast-moving company and was in search of a legal tech tool that would help bring them up to speed with the rest of their organization. At the time, the Align Technology team was working with contract lifecycle management (CLM) software that did not provide the metrics they were looking for, nor was it user-friendly — making it inaccessible to business users. With business users unable to self-serve, legal was regularly pulled away from higher-value work to provide manual support.

After performing a global assessment, the legal team identified one of the key issues: the need to give time back to lawyers so they could focus on strategic matters. Upon meeting with a legal consulting agency, the team concluded that low-code/no-code solutions were the best fit for their needs — and Checkbox emerged as the ideal tool.

The decision was driven by a few core challenges:

• A lack of usability and data in their existing CLM tool was slowing both legal and business operations
• Manual processes were putting pressure on legal teams already managing a high volume of work
• Access to IT resources was limited, creating a bottleneck for implementing new solutions

“It’s not going to be easy to retain talent if we’re not cutting edge and making the work easier,” said Julie Johnson, Senior Manager of Legal Ops at Align Technology. Low-code/no-code solutions presented an opportunity for Align not only to stay ahead of the curve but also to enable their legal team to build meaningful tools independently — without relying on overburdened technical teams.

Another major challenge was the user experience for internal stakeholders. Business users didn’t have the time or patience to wade through lengthy handbooks or convoluted processes just to get basic answers. This created a disconnect between the legal function and the rest of the business — and highlighted the need for more streamlined engagement.

As a result, the legal team set out to design a system that included:

• An automated intake and triage process for incoming legal requests
• A legal front door that routed business users to the right resources or tools
• A self-service portal with answers to common FAQs, reducing unnecessary legal touchpoints

The overall goal was to shift the legal department’s role away from repetitive support and toward higher-value, strategic contributions.

“We were in search of a tool that could be used as a portal so that business users could go in and self-manage their contracts from beginning to end, while providing the metrics they needed to do so,” said Johnson.

The Align Technology legal team decided that the best option was to adopt a no-code/low-code solution that anyone could use. "Our approach has been let's go for a no-code, low-code solution where our non-technical users, who are not coders, can build meaningful automation and tools with platforms like Checkbox," said Ansel Halliburton, Counsel, Trademarks & Legal Ops at Align Technology.

The main project that Align Technology deployed when first implementing Checkbox was non-disclosure agreement (NDA) automation. A non-technical user of Align Technology was able to build an NDA tool which has reduced the time it takes to process an NDA from weeks to a matter of a few days. The team at Align Technology has seen impressive results using the Checkbox platform, leaving them more time to focus on strategic, meaningful work that requires their legal expertise. For example, before Checkbox, the legal team had to have several touchpoints on their NDAs, but now, only between 5-7% of those contracts are going out of the system for redlines, which has streamlined in-house legal processes like never before.

“I like how simple and easy it is to build everything, it’s straightforward,” said Seren Chum, Senior Manager, Legal Contracts Operations at Align Technology. “The customer success team has also been great. They have been immensely helpful and very responsive, always following up to make sure I have everything I need for a project.”

Seren Chum

Senior Manager, Legal Contracts Operations at Align Technology

Align Technology was able to deploy automation solutions using Checkbox in just a matter of months, achieving impactful results across several legal processes — particularly through their automated intake and triage and NDA automation solution.

Within the first few months of rollout, the legal team:

“One of our non-technical users, with a non-technical background, was able to build an automated NDA tool which has reduced the time it takes for someone at Align to process an NDA from days or weeks into minutes,” said Julie Johnson.

This shift not only streamlined workflows but also freed up legal’s time to focus on more strategic and complex work — reinforcing their role as a high-value partner within the business.

Checkbox has not only streamlined how Align Technology’s legal team manages NDAs, but it has also empowered them to support global teams and divisions more effectively. Since adopting Checkbox, Align has experienced the cross-geographical value of the platform in facilitating collaboration and consistent workflows worldwide.

As a global company, having a standardized and efficient NDA process is critical. Checkbox enables international teams to:

• Share insights and perspectives on their respective work
• Identify common pain points across regions
• Build alignment through greater visibility and collaboration

The legal team has even established liaisons in LATAM and EMEA who can access and interact with the same applications, fostering transparency and stronger cross-border engagement.

“We have really been able to make this a global improvement process. We can share each other’s viewpoints and develop a deeper level of understanding than we could before. This is now a global improvement process rather than just a back and forth,” says Julie Johnson.

Additionally, the impact of Checkbox has extended beyond legal. The platform’s influence now spans other business units — including litigation, risk assessment, and communications — highlighting its broader value across the enterprise.

With legal innovation at the center of Align Technology’s legal department, continuously iterating on their current processes is also a top priority across the company. “We can be more of a shared service center or global governance center for more than just legal,” explained Johnson. The plan for Align Technology is to expand the impact of the legal department beyond just legal. With a forward-thinking team, and a drive to continue championing automation, the goal is to add as much value as possible to streamline business operations across the entire Align business.  

Continuing to scale their success, Align Technology is planning to deploy various other applications in the coming months. For example, they are currently working on deploying seven different workflows to help automate corporate security workflows. Additionally, the team is working on automating material contract evaluation, assisting business users to determine whether their contracts are subject to legal review instead of having to read lengthy documents of purchase requisition policy or contract policy, through answering a simple series of questions.