It had to be powerful, and it had to be fast

When operating in 40+ countries with 25,000+ employees, legal couldn’t afford to function as an assembly line or risk being seen as a business blocker. That was the reality facing the Legal and Risk Optimization (LRO) team at Analog Devices (ADI), a Fortune 500 global semiconductor company. At the center of some of the organization’s most critical business operations, the LRO team was responsible for everything from compliance and contracts to audit, risk, and trade.

But as the company grew, so did the demand on legal’s time and resources. With no headcount increases planned, the team needed a smarter way to scale—and fast. Instead, they found themselves overwhelmed with routine requests. Senior legal professionals were tied up generating NDAs and answering FAQs, while business users struggled to find the support they needed. Triaging and routing requests only added to the workload, and without consistent reporting, proving legal’s impact to executives wasn’t easy.

Legal was inundated with repetitive requests, business users were spending more time searching for support than solving issues, and one question loomed large: if the business continued at this pace, how was legal ever going to keep up?

Start Simple and Run with It  

Once they started to look for an answer, there was only one way to go: ADI would have to modernize how legal work gets done. Inevitably, AI came up in the discussion. But the goal wasn’t just automation, so any AI use would have to be intentional. And more than that: the LRO team needed to transform service delivery from the ground up. Their search for a solution brought them to Checkbox to lay that foundation.  

The team has launched their very own intake chatbot, aptly known across ADI as “Ask LRO.” It has given employees a legal front door: one central place to go with legal questions or requests that could help triage and guide those queries to the right knowledge base or contact. Whether it was a conflict-of-interest form, onboarding checklist, or matter change request, the team built and deployed the tools they needed. Even better: they could implement and update without waiting on IT or looping in a vendor.  

That made their change management process move more quickly. With any necessary changes in legal’s control, everything else started getting easier too.

“Lawyers are some of the most expensive professionals. You don’t want them answering FAQs or negotiating low-value contracts. You want them guiding the business on strategic topics.”

Janene Asgeirsson

Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Analog Devices

Legal Setting the Standard for Transformation

For ADI, the shift was transformative.

When the legal chatbot debuted at ADI’s company-wide engineering conference, LRO’s Senior Director, Nikki Rahimzadeh, said the app was “a huge success”. Teams across the business, like engineering, saw how easy it was to get help with things like filing patent requests or finding the right committees, helping them move work forward without legal delays. And they were looking forward to using it again.

The impact went beyond efficiency. Legal started earning visibility and credibility.

Colleagues weren’t just clicking through a tool. They were experiencing a new kind of legal: accessible, responsive, and aligned with the business.

The question of keeping up? Not a problem anymore. Now, legal was setting the pace. And setting the standard for other departments to follow.

“People used to ask, ‘What does legal actually do?’ Now they’re seeing the impact and asking how they can build what we built.”

Nikki Rahimzadeh

Senior Director of Legal and Risk Operations & Strategy at Analog Devices

Legal as a True Business Partner

ADI’s legal transformation only started with a few workflows, but the LRO team has an even bolder future in mind.

With dozens of automations live and Ask LRO gaining traction across the business, the LRO team is focused on what their modernization can revolutionize next:

• Faster deal velocity

• Proactive compliance

• Real-time data and reporting across legal touchpoints

And they’re doing it without IT overhead or complex rollout plans. Every new workflow is built, launched, and iterated by the legal team: on their terms, at their pace.

The result? Legal is no longer an FAQ assembly line or seen as business blocker.

It’s a team that removes friction instead of adding it and a partner that accelerates outcomes, not costs.

The team at Analog Devices is also looking to expand their use of Checkbox to other areas of legal, one of the main ones being NDA automation. As one of the most common, repetitive requests across the business, it makes a perfect, low-risk, high-impact starting point. The LRO team has been working with Checkbox to build a self-service NDA workflow. Once launched, it will route contracts, flag risks, and collect signatures without legal needing to lift a finger.

For ADI, the future of legal is about leading the way. And they’re off to a strong start.

“We’re not here to check boxes. We’re here to protect the business, guide smart risk-taking, and accelerate growth. Tools like Checkbox make that possible."

Janene Asgeirsson

Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Analog Devices