There has been a lot of talk lately about the changes facing the legal services industry. In Finland, both the Talouselämä and Kauppalehti newspapers have run articles about how artificial intelligence will take over a major part of the time-consuming, routine work that currently takes up a great deal of a lawyer’s daily workload. We, too, are piloting artificial intelligence at Castrén & Snellman this summer.
31.5.2017
Quality Contracts Faster than Ever – Kicking Our Services into High Gear with Automation
Carola Lindholm & Paula Aura
Related services
Our review of AIs led us to the conclusion that the credible AI applications currently available for our field still have a long way to go from the perspective of providing our clients with efficiency benefits. The technology as it stands today still requires a great deal of manual work by lawyers. Many firms have opted to wait and see how this technology develops.
The discussions we have with our clients have made it clear that the demand for efficiency and new ways of working is already here. We also looked into other options and found that document automation has a great deal of potential across our firm. We piloted automation in our M&A service, and the early results impressed us even with our already high expectations. Following this rapid pilot stage, the automation tool has been widely adopted in our other services.
Skipping to Added-Value Work
Clients are less and less willing to pay law firms for routine work, and instead expect high-quality, added-value legal services to support their own operations.
Our M&A team drafts a wide range of legal documents for our clients, such as sale and purchase and other transaction agreements, due diligence reports and corporate minutes. Producing these documents has traditionally started with a laborious drafting stage that involves a great deal of routine work. For example, drafting a sale and purchase agreement involves choosing whether the agreement is for the buyer or the seller, what the purchase price mechanism will be, what representations and warranties the seller is willing to give and so on. These kinds of individual choices affect the form and contents of the entire document. Language and content review has also required a lot of work, particularly from younger lawyers.
These kinds of choices are exactly what the automation tool automates. In practice, it works by having the lawyer fill out a short questionnaire based on which the system produces a template that is as close to ready as possible. Thanks to careful coding and testing by our lawyers, this kind of automation works not just for simple documents, but equally well for complex agreements that can have as many as 30–40 variants.
Handling such extensive variables manually always involves the risk of human error. Automation helps reduce these risks while saving time: in our timed tests, we were able to produce the first draft of a sale and purchase agreement in half the time as before. Automation allows us to skip more quickly and cost-effectively to the stage of the project that produces the most benefits for our clients.
Up-to-Date Model Documents Are the Foundation for Automation
Given all of the above, why is document automation still relatively rare in the Nordic countries? We think that one of the main reasons besides the required investment is that firms haven’t done enough ground work.
We have invested a great deal of time in creating and developing high-quality model documents long before beginning the automation process. For us, this work and the up-to-date models it has produced have been an essential factor in successful automation.
The results and experience we have gained have been so impressive that we are even discussing how we could help our clients adopt similar systems to automate their own documents. The demand is clearly there, and we are ready and willing to take this step with our clients.
Latest insights
Article published 17.10.2025 – Intellectual Property
Is your IP safe? Eight real-life tips to avoid costly mistakes
Article published 9.7.2025 – FDI Regulatory Service
Defence sector investments and acquisitions – key facts about the Finnish FDI regulation
Article published 25.3.2025 – Private M&A
How to successfully run a large-scale cross-border M&A project?
Article published 10.3.2025 – Private M&A
Navigating uncharted waters: M&A and defence tech in the age of geopolitical uncertainty
Lauri Laatunen & Janne Koivisto
Kiti Karvinen & Markus Rahnu
Carola Lindholm & Samuli Tarkiainen
Markus Rahnu
Latest references
Taaleri – Acquisition of a majority stake in Nordic Science Investments
We are acting as legal adviser to Taaleri Plc on its acquisition of a 51 per cent ownership stake in Nordic Science Investments Oy (NSI), marking Taaleri’s expansion into deeptech-driven venture capital. Through the transaction, Taaleri broadens its private equity offering into early-stage venture capital funds as well as the commercialisation and scaling of research-driven innovations. NSI is a Finnish venture capital fund manager operating across the Nordic and Baltic regions, focusing on early-stage investments in research- and science-based technologies. Its portfolio companies develop, among other things, health technologies, life sciences, advanced materials and AI-driven solutions. In addition to providing growth capital, NSI supports spin-out companies with strategic guidance, access to networks and assistance in building teams during the early phases of business development. NSI’s first fund, the EUR 45 million NSI Nordic Science I Ky, was established in 2024 and has to date invested in 22 early-stage companies in Finland, Sweden and the Baltic countries. Taaleri is a specialist in investments, private asset management and non-life insurance, with a strong position in renewable energy, bioindustry and housing investments as well as credit risk insurance. Taaleri has EUR 2.7 billion of assets under management in its private equity funds, co-investments and single-asset vehicles, employs approximately 130 people and is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. The founders of NSI will continue in their operational roles following the transaction. The completion of the transaction is subject to approval by the FIN-FSA.
Case published 13.4.2026
Downing – Acquisition of the entire share capital of Tornionlaakson Voima
We advised UK-based investment company Downing in its acquisition of the entire share capital of Tornionlaakson Voima Oy. Tornionlaakson Voima owns three hydropower plants in the Tengeliönjoki river system – the Portimokoski power plants in Ylitornio, the Jolmankoski power plants in Raanujärvi and the Kaaranneskoski power plants in Sirkkakoski. The power plants produce a total of approx. 45 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. Tornionlaakson Voima’s daily operations will continue normally, and the transaction will not affect customers. The consummation of the transaction is subject to the approval of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Downing has over 35 years’ experience in providing a wide range of investment solutions to the needs of institutional investors, advisers and retail investors. The company manages over £2 billion in assets in both the private and public markets and its current hydro power portfolio includes approx. 50 hydro power plants in the Nordics.
Case published 27.3.2026
Jensen-Group – Acquisition of Vestek
We advised Jensen-Group with its acquisition of Oy Vestek Ab, the long-standing distributor of Jensen solutions in Finland. The strategic step underlines Jensen-Group’s long-term commitment to the Nordic region and its ambition to further expand sustainable and future-oriented laundry automation solutions in Finland. Jensen-Group, listed on Euronext Brussels, is a global leader in heavy‑duty laundry technology, known for designing and manufacturing industrial laundry machines, systems, and turnkey automation solutions. Oy Vestek Ab is a Finnish import company founded in 1961. The company’s main activity is to import supplies and machinery, including providing products and services for the health care and laundry industries, from Europe and the USA and to act as a wholesale dealer on the Finnish market.
Case published 16.3.2026
CapMan Growth – Investment in Kuntokeskus Liikku
We are assisting CapMan Growth in its significant investment in Kuntokeskus Liikku, a Finnish gym chain known for its high-quality self-service facilities and excellent value for money. The investment will further strengthen Liikku’s position as a market leader and support the continued execution of its growth strategy. Liikku is one of Finland’s leading fitness chains, with more than 70 locations across the country serving nearly 90,000 members. The company’s concept is to offer high-quality self-service gyms at an exceptionally competitive price point which, combined with strong operational efficiency, provides a solid foundation for profitable growth. The company’s main shareholder is COR Group, a long-time partner of CapMan Growth, and a Finnish health and wellness conglomerate known for active ownership and long-term value creation. CapMan Growth is a leading Finnish growth investor that makes significant investments in entrepreneur-led growth companies with a turnover of €10–200 million. CapMan Growth is part of CapMan, which is a leading Nordic private equity investor engaged in active value creation work. CapMan has been listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange since 2001.
Case published 27.2.2026