Case study
Alliance Pharma transforms legal operations with HighQ
Alliance Pharma streamlines contracts, accelerates IP oversight, and saves hundreds of lawyer hours through automation and data visibility
Executive summary
Alliance Pharma has transformed its legal operations with Thomson Reuters HighQ — a powerful, integrated platform that streamlines processes and empowers commercial teams. Serving over 100 countries, the international consumer health care business leverages HighQ for end-to-end contract management, real-time intellectual property (IP) oversight, and accelerated trademark renewals. In its first year, HighQ delivered dramatic efficiency gains — hundreds of lawyer hours saved, NDAs completed in minutes instead of days, and trademark renewals reduced from months to weeks.
275
Lawyer time saved on NDAs in first year
< 4 minutes
NDA signing time reduced below four minutes
3 weeks
Trademark renewals timeline reduced
The opportunity: Creating transparency over contracts and IP
Operating on a distribution model, Alliance Pharma relies particularly heavily on contracts with third parties. With its previous standard file drive structure, visibility over contracts was limited, so deadlines — such as for pricing renewals or contract expiries — were prone to getting missed. It was impossible for the legal team to take a proactive approach to contract management.
Because intellectual property (IP) and trademark data were managed by external lawyers, Alliance Pharma lacked access to insights about its own IP portfolio. Meanwhile, the annual trademark renewal process was time-consuming and an inefficient use of legal resources.
“Our commercial teams are infinitely happier since adopting HighQ. No waiting — just click to create or view a contract, and they receive instant updates.”
Max Freeman‑Inglis
Legal Operations Manager, Alliance Pharma Ltd
The solution: Enhancing legal controls and empowering commercial units
Alliance envisioned a comprehensive, cradle-to-grave contract management system powered by HighQ — automating every stage from drafting to signature and beyond. The platform would deliver actionable, transparent data, enable self-service agreement generation, and revolutionise IP visibility and trademark renewals.
HighQ’s holistic, integrated design combines Contract Express for document automation, DocuSign for seamless execution, and AI capabilities via CoCounsel — all within a single, intuitive platform. Its logic-based, no-code framework empowers users to build sophisticated solutions without IT support.
“Being able to build a Thomson Reuters tech stack was a huge attraction for us. It’s such a trusted brand within the legal sphere. ... I’d recommend HighQ one hundred percent.”
Max Freeman‑Inglis
Legal Operations Manager, Alliance Pharma Ltd
The outcome: Rapid document creation and comprehensive contract management
The result is a transparent, highly streamlined contract management system that empowers both legal and commercial teams. Lawyers can act proactively, while business users confidently generate compliant agreements — turning contracts into strategic assets rather than administrative burdens.
“There has been a big switch because now when our commercial teams look at their contracts, they don’t see them as a legal document they have to get signed; they see them as a commercial tool from which they can leverage better deals. We have turned contracts into usable data for the business,” explains Freeman-Inglis.
Once an agreement has been signed, document data is automatically collected into a central database, and reminders are created to prompt the relevant people about renewals, price increases, or marketing opportunities at the right time. “All these data points are not just visible: they’re interactive,” he says.
Having started out using HighQ primarily for sales and manufacturing contracts, Alliance moved on to using it for other agreements such as service or distribution agreements and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). With the ability to fully automate contracts from drafting through to signature, the process of completing NDAs alone has saved an estimated 275 hours of lawyer time in the first year. NDAs can be signed off in as little as four minutes after they are created, rather than taking around three days, as was the case previously.
“As a lawyer, I used to spend upwards of ten hours a week looking at NDAs: now we just don’t see them anymore,” says Freeman-Inglis. “The commercial team likes that they can draft NDAs without even speaking to lawyers. Our lawyers are completely uninvolved with the process, because it's compliant by design. The legal team has never had stronger compliance controls, and the commercial team has never felt more empowered. So, we're striking a nice balance.”
Gaining oversight into IP and streamlining trademark renewals
Alliance Pharma can now easily gain valuable insights into its IP portfolio via HighQ. Historically, every time someone in the business wanted to know something about IP, they had to ask their external trademark and patent lawyers. “Those third parties effectively had the ‘corporate memory.’ That needed to change, as business becomes increasingly data-driven,” Freeman-Inglis says. “Now we can see if a law firm isn’t performing, and we’ve got the agility to either push to get more value out of them or move to a different firm quickly and easily.”
The company has just completed an integration with CoCounsel to create even clearer insights into the portfolio, powered by AI. Freeman-Inglis says, “The CoCounsel integration didn't require any IT involvement: it's idiot proof. We can mirror the permission structures and integrate our contracts with our intellectual property in one place and make sure that everything's matching. Having it all in a single database makes it a very powerful set of data.”
Trademark renewals are now fully automated through a self-service portal, eliminating manual email chains and spreadsheet tracking. Stakeholders upload data directly, while templated sites and automated workflows ensure speed, accuracy, and efficiency — freeing lawyers from time-consuming admin tasks.
This automated approach is not only faster but far more reliable. Building the site takes just three hours annually, and the entire renewals process is completed in three weeks — compared to the previous three-to-four-month timeline.
For Freeman-Inglis, HighQ is synonymous with empowerment and accountability. By automating repetitive tasks and improving access to usable data, the platform frees staff to focus on high-value work, fosters flexibility, and ensures the business is AI-ready — positioning Alliance Pharma at the forefront of digital transformation.
Freeman-Inglis notes, “Our commercial teams are infinitely happier with the legal service since adopting HighQ. No waiting — just click to create or view a contract and they receive instant updates. Lawyers are now proactive partners in deals, delivering real solutions instead of drowning in admin.”
At a glance
Industry
Health care
HQ region
Chippenham, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Solutions
HighQ
Year founded
1996
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Discover how Alliance Pharma accelerated contract creation, automated trademark renewals, and gained real‑time IP visibility with HighQ.
