Medical Device Manufacturing
Align Technology Levels Up Legal
Ansel Halliburton
Counsel, Trademarks & Legal Ops at Align Technology
Customer story
Align Technology is a global medical device company that is changing lives through better smiles. They reimagine and reinvent the way orthodontic and restorative treatment is presented and delivered to millions of people around the world through their Invisalign & iTero products.
Legal
DEPARTMENT
20,000
COMPANY size
85+
LEGAL TEAM size
The Challenge
The challenge
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.
Customer perspective
“Checkbox gives me the freedom and flexibility to build creative solutions without becoming a bottleneck. I've gone from building everything myself to training new builders, advising on app designs, and pitching in on our more complex builds.”
1000
1000+ NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) generated globally per year
96
96% decrease in frequency of legal touchpoints
High NPS from business
High NPS from business users and global executive leadership
Outcomes
The outcomes
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:
| Outcome | Detail |
|---|---|
| NDAs Generated | 1000+ NDAs generated globally per year |
| Legal Touchpoint Reduction | 96% decrease in frequency of legal touchpoints |
| Business Satisfaction | High NPS from business users and global leadership |
| Rapid Turnaround | Drafted 400 NDAs in months; turnaround time reduced from weeks to days |
| Empowered Builders | Non-technical users independently built apps and accelerated delivery |
| Self-Sufficiency | Only 5–7% of NDAs required redlining outside the system |
| Global Collaboration | LATAM & EMEA liaisons use the same apps for greater cross-border visibility and alignment |
| Beyond Legal | Checkbox supports additional units including litigation, risk, and communications |
“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 communicationshighlighting its broader value across the enterprise.
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