When Yext, a growing, cloud-based SaaS technology company, expanded into the European market, it needed legal support in numerous languages and jurisdictions. Axiom delivered a regional expertise solution to support their international growth.
Introduction
Yext is a fast-growing NYC-based technology company whose mission is to help businesses and organizations deliver official answers everywhere people search about them. Founded in 2006, the company's platform is trusted by leading brands around the world — from Krispy Kreme to the World Health Organization — to answer consumer questions on the brand's website, a third-party search engine, a voice assistant, a chatbot, or another digital platform.
Adrian Cox is Yext's Assistant General Counsel - International and a seasoned lawyer with over 15 years of international practice. His responsibilities include overseeing a variety of legal matters, including commercial contracts subject to a multitude of different governing laws, as well as complex issues relating to corporate compliance, data privacy, intellectual property, and regulatory law — in English, French, and German. He joined the company in 2017, shortly after it made its New York Stock Exchange debut. At such a major milestone in the company's history, Yext set its sights on expanding its European business rapidly. As Yext's lead lawyer in Europe, Adrian's mandate was to provide the legal support for this ambitious international expansion.
Although Adrian had not previously worked with Axiom, he knew of its reputation as a provider of innovative solutions that enabled in-house legal teams to access world-class talent on demand. He engaged Axiom to provide additional legal support so he could better accelerate Yext's international development. With Axiom, Yext had ready access to Axiom's wide range of regional resources that were not immediately available in-house — in particular, legal support in multiple languages.
Under Adrian's tenure, the Yext in-house legal team has gradually scaled up. They have worked closely with several Axiom lawyers who have provided much of the immediate legal support that Yext required across Europe to meet its ambitious goals.
Engagement overview
The challenge
Yext's Assistant General Counsel, Adrian Cox, required additional legal support on a number of high-priority projects. These included key short-term contracts in local languages, which were necessary to drive the company's expansion in several new territories.
The Axiom solution
The initial scope of the collaboration with Axiom focused on finding a lawyer to enable Yext to expand seamlessly into the German market. The lawyer had to be fluent in German, possess proven SaaS contracts expertise, and have an in-depth knowledge of German commercial law.
Based on the Axiom lawyer's success in the German market, Adrian asked the Axiom business team to increase its flexible legal support from one to three lawyers who could advise Yext on German, Italian, and Spanish contracts. To ensure successful engagements, Axiom worked closely with Adrian during the lawyer selection and onboarding process. In order to structure the individual engagements effectively:
- Yext provided precise, detailed information about the role and organization
- Axiom structured the engagements flexibly to cater to variable workflows, and determined when an Axiom lawyer would step in based on business activity
- Axiom customized the engagements by selecting lawyers with the right level of experience and commercial expertise to meet Yext's business needs
In addition to ongoing legal support, Axiom headquarters employees ensured the existing engagements ran smoothly, and partnered with Yext to identify additional legal talent with the skills they needed, when they needed them.
The result
In the last four years, Yext has successfully developed its business in Germany, Spain, and Italy. The company's in-house legal team has been scaled up progressively under Adrian's tenure, and has relied on additional support from Axiom to assist on SaaS contracts and data protection as needed to support and grow their international business.
Value and benefit of working with Axiom
“In Yext's successful collaboration with Axiom, I have seen the value, efficiency and flexibility that Axiom lawyers bring to the table. They have provided the level and caliber of legal support needed to develop and grow Yext's international business from almost 'ground zero.'” - Adrian Cox, Assistant General Counsel - International at Yext
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Axiom provides flexible legal talent to help meet businesses' ever-changing needs. Axiom is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice.