I’ve written a number of times about SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which has been automating the firm’s legal expertise to create tools that businesses and individuals can use to make legal processes more efficient and affordable.
Its first product, launched in 2019, automated compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act. Others have helped businesses comply with GDPR, create COVID-19 employment policies, safely return employees to work, and achieve diversity and inclusion, while another helped churches assess readiness to resume services.
Now, in its latest feat of computer automation, SixFifty has automated the creation of every employment policy developed by Wilson Sonsini, more than 50 of them.
Using this new product, companies can generate employment policies as part of a single employee handbook or a-la-carte, SixFifty says.
The automation took place in two stages, SixFifty says:
- First, Wilson Sonsini attorneys updated every employment policy to account for the COVID-19 pandemic, upcoming COVID-19 vaccines, and a workforce that is more remote, mobile and diverse.
- Second, SixFifty taught its proprietary document automation engine — the same technology that runs its other products — to customize the policies based on the specific circumstances of a company, similar to how a lawyer would.
SixFifty keeps the documents up to date, so the policies keep pace with changes in the law.
“For many companies, employment law can be the most dangerous area of law, and 2020 has only made things more complicated,” Kimball Dean Parker, SixFifty’s CEO, said in a statement. “With the legal landscape changing every week, it’s become more and more difficult to keep up and stay compliant. Our automated policies should take much of that burden off HR and legal departments.”
This new employment policy product has four components:
- First, companies can take an automated assessment to determine which policies are required based on the number of employees and where employees are located.
- Second, companies can generate a handbook from scratch that contains any combination of the policies customized to each state’s requirements and the company’s specific circumstances.
- Third, companies can draft any of the individual policies a-la-carte as the need arises.
- Fourth, SixFifty tracks the law in each state and updates the documents accordingly. Companies receive periodic updates about those changes so they can know when they need to refresh their documents.
Among the more than 50 policies offered through this product are ones that cover arbitration, at-will employment, expense reimbursement, confidentiality, dress code, anti-discrimination, employee benefits, time off, sick leave, sexual harassment, telecommuting, social media, technology systems, and more.
