Morais Leitão, one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, redesigned its proposal-building process with the support of Masterlink’s no-code Platform. The project, led by the Business Development & Client Care team, made it possible to standardise communication and corporate image, increase efficiency, and equip internal teams with a simple, autonomous tool fully integrated with the firm’s systems.
Key Benefits
1. Standardisation and stronger brand image
All proposals follow the same consistent visual and informational standard, reinforcing Morais Leitão’s identity across all practice areas and geographies.
2. Autonomy and efficiency in proposal creation
Internal teams can now generate complete proposals in PowerPoint format without manual document editing or technical support, freeing the Business Development & Client Care team to focus on higher value-added work.
3. Integration with internal systems and reduced effort
The Masterlink Platform is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics, ensuring information is entered only once and reused when generating proposals.
4. Rapid adoption and scalability
The solution currently serves around 500 users, with more than 20 active templates in Portuguese and English, adapted to different offices and document types.
The challenge: Automating the proposal drafting process
Before Masterlink was implemented, Morais Leitão’s proposal-building process involved manually editing the templates in Word and PowerPoint.
These templates were reviewed and updated by Morais Leitão’s teams, aligning them with new market requirements and trends.
As part of this simplification process, Morais Leitão decided to move forward with a more user friendly technology solution with greater autonomy, anticipating future and inevitable updates to the template.
The solution: a Morais Leitão “tailor-made suit”
Based on Masterlink’s no-code Platform, a collaborative solution was developed that faithfully reflects how Morais Leitão thinks about and builds its proposals.
The new solution enables:
- Creating dynamic, collaborative templates in which each participant (lawyers, secretarial staff, or management teams) contributes directly through web forms;
- Combining modules (team, experience, fees, among others) depending on the client and context, starting from a “100%” base template and generating proposals at 90%, 70% or 50%, as required;
- Automating PowerPoint generation at the end of the process, ensuring graphical and content consistency;
- Providing office- and language-specific templates, maintaining a common logic with local adaptations.
On Morais Leitão’s side, the work was carried out by a functional team with no technical or programming background, which clearly defined the requirements for the tool and the final document.
“It was three people who know nothing about programming saying, ‘This is what we want.’ And the Platform enabled exactly that.”
— Margarida Pratas, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
On Masterlink’s side, the ability to translate the language and specificities of legal practice into technology was decisive:
“The Masterlink team was able to understand and translate lawyers’ language into technology. That made all the difference.”
— Margarida Pratas, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
The solution was implemented in around four months, with direct involvement from Morais Leitão’s functional team and Masterlink’s consultants, going live after integration with internal systems and security validations.
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics: a single source of truth
One of the project’s most significant milestones was integrating the Masterlink Platform with Microsoft Dynamics.
Information is entered only once in Dynamics and automatically reused when generating proposals, avoiding:
- Data duplication;
- Errors due to manual re-entry;
- Time wasted on repetitive administrative tasks.
“When we access the Platform, the relevant information is already there. We only need to enter it once in our system, and it is automatically integrated into the proposal.”
— Sílvia Fernandes, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
Scale, flexibility and organisation-wide adoption
Currently, the solution is used by around 500 users across the firm, distributed across different geographies and teams. More than 20 templates have already been created in Portuguese and English, adapted to the realities of each office.
“Today we can manage more than 20 templates, adapted to the different realities of our organisation.”
— Margarida Pratas, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
Adoption was quick and natural, including among users less familiar with technology. In training sessions initially planned for around 1h30, the essential content was covered in approximately 45 minutes, thanks to users’ familiarity with the tool’s logic.
“We needed a flexible, fast solution that would give us autonomy. That is what Masterlink gave us.”
— Sílvia Fernandes, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
“With this tool, anyone can prepare a proposal, and the firm’s image is always aligned.”
— Sílvia Fernandes, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
Results: greater autonomy, sharper focus, and stronger brand alignment
The new solution delivered concrete and immediate gains for Morais Leitão:
1. Reduced time and effort in proposal production
Simple proposals no longer depend on the Business Development & Client Care team and can be prepared directly by legal or secretarial teams in a faster, more structured way.
“The impact was enormous: more efficiency, more autonomy, and less dependence on other teams.”
— Sílvia Fernandes, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
2. Standardisation and stronger corporate identity
All proposals now follow a coherent visual and informational standard, reinforcing the Morais Leitão brand identity across all offices and legal practice areas.
3. A business-fit system with immediate adoption
Because it was designed to fit Morais Leitão’s real process—and not the other way around—the system saw virtually immediate adoption, reducing resistance and simplifying training.
“When the system is designed to fit the business—and not the business to fit the system—the magic happens: adoption stops being a problem. People look at the application, recognise their reality, and start using it almost immediately.”
— Daniel Gomes, CEO, Masterlink
Security, compliance and trusted technology
The solution is hosted in the cloud (AWS) and meets the stringent requirements demanded by Morais Leitão, an ISO 27001-certified organisation, including:
- Authentication integrated with Office 365;
- Permission control by user profile.
Critical success factors
- Deep understanding of the business and the language of legal practice;
- Direct involvement of Morais Leitão’s functional team from the outset, without the need for internal technical profiles;
- Masterlink consultants focused on the business rather than code, with the ability to “speak the client’s language”;
- Flexible, secure and intuitive no-code Platform, built on leading cloud technology;
- National technology, a factor valued by Morais Leitão;
- Effective integration with Microsoft Dynamics, avoiding redundancies and improving process control;
- A partnership relationship, with strong availability and fast response throughout the different phases of the project.
“It was very easy to work with you. There was always a good relationship, clarity, and a collaborative spirit.”
— Margarida Pratas, Business Development & Client Care, Morais Leitão
Conclusion: a tailor-made solution with real impact
The project developed with Morais Leitão demonstrates that digital transformation in demanding contexts, such as the legal sector, goes far beyond technology. It requires a deep understanding of the business, tailor-made solutions, and a true partnership approach.
The Masterlink Platform has become an integral part of the firm’s proposal process, raising the standard of communication and delivering clear gains in agility, control, consistency, and autonomy. A solution that started with proposals, but paves the way for the automation of other documents and processes in organisations facing similar challenges.
