Entity Management Software Case Study: aptihealth Chief Legal Officer
CLIENT SUCCESS STORY
The Client
Going from battling with unresponsive registered agents to no longer having to think about entity compliance
Since graduating from law school in the mid-90s, Elizabeth Rushforth has worked as a general counsel and chief legal officer for multiple healthcare and technology organizations. Amid the high stakes work that has defined her career, one nuisance has remained constant: the drudgery of inefficient entity management.
Citing a lack of viable options, Rushforth had no choice but to outsource entity management to one of the handful of legacy registered agents (or “800-pound gorillas,” to Rushforth) over the course of her career. A vexing process, but a necessary one, and one seemingly without alternatives.
Then she found Filejet.
“In the legal field you still have antiquated processes and a lack of technologies to bring those processes into the 21st century,” Rushforth said. “There is no sense of urgency to change what has always worked in the past despite it no longer working in the present.”
The Problem
Rushforth’s gripes with legacy entity management providers were numerous, but, unfortunately, not unique. There was zero transparency into processes, so Rushforth consistently found herself following up with providers for basic information.
To make matters worse, responses were sluggish, inconsistent or nonexistent.
“When you run a really lean in-house legal team, you don’t want to be the one who dropped the ball because someone didn’t respond to you,” she said. “Every day they don’t respond, you have to remember it… I had a sticky note on my computer reminding me to follow up. That note was rarely removed.”
The demands of her job often pulled her towards more critical work, so Rushforth frequently had to employ the services of outside counsel to manage providers. That legal spend, according to Rushforth, cost more than it was worth and could have been put to better use elsewhere.
Rushforth wasn’t alone in her frustration. Complaints about opaque, unresponsive registered agents offering entity management compliance services were rampant in her circle of GCs and CLOs. Because registered agents were the only players in town for so long, the general consensus was that they had no incentive to improve.
“In-house counsel is just so tired of ‘this is the way we always do it,'” she said.
For Rushforth, the tipping point came in 2021, when she was the chief legal officer for aptihealth, a telehealth company. Shortly after joining the company, she tried to reach their registered agent for an entity compliance status inquiry.
Her calls, voicemails and emails went unanswered for three months. Rushforth was at the end of her rope and didn’t want to expend “an ounce more effort” to get in touch with the provider. “I shouldn’t have to chase a vendor for something I need,” she remembered thinking. In sum: “Their customer service was horrific,” she said.
Luckily, a well-timed email from Filejet changed the game.
The Solution
Rushforth knew Filejet was the right move “the minute she talked to Filejet founder and CEO Andy White.”
The demo of Filejet entity management software “knocked it out of the ballpark,” she recalls. She was immediately sold by the transparency of the platform and the hyper-responsiveness of the Filejet team.
After breezing through implementation—an experience Rushforth found “pleasant”—entity management evaporated from her to-do list.
The Results
The beauty of Filejet, for former CLO Rushforth, is its reliability and ease. It hums along in the background so she (and other CLOs and GCs) can forget about the minutiae of entity compliance and focus on high-level tasks.
“I want it when I need it. I want it to be easy. I want to be responded to,” she said.
And that’s what she gets with Filejet.
Filejet compliance management software saved Rushforth time, effort and money. With Filejet there is no more spending on outside counsel, no more wasting time chasing information, and (blissfully) no more ever-present sticky note reminder on her computer.
Now, entity management is transparent, seamless and, frankly, no longer top of mind.
“Filejet is a game changer. I don’t know why everyone isn’t using it,” Rushforth said.
Improved Customer Support
Billing & Costs Transparency
Better Document Management
Want to see it in action?
Book a demo with one of our Entity Management Specialists
