Law Department Management Blog
Most in-house lawyers who must prepare a contract simply mark up the closest version they can find on their hard-drive or shared directory. A few of them use document assembly software (See my post of March 24, 2005 on if-then, rule-based document assembly software; and June 18 2007 with two references cited.). A third choice is for the lawyer to pick and choose from clauses stored in a clause library.
A fine article in ACC Docket, Vol. 25, Dec. 2007, at 60, 62, urges law departments to assemble clauses, with explanatory materials and annotations, for their most common contracts. The co-authors recommend software called QShift, from Ixio Legal www.ixio.com because of how it facilitates the efficient selection and combination of approved and annotated paragraphs and clauses.
A lawyer can still use a precedent contract, but the clause bank lets the lawyer supplement and improve it more easily.