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Survey respondents like self-service drafting of agreements but most law departments lack the tools

“[W]hile 50 percent feel that self-service drafting [of contracts and agreements] is important, 76 percent reported that their law departments do not have any kind of self-service drafting tools or protocols in place.”  That summary of a glaring gap between efficiency and reality, the gap between clients being able to take care of some kinds of contracts without burdens on the law department, comes from an article in Met. Corp. Counsel, July/Aug. 2012 at 37.  The article is by Tim Allen, the President of Business Integrity, a leading provider of software optimized for contract management.  Tim.allen@business-integrity.com

 

In late 2011 Business Integrity conducted a survey and obtained responses from more than 400 in-house lawyers.   Taken at face value, this finding suggests that many in-house lawyers wish they could offer their clients aids to help them prepare at least first drafts of common agreements.  The dearth of such productivity tools makes more work for the legal team because it must spend time to draft and review agreements that are routine, do not require negotiation, or need any custom terms and writing.  As the article puts it, this “manual contracting dilemma” drags down output and morale.  Click here to see the article.  http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/articles/19657/survey-house-counsel-reveals-potential-law-department-innovation

 

Contracts are one opportunity for self-service.  Here is an update on client self-service, starting from the first metapost (See my post of May 18, 2008: self service with 7 references; Dec. 23, 2009: Carillion plc and its self-service capabilities; Jan. 7, 2010: Catholic Healthcare West and its use of ContractExpress; March 31, 2010: suggestion to boost self-service by clients; April 14, 2011: Cisco tries to have clients take on contracting services; and Oct. 19, 2011: eight reasons to consider contract automation.).

https://www.lawdepartmentmanagementblog.com/help-clients-he/

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