Drafting contracts is a fundamental part of a lawyer’s skill set, but it’s not without its pain points. It can be time-consuming and (dare we say) a bit tedious. Many legal professionals have begun to lean on artificial intelligence (AI) to help with this mission-critical task, and recent innovations make drafting even easier.
When evaluating AI options, consider content, tools, and technology.
Drafting: Getting started
The American Bar Association recognizes the level of detail involved in creating an agreement. “In drafting a new contract, the lawyer starts with a form from a prior transaction; cuts and pastes language from other sources; and adds, deletes, edits, and revises until the form fits the current transaction. Specific language in most forms is compiled over time through the edits of many lawyers who have worked with earlier variations and permutations of the forms.”
This process of searching, cutting, pasting, deleting, and editing contracts is one area where artificial intelligence shows off its remarkable capabilities.
A new legal drafting application called Practical Law Clause Finder puts AI to use for just such tasks. Practical Law Clause Finder is a drafting tool integrated into Microsoft Word® that allows lawyers to find and use current language from a variety of source documents.
Let’s explore.
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Jump to ↓
| Search and filter |
| Editorial guidance |
| Stay in your regular drafting environment |
| Trusted technology |
| Confidence |
| What’s next? |
Search and filter
Practical Law Clause Finder cuts down the time spent searching on various platforms to find the right language for your draft. With simple commands, it searches current market and gold-standard language from within Practical Law, agreements filed with the SEC, and your internal documents. In one operation, Clause Finder delivers relevant clauses so you can create an agreement customized to your client’s or organization’s needs.
Clause Finder, powered by AI, finds contract language requested by the prompt. For example, if you’re writing a services contract and need a limitations of liability clause that agrees Clause Finder will search and present those options from Practical Law resources, SEC agreements, and your internal contracts.
Editorial guidance
Practical Law Clause Finder offers context as well as content. Get the best available language with links to Practical Law resources while drafting. Find up-to-date expert drafting negotiation guidance embedded in drafting notes, that provide explanations of provisions for further clarification. So, while Clause Finder finds and delivers relevant provisions, it’s grounded in Practical Law content and expertise.
Stay in your regular drafting environment
Of the myriad of distractions in a lawyer’s day, one can be easily eliminated by staying within a singular software – and this is possible with Clause Finder, as it is an add-on to Microsoft Word. For many, searching SEC or internal documents for pertinent clauses for a contract means jumping between internal contracts and other programs or search engines. Clause Finder allows you to start your drafting from a contract in Word and search for relevant clauses. This not only saves time but adds efficiency to your workflow. You can keep your focus on the draft, without being distracted by rabbit holes within other programs.
Trusted technology
While some lawyers remain wary of using AI for client-facing tasks, many are embracing its unique workflow-enhancing capabilities. Practical Law Clause Finder uses the proven AI technology of Thomson Reuters, with its hundreds of bar-admitted attorney editors, decades of expertise with AI, and hundreds of millions of dollars being invested. The AI behind Clause Finder, as well as other Thomson Reuters products, is built on a foundation of accuracy and ethical standards that considers the broader implications of legal work.
Confidence
According to the ABA, the responsibility of a lawyer in creating agreements is to “draft an enforceable contract that will reliably protect the client’s interests if something goes wrong.”
Ensuring you are reliably protecting your client’s or organization’s interests is a time-consuming but critical task.
When do you know if you’ve found all the pertinent sources for your contract draft? Let the right AI assist in the search. By using Practical Law Clause Finder technology, you can be confident you’ve found the best, most current, and most consistent clause language. The time savings and confidence gained are immeasurable.
What’s next?
Practical Law Clause Finder’s ability to source, surface, and implement clauses of interest is based on supervised machine learning, a process where experts curate very specific training data to guide the algorithm to desired results. By using these data points to identify patterns, machine learning powers technology to make decisions or recommendations.
Request a demo of Practical Law Clause Finder to see how you can access the best terms for your agreement and streamline your drafting – without ever leaving the page.
