After my previous post on Free and Law Firms, a new thing caught my attention in this area. In that post, I focused on some ways that the legal services industry is adopting some of the models Chris Anderson describes in his book.
WhichDraft is a resource that allows users to build a variety of high quality contracts free of charge. Users build contracts by answering a series of simple questions. WhichDraft then provides sample contractual provisions. It has a collection of interesting precedents that help you produce a better first draft of legal documents. By asking a few questions, the site fills in some key blanks and repetitive information.
I was a big fan of document assembly when I was at my prior law firm. But I hated the bulky desktop programs and all the training it took to show people how to use them. When you look at the time it takes to install the programs and train people, you end up with a huge additional investment on top of the software and document template drafting costs.
When document assembly finally evolved and began offering the assembly through a web-based interface, I think document assembly became ready for prime time. Set up is just a single installation on a server. Training is just showing people where to find the tool and 2-minute demo (at least it should be).
You can add WhichDraft to
- free business formation contracts from Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe
- Start-Up Forms Library from Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe
- Term Sheet Generator from Wilson Sonsini
- JD Supra‘s collection of legal documents.
References:
- Free and Law Firms – Previous Post
- Free Site Enables Document Assembly by Bob Ambrogi
- Free and the GP by Jordan Furlong on Law21
- Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
