I confess that while I was at LegalTech I did only a minimal amount of prospecting at other booths, so I didn’t get to speak with anyone about “Westlaw Drafting Assistant – Transactional.” (Including an en-dash, with spaces, in your brand? That takes some gumption.)
It’s described in this item as being “the first comprehensive set of automated tools and content to help attorneys prepare transactional documents with greater efficiency and accuracy.” And you can watch a video clip of Andy Martens, Westlaw’s senior VP of new product development, talk about it. (Hi, Andy!)
I gather that Westlaw Drafting Assistant – Transactional (that en-dash!) gives you access to Westlaw’s archive of templates and collection precedent from Edgar and elsewhere and also weaves in Deal Proof or something like it. (I discussed Deal Proof briefly in this 2008 post.) But I’m not entirely sure how it relates to other Westlaw transactional services, including Westlaw Forms Builder, which I mentioned in this 2011 post.
Leaving aside the details, Westlaw Drafting Assistant – Transactional is simply copy-and-paste drafting on major steroids. The problem isn’t that drafters don’t have enough precedent from which to copy. Instead, it’s that they don’t have access to authoritative content that they can rely on and readily customize.
So I’m not excited about Westlaw Drafting Assistant – Transactional. Instead, I’ll continue working to develop additional Koncision products.
Sounds interesting to me. Sure, it would be great to have a something that offered up authoritative and fully vetted drafting options for each provision of an agreement, but until such a tool exists for the agreements I draft, I’ll take anything that will help me find and sort through precedent language. Right now, I have to employ a hodge podge approach of looking for precedent in internal forms, client forms, precedent from other firms, model forms from industry groups (which for the documents I draft include the ABA, LSTA and LMA) and commercial sources like PracticalLaw. If Westlaw can consolidate any of that precedent and make it accessible while I am in a document, it sounds like it could be worthwhile.
Please do keep working on additional Koncision products, but I will take what I can get now.