Apart from looking at a few AI-and-contracts services, I long ago stopped paying much attention to legaltech services relating to contracts. Because I don’t do deals, I don’t need what’s on offer, so I’m not in a good position to evaluate it. And the space is so active that even if I wanted to kick some tires, I wouldn’t know where to start.
But I’ve just encountered, for the first time, companies that offer, or plan on offering, contract content as part of a process for creating contracts: Bonterms, Standard Draft, and Common Paper. Now that’s my kind of thing!
I’m not surprised that the first companies to get serious about offering contract content are startups. By definition, they’re not committed to the status quo.
Lawyers, law firms, and accelerators serving startups have been at this game for quite a while now:
https://www.orrick.com/en/Total-Access/Tool-Kit/Start-Up-Forms, https://www.cooleygo.com/, https://www.seriesseed.com/, https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/
Industry associations were publishing forms long before that, and I wouldn’t underestimate how much those groups function like businesses.
I’ve been at this, too. With colleagues: https://waypointnda.com/, https://guestbooknda.com/, https://squareoneforms.com/ Mostly on my own: https://dmcasimple.com/, https://doormatprivacy.com/, https://fastpathlicense.com/
Hi Kyle. Yes, I’m familiar with such initiatives. Those I’ve looked at either have modest objectives, or they’ve attracted little attention, or they exhibit the dysfunction of mainstream drafting (or they do some combination of the three). If someone is looking to build a business off of supplying contract content as part of a process, that suggests a measure of ambition. I reckon that’s all I’m acknowledging.