Document Assembly & Case Management Blog

SATISFACTION ... 40 YEARS LATER

Superbowl XL was a tour de force, with the largest audience of any show all year.  It is the one football game I watch each year ... “I watch for the commercials” and the “half-time” show.  This year, Mick Jagger of ther Rolling Stones performed the half-time show ... without a “wardrobe malfunction”.  At the age of 62, Mick Jagger opened with the remark, that it took 40 years from when he burst onto the Rock ‘n Roll scene to make it to the mainstream of the Superbowl XL ("40").  Dancing around a giant tongue (stuck out at full length, as in a “Brooklyn cheer") he launched into a rousing rendition of “I can’t get no Satisfication ...” and I tried, and I tried, and I tried.

A DECADE LATER

It has now been over a decade since I left my comfortable “New York” litigation practice to enter the area of document assembly consulting.  In the ten years, document assembly has gone from “fringe and novel” to “mainstream.  For many attorneys it is a central part of their process, whether it be for generating high-volume pleadings, prepare probate applications, or drafting wills and complex tax-sheltering trusts.  This article is a reminsce on the past decade in document assembly.

Another year has come and gone ... LegalTech New York ... The largest annual technology show.  Despite the emphasis on Litigation support systems, there were some notable participants at the conference presenting document assembly solutions.  HotDocs was there as part of LexisNexis’ Total Practice Management initiative; DealBuilder with it online document assembly system powered by a unique “relevance engine”; Perfectus Solutions with its browser-based IPManager document creation and delivery system; iXIO with its innovate online document modelling solution (Q-Shift); and Microsystems with its Word-ML basis document creation system (D3).

It has been over a year of hard work, but the new Wealth Transfer Planning, SmartContent Practice System(tm) has been released.  Basha Systems has ported the SmartWord’s based estate planning templates over to HotDocs.  The system features a unique custom interface to HotDocs that supports Firm Preferences, a separate Client and Matter Interview, Profile settings, customizable Templates and customizable Stylesheets.  It represents a “revolution” in the way to handle document assembly.  The efforts of myself, Ian Burrows and Rose Rowland are to thanks.  Basha Systems will be providing ongoing support for the templates as well as extensive customization services.

In the past week I have been approach twice by people seeking to buy or build on online commercial lending document assembly system and asked for the appropriate platform.  As a consultant, I patiently explained the options and why merely purchasing a system would expose the company to unacceptable risks; that while I was a lawyer turned programmer, this went beyond the risks I was willing to assume as an automator. In so doing, the issue arose, what warranty does an automator make as to the legal viability of the forms produced.

The goal in document assembly is to “model” the transaction.  A Canadian attorney once explained to me, we don’t have forms and templates, we have document models, which contains structures and details.  Viewed from this perspective, the goal in template development is to build a better model of the ultimate transaction. The result is that negotiations are quicker, and more focused on concepts as opposed to crafty language.

Document assembly projects are subject to the 80/20 rule ... the final 20% takes 80% of the time.  And for that reason, many projects don’t get perfected.  When a system is for internal use, the benefits of automation are good enough; but when turned into an saleable application, or a client-focused application, much more is required.  This blog focuses on techniques for working with the template to reduce the time to get from 80 to 100%.

Is it the process or the document that comes first?  Does the user view the world as a series of data, with document as the outputs; or a series of documents, with data as the inputs.  These views govern how you will design a document assembly library.

Part of a continuing series on applications of Document Assembly at a Wall Street law firm.  This blogs deals with the application of document assembly to a practice specializing in Asset Securitization.

Working with template systems (as opposed to individual templates) requires attention to detail and planning before execution.  The rewards of planning come from ease of maintenance, and flexibility to change.  The blog looks at formatting and design questions in Document Assembly system.

This Blog addresses the use of document assembly in the Corporate Law Department of a large firm.  It explore the type of documents in such a department that might be amenable to automation.