Posts Tagged ‘wall street’

Document Assembly on Wall Street (Asset Securitization)

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.

A corporate legal department may, from time to time, have clients who need to take “debts and obligations owed to them” or “accounts receivables” and securitize them, turn them into assets on their balance books, by selling off the obligations or receivables … turn those “future revenue” into present revenue.

The elements of such a package may include a loan agreement, an origination agreement, securitization agreement, trust agreement and verification agreement.  While the transactions can be quite complex and the assets diverse, there are certain regularities in these instruments that will lend themselves to automation.

For example, each state has required language for loans, certain proforma’s require to make the loan valid and collectible.  The terms of the loan, payment rates, early payment provisions and the like will be standard in their structure, while varying in the specifics.  The schedule of assets being transferred will have a description, a volume/amount, a value (fixed or estimated), and particular restrictions. These schedules can be built automatically, incorporated into the document and totaled using document assembly.

In connection with each asset, notices may need to be sent out to the original debtors as to a change of control of the obligation.  These can be automatically (and accurately) generated from a data source.  A mass mail of certificates and notices can be generated using the same data used for the schedules.  The overall time savings can allow a firm to very profitably value bill from these transactions.

 

VALUE VOLUME INVESTMENT DOCUMENT TYPE
Low High Low Loan Agreement
Low High Moderate Origination Agreement
Moderate Moderate Moderate Securitization Agreement
Moderate Moderate Moderate Trust Agreement
Low Moderate Moderate Verification Agreement

TABLE KEY:
Value measures the value of the document in terms of potential markup based on time to do the document without automation. High would be over five thousand per document; moderate would be over a thousand; low would be in the hundreds per document.
Volume is the likely volume in a given year. Low would be once a month; Moderate would be once a week, High would be daily or more frequent.
Investment is the amounts of time it would take to automate the document to 90% effectiveness. High would be over 250 hours. Moderate would be over 50 hours. Low would be anywhere from an hour up to 50 hours.
Document Type is the name or category of documents that to be automated

Document Assembly on Wall Street (Corporate Transactions)

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.

The chart below shows a range of documents that form the bread an butter of a corporate law department providing general business and transactional advice. Each of the documents below can involve anywhere from 10 to 100 hours to draft. Once automated, a solid high-quality first draft of these same documents can be produced in less than 30 minutes, dramatically increasing the firm’s competitive edge and opening the possibility of substantial profits from value billing.

VALUE VOLUME INVESTMENT DOCUMENT TYPE
Low High Low Advertising and Promotion Agreement
Low High Low Alliance and Co-Marketing Agreement
Low High Low Bioprocessing Services Agreement
Low High Low Campaign Management Services Agreement
Low High Low Collateral Assignment and Security Agreement
Low High Low Content License and Co-Branded Area Agreement
Low High Low Co-Sale Agreement
Low High Low Interim Linking Agreement
Low High Low Joint Marketing Agreement
Low High Low Linking Agreement
Low High Low Manifest System Services and Co-Branding Agreement
Low High Low Manufacturing and Supply Agreement
Low High Low Media Placement Services Agreement
Low High Low Order Fulfillment Agreement
Low High Low Resale Agreement
Low High Low Web Advertising Services Agreement
Low High Low Website Affiliation Agreement

TABLE KEY:
Value measures the value of the document in terms of potential markup based on time to do the document without automation. High would be over five thousand per document; moderate would be over a thousand; low would be in the hundreds per document.
Volume is the likely volume in a given year. Low would be once a month; Moderate would be once a week, High would be daily or more frequent.
Investment is the amounts of time it would take to automate the document to 90% effectiveness. High would be over 250 hours. Moderate would be over 50 hours. Low would be anywhere from an hour up to 50 hours.
Document Type is the name or category of documents that to be automated

Document Assembly On Wall Street (Introduction)

I have been asked recently to prepare a White Paper on Document Assembly as applied to a large Wall Street law firm, with a sophisticated and diverse corporate practice. This article will launch a series of articles that will take you through a law firm, department by department and identify those areas that are ripe for automation.

Related Link: For further review

I am myself a creature of Wall Street.  That is where I got my start as a lawyer; it is a place that defines my view of the practice of law. It is a model, not the only model, that delivers exceptionally high work product and dedicated client service.

It is an area of the law practice that is exceedingly profitable.  Partners charge upwards of $1000 per hour at premium rates or sometimes, a sliver percentage of very large transactions.  The expectations of these clients is nothing less than perfection itself.  And for that perfection, they pay.  Profits derive in many of these cases from the raw talent of the lawyers combined with very long work hours.

It is my position that the profits of these firms (revenue minus costs of delivery of services) could dramatically increase with the judicious use of document assembly; that these law firms could increase their profits while at the same time decreasing the prices they charge for defined services.  These profits would come with increased consistency of quality work product; faster turnaround of critical business documents; increased client satisfaction; and even increase attorney satisfaction.

This series of articles will make the case on a department by department basis, through a typical (if that is possible) Wall Street law firm.

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