About
Background of the project:
Document automation (also known as document assembly) pertains to systems and workflows that assist in creating electronic documents. The text assembled by computers into new documents may be pre-existing (or “canned”) or computer-generated on-the-fly. Document automation in legal is verging on mainstream, if not already in some practice areas. Stanford Law School’s CodeX Techindex, for example, lists around 250 legal document automation companies.
Document automation has many benefits in law practice in that it reduces labor needs for rote and mundane writing, it reduces time spent proofreading, and it reduces risks associated with human error. Many of the associated risks, such as confidentiality and data security, are similar as with most other technologies used in law practice.
The types of content contained in legal documents can be categorized into three groups: bespoke writing, mechanical writing, or canned text. Bespoke writing reflects the intellectual heavy-lifting performed by the attorney preparing the document. It often involves original analysis on unique facts and is driven by creativity, judgment, strategy, and experience. Bespoke writing is too nuanced and context dependent to be a good candidate for automation. Instead, this is where attorneys will continue to provide their primary value-add to legal documents.
Documents dominated by bespoke writing benefit the least from automation. From a technical standpoint, the best candidates for automation are ones with large portions being some combination of mechanical writing and canned text. Good technical candidates become good product candidates depending on the development costs to automate the document, document volume (e.g., docs/atty/year), market value of the document, and other factors.
Information we want as a result of the survey
Survey respondent info:
- Primary practice area
- Geographical location
- Years of practice
- Practice entity size (e.g., solo, small firm, large firm, etc.)
- Practice entity type (law firm, in-house, etc.)
Work product info:
- What are the high-volume legal documents your personally prepare
- For each doc:
- What is the average fee for preparing the doc?
- Are there downward forces on market rate fees?
- How many attorney hours are typically involved?
- What fraction of the doc is composed of:
- Bespoke writing?
- Mechanical writing?
- Canned text?
- For each doc:
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