In-House Counsel

Software from Exari that helps you prepare and manage contracts

By Rees Morrison

At LegalTech NY this year, Exari handed out case studies about two law departments. Dow Jones? legal team can ?deliver tailored, self-service contracts to its global sales force? as a self-service option for subscription agreements. Westpac, an Australian financial services company, uses Exari software to generate 80 percent of the suite of customer documents for its commercial equipment loans, all in one-tenth the time.

I have doubted the penetration of document assembly into law departments (See my posts of March 24, 2005: if-then, rule-based document assembly software; and Jan. 28, 2007: some history on the field.) but the software niche has plenty of offerings (See my posts of April 5, 2007: 10 applications listed; and April 16, 2007: five more applications.).

Several law departments who use document assembly and their service providers have been cited (See my posts of June 18, 2007: two references cited; Aug. 31, 2005: Schering-Plough Canada; Jan. 16, 2006: McDonalds; Feb. 6, 2007: Business Integrity users; Jan. 4, 2006: Microsoft; and Jan. 14, 2007: General Electric.).

Some law firms have assisted clients by developing contract preparation software (See my post of April 8, 2007: law firms help law departments develop rule-based drafting systems.) and there are available a number of consultants (See my posts of Feb. 24, 2007 on consultants; April 16, 2007: two more consultants; and Oct. 31, 2007: Eric Little.).

The Exari software falls into the broader category of enterprise contract creation and management (See my posts of May 5, 2006: contract administrators; and Dec. 17, 2007: clause libraries.). The company?s patented software offers law departments more than automated contract assembly. It also manages the contract?s life cycle, enables better searching and storage of contracts, and permits users to run analytical reports.

Full post as published by Law Department Management on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).