Legal News

Wilson?s Little Gift to the World

By Ashby Jones

In another era, we covered law and technology. Not law-and-technology in a Larry Lessig sort of way, but law and technology in a why-don’t-lawyers-use-WordPerfect-anymore? sort of way. (Yes, it’s true, at certain publications in the dot-com era, there was such a beat.)

In any event, one of our big takeaways from that period is that technological changes at most of the big law firms happen slowly. Very slowly. Why? Well, as all those who pay attention to a little concept called “the billable hour” know, BigLaw can be a stubborn and change-resistant industry. Furthermore, we found out, many of the folks who control the purse strings at big law firms cut their teeth in the era of IBM Selectrics and carbon paper — and weren’t always quick to embrace the newest and coolest matter-management system (or even have any clue what one was).

In any event, we were both reminded of our old beat and somewhat heartened today when we read a Reuters article from Wednesday discussing a little gizmo being offered up through Wilson Sonsini’s Web site; a free-of-charge so-called: Term Sheet Generator.

As described by Wilson Sonsini itself:

This tool will generate a venture financing term sheet based on your responses to an online questionnaire. It also has an informational component, with basic tutorials and annotations on financing terms. This term sheet generator is a modified version of a tool that we use internally, which comprises one part of a suite of document automation tools that we use to generate start-up and venture financing-related documents.

We’ve never put together a term sheet, and didn’t toy around with Wilson’s enough to know whether it works well or not, but according to the Reuters story, it’s generating a bit of buzz. (n.b., Some of the UK-based firms have had these sorts of tools available for years.)

“It is precisely the kind of tool that progressive clients in the financials services community are asking for,” says Richard Susskind, author of “The End of Lawyers, Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services.” Adds Jason Mendelson, cofounder and managing director of the Boulder, Colorado-based Foundry Group, an early stage venture firm: “I think it’s part of a movement to bring technology to law.” Mendelson believes such a product, which allows start-up entrepreneurs and venture capital firms to become more familiar with the legal ramifications of preparing to sell all or part of a business, could save as much as $10,0000 in front end legal fees.

So what does Wilson Sonsini get out of it? Well, it hopes to garner some decent exposure, for one thing, and possibly venture-capital-related clients who turn to the firm after the initial term sheet’s been inked.

Anybody out there used WSGR’s TSG? We’d love to hear your thoughts either on the idea or how well it works in practice.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).