Drafting from precedent
For a firm whose best drafting sits in old matters nobody can search at the moment they need it. The stages, the agent’s mandate, the sign-off, the record fields, the measure and the exit terms.
Your own precedent bank, with the source of every clause marked.
Who it is for
A firm whose best drafting sits in old matters that nobody can search at the moment they need it. The clause that would have saved four hours exists. It is the finding of it, and the knowing where it came from, that does not.
The trigger
A request for a first draft of an agreement, a submission or an opinion.
The stages
Frame
The document and its purpose are written down, with the counterparty position where there is one.
Select
Clauses are selected from the firm’s own bank and nowhere else.
Assemble
The draft is assembled with the source matter of every clause marked on it.
Associate edits
A lawyer edits the draft, and the provenance travels with the clause.
Partner signs
A partner signs the document before it leaves the firm.
Return to the bank
Anything to be returned to the bank is approved by a person first.
What the agent may read, keep and do
| May read | The precedent bank and the matter file. |
|---|---|
| May keep | The clause selections and their sources, for the retention period agreed with you. |
| May do | Select, assemble, mark provenance, and flag a gap where the bank has nothing. It may not invent a clause and present it as precedent, and it may not write to the bank. |
Where a person signs
Twice. Stage 05 for the document, by the partner. Stage 06 for anything entering the bank. Nothing enters the bank unsigned, because a bad clause in the bank is a bad clause in fifty matters.
What the record contains
Provenance is part of the record rather than a comment in the margin.
These are the fields, not a real matter. No client work appears on this site.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Document | The document type and the purpose it was framed for |
| Clauses | Every clause, with the matter it came from |
| Gaps | Every gap the bank could not fill, and what was done about it |
| Drafter | The lawyer who edited the assembled draft |
| Signer | The partner who signed, and the version signed |
| Bank | Any entry created in the bank, and who approved it |
Entries are written as the run happens and are append-only. A correction is a new entry naming the one it corrects. Section 5 of the operating standard says what that means in practice.
The measure a pilot uses
One measure, chosen by you. The one I would usually propose is the share of first drafts assembled entirely from marked sources, with no unsourced clause reaching the associate. The second is the time from request to first draft, against a baseline taken from drafts already produced by hand.
The systems it usually sits on
The document system, the precedent bank wherever it lives, and Word. In a larger firm the bank usually sits inside iManage, NetDocuments or SharePoint rather than in a separate tool. LEXSAS resells none of these and claims no certified connector to any of them.
The first week
- Day one
- The scope call: document types, where the bank lives, who drafts, who signs, the measure.
- Days two and three
- We take a set of recent first drafts and mark where each clause actually came from. The real coverage of the bank becomes visible, and so do its gaps.
- Day four
- The mandate, the provenance format and the rule for what may enter the bank are written down, and you correct them.
- Day five
- The record format is agreed, the baseline is taken and the pilot dates are fixed.
Exit terms
The clause provenance and the bank structure are yours, and they are the part with long-term value. They leave in an exportable format, with every record the workflow wrote.
Three questions
No. It flags the gap and stops. A clause that is not in the bank is a drafting decision, and a lawyer makes it.
Every clause in the assembled draft carries its source matter. The provenance is part of the record rather than a comment in the margin.
Only what a person approves. A bad clause in the bank is a bad clause in fifty matters, so nothing enters it unsigned.
The controls behind this page are in the LEXSAS operating standard, sections 3 to 5. The other three firm workflows are on the workflows page. Get in touch