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M ama always said, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." But then Mama wasn't a lawyer. "Every lawyer steals like crazy. You have to," says Eric Boehm, counsel with Torys LLP in Toronto, in reference to the practice of using material, sections, and language that appear in existing legal documents. "It's much faster, and it's good to go with tried-and-true boil- erplate. You worry about the differ- ences, not the standard clauses." The need to be efficient and effec- tive has always driven lawyers to look for ways to streamline and automate production of legal documents, where appropriate. The need for junior lawyers to start somewhere has also driven them to look at previous creations. "When I came out of law school, I had to get tem- plates from other lawyers and libraries. Law school teaches you the skill set. They don't give you the tools," says Michael Carabash, a Toronto business lawyer and founder of www.dynami- clawyers.com, which offers consumers — and lawyers — a wide range of legal forms and support material online. Such tools are in greater demand than ever. In the wake of recession, law firms are feeling significant pressure to lower their bills and demonstrate value for money. "The marketplace isn't allowing firms to regularly increase their rates. That makes document assembly much more attractive," says Tim Allen, London, England-based vice president for North America with Business Integrity, a document-assem- bly and contract-management software company. That attraction moves beyond sav- ing money to making money, he notes. "The most progressive law firms have realized it is possible to have a new business model: 20-per-cent less bill- ing, 40-per-cent less cost." The potential black ink is the result of very real savings that can come when processes are automated. One of those processes is document assembly. "It would not be an overestimate to say that 90 per cent of any lawyer's work product is recycled," says Boehm, who practises technology law. "In fact, our clients would scream if we built our contracts from scratch each time, both in expense and for legal liability reasons, since we reuse clauses espe- cially when they have been considered and have worked in the past. For this reason, document templates certainly makes a lot of sense." Common sense will soon translate into myriad choices. The words "docu- ment assembly," "templates," and "boil- erplate" (to name but a few) all mean something different to different law- yers and in an age where technology changes as quickly as the weather. "The term 'document template' can be used to mean documents that aren't far off from being forms that simply need to be filled in," says Kathleen Hogan, a practice support lawyer with Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP in Toronto. "These documents require a good deal of formatting, which can make a docu- ment unstable and difficult to work with," she notes. "Often, these kinds of templates also include some content that is repeated nearly exactly from document to document. For example, court forms are document templates of this nature." From this baseline, legal documents grow in complexity and customization to become precedents. "The form of these documents is not dictated by a third party and may be unique from firm to firm," she says. As a result, document templates and assembly software come in a variety of forms. At one end of the rainbow of choices are companies like Carabash's, which offers the full meal deal for users. In addition to providing a template in legal areas including wills and estates, family law, employment, and landlord and tenant issues, the Ontario lawyer has developed a complementary video, a written primer, and a document iden- tifying potential challenges. At the other end of the spectrum are firms like Business Integrity, which provides software that lets firms automate much of their workflow process, document assembly, and contract management. What law firms have typically done is build the contract language from with- in the firm. Indeed, says Allen, "what should be going into the template is the very highest level of legal expertise." "Authoritative document assembly requires three components: suitable technology, rigorous contract language, and state-of-the-art substance," says Ken Adams, an expert in drafting business contracts and a plain-language proponent based in Garden City, N.Y. The technology is now readily available, he adds. "But the other two components are tougher to achieve, whether you're a law firm, a company law department, or a vendor." Adams hopes to change that reality with Koncision Contract Automation, what he calls "the first to offer a com- plete set of credentials." The site's inau- gural product offering, confidentiality agreements, is expected early this year. Regardless of the nature of the docu- mentation system or template, certain advantages are almost inherent. "You're going to save time. You're going to save money," says Carabash. There's more. "All templates benefit lawyers by increasing the efficiencies in a practice," says Hogan. "If a lawyer knows how a document should look and 'feel,' a www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com FEBRUA R Y 2011 35 ATE