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effective use of automated systems, and trust is earned. "What should be going into the template is the very highest level of expertise." Caution is required when using technology and someone else's words. "[Lawyers] should . . . know where a precedent came from and the context in which it was drafted — a vendor-friendly share-purchase agreement will not be a good starting point for a lawyer representing a pur- chaser in another matter," notes Hogan. "In particular, junior lawyers must be careful when relying on precedents as they may not have the experience to spot those kinds of issues." Hogan points to another issue that many lawyers may overlook: metada- ta. "Lawyers should be careful when reusing documents to scrub the old document of metadata before using the content for a new matter. Metadata can contain confidential information, and it would be a breach of client confi- dentiality rules, not to mention highly embarrassing, to send that information to another client or opposing counsel." Firms and in-house counsel must also be prepared for an outlay of cash prior to reaping any rewards. "Setting up a document-assembly system takes time and money, and the economies afforded by the system will exceed that initial investment only after it's been used for a given number of transac- tions," says Adams. "So whether it makes sense for an organization to invest in a document-assembly system will depend on its volume of contracts, but the volume required continues to drop as the software becomes more accessible." Before long, there will be a return on investment, says Allen. "You can afford to invest a lot of dollars in the process because you know it's going to be used a thousand times over." Furthermore, he notes, the technology "allows firms to do four times the work in the same amount of time." For in-house counsel, efficiency is also the main driver for the use of doc- ument assembly and templates. But the fuel is not the same. "Time is money has a fundamentally different meaning for a corporate lawyer than a private lawyer," says Allen. General counsel are under pressure to produce documents more quickly and more consistently. "The law department may have dif- ferent lawyers working in parallel. It is hard to guarantee consistency. From a risk-management and auditing per- spective, it becomes hard to say these documents are the same." One thing seems certain. Document assembly and templates are here to stay — in a greater capacity than ever before. Although there are no hard and fast numbers on the growth in this area, the time is ripe for their proliferation. "Clients are asking lawyers to identify types of matters, and processes within matters, that can be automated and even predicted in order to decrease and fix costs. One way to do this is to control the production of contracts," says Hogan. And while forms have been around for many years, she notes, in practice these tools are still quite new. The learning curve can be steep but the return on investment can be well worth the time and effort. Expectations are also an important factor. Younger people are as comfort- able with the new technology, and the new ways of practising the business of law, as they are with their mother's old adages. It's not only that they will be more relaxed when faced with new soft- ware, it's that they expect such software to be part of their practice. And so do younger clients. "My generation is the Google generation," says Carabash. "We want things now. We want things cheap. That's the next generation of clients." Despite the discomfort some law- yers might have with the approach and the technology, document assembly and contract-management tools can actu- ally bring peace of mind. A survey conducted by Business Integrity in the wake of the recession found that mov- ing forward, the most important busi- ness driver for law firms was the fear of losing their biggest client. The second biggest worry: losing a client in play to a competitor. Of course, one way to keep existing clients and draw in new clients is to be faster, more productive, and less expen- sive than the other guys. www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com FEBRUA R Y 2011 37 ntitled-4 1 1/13/11 3:05:36 PM