In this LinkedIn article, Nate Kostelnick says "It seems like AI contract review is everywhere." I concur.
By contrast, AI contract drafting is notable by its absence. For example, the legal tasks featured in the recent Vals Legal AI Report include redlining but don't include drafting.
The emphasis on contract review might seem justifiable. After all, as an ancient Chinese proverb has it, "A contract template is drafted once but is reviewed 5,000 times." (I made that up.) But I suggest it's time to redress the balance between review and drafting.
If it's done well, AI contract review is invaluable. But that by itself isn't what makes for the current clamor. Instead, it seems as if many companies in the contracts legaltech industry have moved on from contract-lifecycle-management systems to AI contract review. A lot of the noise is the sound of selling. We can afford to lower the volume a little.
By contrast, there's no clamor surrounding contract drafting. That's not surprising. What prevails is the copy-and-paste system, and there's little money to be made from that. And I'm not suggesting we should ratchet up AI contract drafting. It's just a souped-up copy-and-paste machine, so AI contract drafting won't save us from ourselves. (See this blog post and the posts it links to.) It follows that the process of creating contract templates remains arduous. (See this blog post.)
If there's no urgency surrounding contract drafting, there should be, given the prevailing dysfunction. Everywhere I look, I see templates that are nowhere near as clear, concise, and relevant as they could be. That has implications not just for contract drafting but also contract review. It's been decades since I've done deals, but it's safe to assume that much contract review consists of people lobbing dysfunctional drafts back and forth and offering comments based on lame conventional wisdom.
What's required for a less ramshackle contracts process is a fresh start for contract drafting. It's unrealistic to expect that we'll get anywhere through bespoke retooling of copy-and-paste dysfunction. We now have options for a fresh start.
For some kinds of transactions, you could use one of the standard-form initiatives that are out there: they offer a free template with limited customization, with the option of using their negotiation platform, for a fee. Adams Contracts has opted for a different approach—its document-automation templates are highly customizable.
Let's shine some of the limelight on fresh-start contract drafting.
