Innovation in legal automation isn’t just about creating something new; it’s also about reusing what you already have and making it better. In this mini-series, we explore ways to maximise the potential of your existing document automation solutions by reusing templates effectively.
In our last blog, we tackled the challenges of signature blocks. This time, we’re focusing on how to get more value from a single automated template, particularly when dealing with annexures in contracts.
Understanding the Challenge of Annexures in Contracts
Contracts often include additional legal documents, known as annexures or exhibits. These attachments provide extra information to the main contract and can include example forms, agreements, or any other documents that parties need to sign or refer to during the contract's duration.
Traditionally, these annexures are not automated. Instead, they use square brackets to indicate transaction-specific details, which requires manual updates during execution.
When it’s time to finalise these documents, legal teams often use a separate, fully automated version to create transaction-specific forms or agreements. This manual updating process can be time-consuming, prone to errors, and create administrative headaches. Ensuring that all versions of a document are up-to-date, whether they are annexures or finalised for execution, can be a significant challenge and prone to errors.
Common types of annexed documents include:
Real estate: Authorised guarantee agreements (often annexed to leases)
Construction: Collateral warranties and novation agreements (often annexed to professional appointments)
Corporate: Collateral warranties and novation agreements (often annexed to professional appointments)
Employment: Non-disclosure agreements (often annexed to employment contracts)
Banking and Finance: Notices (often added as schedules in the Debenture)
These documents are often ready for signing without further negotiation. The information needed to complete them is usually already collected as part of the main contract. Given these conditions, using a single automated template that can serve both as a generic annexure and a draft document for signature can greatly reduce legal risks and streamline the contracting process.
Innovative Solutions for Automating Exhibits
To mitigate potential risks and save time and money, many legal teams are increasingly using contract templates that serve multiple purposes. With minimal additional effort, a single template can be used both to create a generic annexure and a draft document ready for signature. This approach ensures that updates are automatically reflected in both the execution-ready version and the annexed version, improving version control and reducing the risk of contract disputes.
At echo.legal, we apply logic to a single template to determine, based on the user's selections, whether the data fields should display placeholders (like square brackets) or the actual data collected. This logic allows the template to produce either a generic draft with placeholders or a draft document ready for signature.
For example, consider an automated lease suite that includes the option to create a lease with various specimen documents, such as an Authorised Guarantee Agreement (or AGA) as annexures, and the option to create a standalone AGA ready for signature. A single AGA template can serve both purposes.
When the AGA template is included in the lease as a sample form in an exhibit, the output would look like this:
Alternatively, when the user opts to create a standalone AGA, the transaction-specific data and text will be included, producing the following output:
In this way, a single template can be used to create both a generic, specimen form of the document for use as an annexure and a draft document ready for signature. It’s also possible to create both versions simultaneously, depending on the requirements of the transaction.
This method not only saves time but also helps reduce financial risks associated with inconsistent or outdated legal documents.
Level-Up Your Contract Templates for Maximum Efficiency
There are other scenarios where a more "vanilla" document is needed rather than one with specific transaction details. For example:
Corporate Transactions: Specimen forms might need to be annexed to Board minutes for approval while also being required as completed documents for closing purposes.
Real Estate Transactions: Legal charges may need a “form of” additional charge added to the schedules as an example for future assets. Alternatively, users might want to create a standalone specimen form rather than annexing it to a main document.
Using a single template for multiple purposes not only saves time and costs but also enhances consistency across the business. This approach can significantly improve contract risk management strategies by ensuring that all legal documents are up-to-date and compliant with the latest regulatory requirements - even when they are used as example only exhibits.
Explore More Ways to Maximise Your Document Templates
At echo.legal, we are always looking for ways to save our clients time and effort, reduce their potential risks, and maximise the return on their investment in document automation technology. By re-using your existing templates effectively, you can achieve greater efficiency and reduce the risk of having separate templates to maintain. Get in touch to find out more or explore other ways to enhance your legal automation on these links:
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