Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers software for drafting and proofreading transactional documents that works within Microsoft Word and WordPerfect (see article below), PDF software designed for the legal profession, a checklist creation application for your workflow processes, and a smart height adjustable desk. Don't miss the next issue.
TRANSACTIONAL DOCUMENT DRAFTING ENTERS A NEW ERA
For more than two decades, transactional document drafting has entailed a collaboration between lawyer and technology. Initially, this just meant using a word processor. But in recent years, legal proofreading software has emerged that can find inconsistencies, omissions and other errors in your documents. The next step in this evolution consists of having software help you with the substantive law in your documents.
Drafting Assistant – Transactional 2.0 … in One Sentence
Launched in March, Thomson Reuters' Drafting Assistant – Transactional 2.0 is legal proofreading software that works within Microsoft Word and WordPerfect.
The Killer Feature
Drafting Assistant – Transactional now integrates with Practical Law's Standard Documents and Clause library, if you have a Practical Law subscription. That means without leaving your document you can obtain help both drafting and proofreading your document.
Practical Law is a human-powered service that helps lawyers tap into expertise unlikely to exist within their firm. Free from the demands of working in a law firm environment, the attorney editors at Practical Law spend all their time performing research and creating continually updated checklists, model documents, clause libraries, and more for transactional practice areas.
While drafting, you click on the Practical Law icon in your word processor's ribbon. This opens up the "Viewer" in which you can search and open Practical Law's Standard Documents and Clauses. You can use Practical Law's model documents both as a base and as a benchmark for comparing your own work. And because each Standard Document includes embedded Drafting Notes, you also get clause by clause drafting guidance.
"The ability to access Practical Law from within Drafting Assistant – Transactional expedites the drafting process and mirrors the way that lawyers actually draft," General Manager of Business Law Solutions Steve Obenski told us. "You have your master document and a benchmark document side by side within your drafting screen, so you can easily crib language and compare your documents to make sure they reflect current best practices. This combination provides the only end-to-end drafting solution on the market. You get the best substance and proofreading in one place."
Other Notable Features
In addition to the Practical Law integration, Drafting Assistant – Transactional includes 300 model documents across different transactional practice areas. You can also search Westlaw or WestlawNext directly from the software via a button on the toolbar.
The heart of Drafting Assistant – Transactional remains its "Deal Proof" proofreading analyzer engine. The software reviews documents of any size for errors in definitions, cross references, inconsistencies, missing information, and more. The software then flags each potential error and enables you jump to it by creating a hyperlinked index. You can also generate a report listing all possible errors.
After more than 10 years of refining the proofreading engine to find the tiniest of errors while minimizing false positives, Thomson Reuters commissioned a study to evaluate Deal Proof. The study found that lawyers who use Drafting Assistant – Transactional reduce their review time by 60% on average and find errors that go unnoticed with other proofreading methods.
What Else Should You Know?
The new version of Drafting Assistant – Transactional works with Microsoft Word 2013 and WordPerfect X6 as well as with earlier versions (it runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8). You can use the Deal Proof component online or offline. Learn more about Drafting Assistant – Transactional 2.0.
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