How to streamline your contract creation process with help from your clients
Those who are tasked with drafting contracts recognize the frustration of wasting time to get all the needed information before drafting a contract. Both law firms and in-house counsel have clients who need contracts—customers of the law firm or those in businesses relying on the company’s legal department for their contracting needs.
Taking information from clients
Chances are, if you are in this boat then you may be using a Word document form that you’re sending out and hoping the client gives you everything you need. Not only must everything be filled out but also everything the client has added must be correct. If you need to go back to them to obtain more or correct information, everyone wastes more time (and money) that could have been spent on other legal work.
It’s fair to say this approach to gathering information is inefficient. Even if you get everything you need from the client when you request the information, there will still be some double keying as the information received will need to be retyped into the contract you’re creating.
How M-Files Ment can help
Thankfully, the “Word document” way of gathering information is on its way out. There’s a better way of doing it—a way that allows the client to add information into an electronic form which then gets added straight into a drafted contract automatically. In other words, you can generate documents directly from client inputs, still staying in full control of the version actually going out with M-Files Ment’s client-facing Link.
Streamlining the process
When sending Links to your clients your process can look something more like this:
1. The lawyer needs to draft a contract and requires information from the client.
2. The lawyer opens up M-Files Ment and creates a Link to the client-facing questionnaire—this can be a subset of all the questions that need to be asked to create the contract, just the ones the client needs to answer.
3. The lawyer emails the Link to the client.
4. The client opens up the Link and fills out the questions in a mobile-optimized, electronic form and submits it back to the lawyer.
5. The lawyer gets notified that answers have been filled out by client and can then review the client’s answers and also add any other information into the questionnaire as required.
6. The lawyer submits the questionnaire and creates the first draft of the contract. Simple!
Key benefits
Link offers the following benefits:
1. The client fills in the requested information electronically straight into the M-Files Ment questionnaire, allowing the lawyer to review their responses and add what they need to draft the contract easily and without double keying.
2. The fields in the questionnaire sent to the client can be restricted to only inputs you want them to fill out and can also include guidance—meaning less time spent asking clients to amend or add information.
3. Contract drafting time is reduced—once the client has filled out their questionnaire, the lawyer should have everything they need to create a first draft contract, streamlining the overall process.
4. This final benefit can’t be underestimated. Put yourself in the shoes of your client: Are they going to want to download an attachment, rename it, fill it in, save it and send it back in this day and age? Probably not. Sending clients a link that allows them to easily fill out the questionnaire and submit it is much simpler. It will make their lives easier, and they’ll appreciate it.
Discover more
See M-Files Ment in action. Contact us today to learn about the different platform capabilities and how they can benefit you.