Don’t Build Pockets of Innovation: Build Systems That Scale

Too often, law firms invest in point solutions, tools that automate a single workflow, improve one team’s efficiency, or deliver value to a niche practice area. 

These “pockets of innovation” feel like progress, but in reality, they can entrench fragmentation. The problem? They don’t scale.

Modern law firms don’t need one-off tools. They need automation that can handle every kind of document, across every practice group, and every level of complexity and volume.

That’s why Smarter Drafter is built to scale across both axes, volume and complexity, within a single platform.

One Platform, Three Modes of Automation

Smarter Drafter supports all three major approaches to document generation, allowing your firm to grow without switching systems or stacking tools:

1. Lawyer-Driven Automation

Perfect for internal workflows, low-volume matters, and high-discretion legal work.

In this mode, lawyers complete a guided questionnaire inside Microsoft Word or the Smarter Drafter interface. The system uses branching logic and embedded know-how to assemble a document quickly, while maintaining firmwide formatting and clause integrity.

Use Cases

• Employment agreements
• Partnership deeds
  Matter-specific contracts or pleadings
  
  

Why it matters: Lawyers save time without losing control. Knowledge teams can update content without developer support. Documents are consistent, on-brand, and fast to produce.

2. Client-Driven Automation

Ideal for onboarding, intake-heavy workflows, and high-frequency client interactions.

Smarter Drafter enables you to create secure, branded intake portals where clients themselves provide key data. This input is then used to automatically generate draft documents, ready for lawyer review.

Use Cases

• Client onboarding documents
• Engagement letters
• Self-service contract generation (e.g. NDAs, leases)
  
  

Why it matters: Lawyers stay focused on high-value tasks while clients feel empowered and supported. The firm scales delivery without increasing headcount.

3. Data-Driven Automation (DDA)

Built for high-volume, high-complexity operations – especially commercial divisions and outsourced services.

In this model, Smarter Drafter integrates directly with your existing systems, PMS, Line-of-Business apps, or external data sources. Documents are generated automatically via API based on events or scheduled processes. No human input required to trigger the automation.

Use Cases

• Commercial services offered at scale
• High-frequency legal documents like loan agreements or notices
• Regulatory reporting packs, generated in bulk
  
  

Why it matters: This is where automation becomes infrastructure. DDA allows firms to deliver industrial-scale services, accurately, instantly, and with lawyer oversight only where needed.

Why It Matters: Avoid Fragmentation, Build Foundations

When firms implement siloed tools for individual problems, they create brittle workflows that don’t talk to each other, and can’t scale. You end up with:

• Different tools across teams
• Duplication of data
• No shared knowledge base or clause consistency
• Security and integration risks

Smarter Drafter avoids this by providing a single system that adapts to the diversity of your work, without compromising on legal quality, control, or integration.

Especially Relevant for Commercial and Outsourced Divisions

Firms offering outsourced commercial legal services face the greatest pressure to scale, quickly and without error. These divisions are often:

• Handling hundreds or thousands of documents weekly
• Repeating similar logic across matters
• Bound by strict client SLAs and formatting standards

Smarter Drafter’s Data-Driven Automation gives these teams the infrastructure to scale efficiently, triggering document generation directly from business systems, and ensuring every output is reviewable, compliant, and court-ready.

Automate for the Whole Firm, Not Just One Team

Whether your firm is starting with lawyer-led workflows or running a full commercial services engine, Smarter Drafter meets you where you are, and grows with you.

You don’t need different tools for different teams. You need one platform that scales across complexity and volume.