Model Documents
I do want to take a bit of space to talk about PL’s drafting facility. The concept here is to provide you with models that you can revise to fit particular needs—a practice most attorneys use to create agreements. For those who do not have their own forms, this offers you a form bank from which you can draw. In my opinion, the quality of the forms I saw looked pretty decent. In fairness, I would not have used any of them without changing them, but that represents a bias toward my own forms developed over 47 years of practice. If I did not have a form for a particular purpose, I would like to have the PL model to use as a starter. I think that it would make my job easier.
Overall, my impression is that the program does a pretty decent job of helping you write an agreement that lies within the scope of agreements it covers. Therein lies the rub. PL has a relatively limited scope of agreements at the present time. I am hopeful that as time goes on, TR will expand this part of PL to include many more agreements that can serve as models for attorneys, particularly attorneys in smaller firm environments and general practice. Note also that TR correctly recognizes that some agreements need to key in on local law and has identified certain documents to certain states.
While many of the provisions in a document designed for one state will work for documents drafted in other states, one needs to exercise caution in ensuring the document complies with the laws of the state in which it will operate. The program does not yet offer examples from all states. Whether it will in the future remains an unknown; but take the help where you can find it, and, if you do not have a form of your own and they do not have one from your state, you may want to check some of the examples from other states and use them as a starting point. The number and type of forms will continue to grow. There are still areas that have few or no forms. Before subscribing to this part of the service, you might want to take a look at the available forms and make sure that the program has forms that you might find useful.
Here’s a practical pointer: The listing of forms that you see at first does not include all the available forms or pointers to help you find them. Do not make the assumption that the listing provided is exhaustive. It is not. I initially made that mistake and did not find a number of forms for which I was looking. The program’s search feature did a much better job. If you use the search feature (the magnifying glass) and type in the name of a form you want, the chances are pretty fair that you will find a form for the type of agreement you need to draft, although it may reflect the law in a different state and, therefore, serve a more heuristic purpose. If you still do not find the form you seek, prior to giving up, contact TR support staff and ask them to help. Recognize that the system still has some areas without forms. For example, while I ultimately located several examples from different states for limited partnership agreements, I did not locate any examples of general partnership agreements.
Note that the program includes drafting tips in its document examples. You have the option of downloading a Microsoft Word version of the document with the tips or without the tips. You should either download both or keep the browser open to the document so that you can read the tips as you work. Download the clean (tip-free) version of the file to use as the base for your document.
If you find a form that looks close to what you want, TR makes it easy to create your document. You don’t have to start with a download and hunt for what to fill in before you tune it up and make the substantive changes you want. You can use the drafting facility built into the program, answer some questions about your situation, and the computer will generate a first draft with the information for your case. This will save you some time and let you focus on locating and making the changes, if any, required to adapt the document more perfectly to your facts and to comply with applicable law. Here’s another practice tip: Use the other side of PL to help you find information about your state’s law on the subject matter of the agreement. Chances are, you can get an overview that way to help you finalize your agreement.
Plans and Pricing
TR has created a number of plans for access to PL. Following the rule of three going back to ancient Gaul as proclaimed by Gaius Julius Caesar (with due apologies to Mr. Caesar for the literary license I have taken), all PL is divided into three parts: law firms (all sizes); general counsel (for nonprofits and small to medium-sized businesses); and government (for, well, you know, governmental agencies and academic institutions). TR made the programs scalable so that you can select a package that works for your firm, whether you are one lawyer or many. They also created a division in the law firm section for a focus on litigation and a focus on document preparation.
Pricing varies with the number of attorneys, feature set, and length of commitment. While I do not have time or space to further explore pricing here, you can find detailed pricing and plan information on the TR website.
Dynamic Tool Set
To sweeten the deal, several months ago TR introduced a major update to PL. They named their newest addition the Dynamic Tool Set (DLS). DLS consists of five tools designed to facilitate the acquisition and organization of information extracted from the PL database. Four of the five tools reside in a toolbox. Those tools go by the names Knowledge Map, Quick Compare, Interactive Matter Maps, and What’s Market Analytics. The fifth, Dynamic Search, lives at the search bar. Briefly described, the five tools provide the following functions:
Dynamic Search. This tool gives you a natural language search powered by algorithms designed to utilize and trained on Practical Law content. You get three different types of responses from this tool. Machine learning answers provide a direct answer and links to the applicable passage of text. You also get the results of a keyword search accessible under the answer card. In many (but not all) responses, the result will include an editorially created answer linked to relevant underlying PL content.
Knowledge Map. This tool provides you with the ability to visually navigate through the data stored in the PL database. This expedites the location of useful information and facilitates the identification of issues you may have missed. Clicking on portions of the map will cause it to expand to give you additional information/resources/issues relating to that portion of the bigger picture. Think of it as additional subheadings in an outline presented in a non-hierarchical format that readily allows you to delve more deeply into various areas (topics) on the map.
Quick Compare. This tool provides you with a customizable chart-building tool. It can help you more quickly identify and compare laws by jurisdiction or concepts across multiple practice areas. The editors have created chart forms that reside in the system. You can use one of theirs, take theirs and modify it, or create your own. The tool lets you add, delete, and reorganize cells and columns for convenience or the needs of your particular matter. A very useful feature, blue buttons in cells link you immediately to the underlying data supporting the conclusion presented by the cell. You can download both the chart and the supporting data. The charts remain dynamic in the program. If the editors have updated data drawn on for the creation of the chart, reopening the chart in PL will incorporate the updated data.
Interactive Matter Maps. The editors designed this piece of the tool set to help you organize, prioritize, and execute your plan for your matter, whether it is transactional or litigation. They provide an overview of the key phases of your matter and link you to important resources for each phase. Properly utilized, the Matter Maps can function as the game plan for your matter. To facilitate that, you can customize the Maps and even color code items they contain to allow for prioritization or make it easy to identify to whom you have delegated which tasks.
What’s Market Analytics. This tool searches public databases to provide you with summaries of information you might want for your particular transaction or matter.
The addition of the Dynamic Tool Set puts the utility of PL on steroids. Unlike in baseball, however, you can use these performance enhancers at will and without fear of retribution.
Conclusion
As I have run out of space for this review, I will disclose by way of conclusion that I have saved what I like best about PL for last. I have spent my entire adult life thinking of myself as a Renaissance man. I have thought of myself that way as I maintain active interests in a great many things and always look to acquire more information about them. To me, PL serves as a playground for my mind and my desire to acquire more knowledge and information. The breadth of its scope and depth of its coverage are generally quite good. That means that I can gather information about myriad topics, some of which relate to my practice and others of which relate to my personal interests or simply my desire to learn about something new. I see PL, especially with its new performance enhancers, as a viable and potentially very helpful tool for practicing law, learning the law, learning about various aspects of the law, and helping with the drafting of documents. I also see it as a far more broadly based addition to the general body of knowledge available to explore new areas of interest in and outside of the law.