Case Studies
BrightDraft has supported law firms and in-house legal teams across a wide range of practice areas, including Corporate, Banking, Employment, Real Estate, Employment, Pensions and Private Client.
Our familiarity with the general discipline of legal drafting means we are well placed to support projects across all practice areas.
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The case study examples below illustrate a small selection of recent automation projects and the outcomes achieved for our clients.
Corporate - Share Purchase Agreement automation
Client: global business law firm
Challenge
Our client’s precedent share purchase agreement (SPA) did not incorporate complex transaction structures such as purchase price mechanisms and vendor representative provisions. Drafting required significant manual addition and amendment, increasing time pressure on transactions and affecting margin recovery under fixed-fee arrangements.
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Solution
BrightDraft worked closely with practice development lawyers to:
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Develop structured, automated drafting options for multiple purchase price mechanisms and other optional content choices
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Incorporate these into a single automated SPA template so users could complete an online questionnaire, select the content options required each time, and generate a well-progressed, tailored first draft SPA
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Embed clear legal and practical guidance within the questionnaire to support confident user selection
Outcome
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Significantly reduced drafting time for complex SPAs
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Improved consistency across transactions
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Strengthened margin protection under fixed-fee matters
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Created a scalable automated foundation for future clause and structure expansion
Corporate - share certificates and stock transfer forms
Client: global business law firm
Challenge
As part of an M&A drafting workflow, our client’s Corporate team was manually preparing all share certificates and stock transfer forms required for each transaction. This involved repeatedly entering common information across multiple documents and often generating large numbers of documents on more complex matters. The process consumed significant fee-earner time and introduced avoidable execution risk.
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Solution
We developed an automated workflow that allows users to input key transaction information just once and then generate all required share certificates and stock transfer forms in bulk. The automation captures common company and transaction details centrally and then applies them across each document, while allowing users to tailor specific information for individual certificates or transfers where required.
Outcome
The automated solution significantly reduced drafting time for completion documentation while improving consistency and reducing execution risk. For transactions involving multiple share transfers, lawyers can now generate all required documents within minutes rather than manually drafting each document individually.
Real Estate: Offer Styles
Client: top 100 UK law firm
Challenge
A leading real estate practice maintained two sophisticated precedent offer styles containing extensive drafting options and guidance notes for different transaction scenarios. Preparing tailored drafts required lawyers to manually remove unnecessary clauses and adapt the precedent for each deal, making the process time-consuming despite the high quality of the underlying precedents.
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Solution
Working closely with the team’s senior knowledge lawyer, we analysed the precedents and designed an automation structure focused on the areas that would deliver the greatest efficiency gains without over-complicating the drafting process. We consolidated the two precedents into a single automated template and embedded guidance notes to support users when completing the questionnaire. Address and company look-ups were also incorporated to further streamline document generation and enrich the user experience.
Outcome
Lawyers can now generate tailored first drafts in minutes by selecting the appropriate offer type and completing a structured questionnaire. We also structured the automation so as to allow a scalable foundation for future enhancements, enabling additional drafting options and related documents to be integrated into the same automated suite over time.
Banking - Debentures
Client: global commercial law firm
Challenge
The banking team maintained eight different debenture precedents, each stored and updated separately. When changes were required to shared provisions or structure, updates had to be replicated across all eight documents, increasing maintenance effort and the risk of inconsistencies between precedents.
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Solution
We reviewed all debenture precedents and identified a common structural core shared across the various forms. We designed an automation structure that consolidated the precedents into a single automated template.
Working closely with the knowledge partner, we also included further automation to assist the team with many “heavy lifting” elements of the drafting process. Lawyers can now select the appropriate debenture type through the questionnaire and refine the document further through structured drafting options.
Outcome
The consolidated automated template enables lawyers to generate the appropriate debenture quickly while significantly reducing ongoing precedent maintenance requirements for the knowledge team. Updates affecting multiple debenture types can now be implemented once within the automated template rather than across multiple standalone precedents.
Private Client - Wills and related documents
Client: leading UK private client law firm
Challenge
The firm maintained multiple separate will precedents, each requiring manual drafting and adaptation for every matter. Lawyers needed to paste in additional clauses where required and manually update names, addresses and defined terms throughout the document, making the drafting process time-intensive and increasing the potential for manual errors.
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Solution
We designed an automated drafting workflow for the full suite of will precedents, allowing users to select the relevant will type and specific content options (such as executor, residue, trust and legacy structures) through a structured questionnaire. The automation then generates a fully tailored will with the required content structures, and with all names and defined terms applied consistently throughout the document.
Related powers of attorney were also incorporated into the same automated suite for optional generation alongside the Will.
Outcome
The automated solution enables lawyers to generate fully tailored wills quickly and consistently, significantly reducing drafting time while improving document accuracy. The automation framework was also designed to support future expansion of the suite to include additional private client documents such as letters of wishes and codicils.
Corporate Partner, Global business law firm
Simon’s focus and passion has always been helping the team work more efficiently through best practice and innovation. He is friendly, hard-working and always delivers tailored solutions.
Senior Associate, Private Client
I thought it was excellent – it definitely saved time and was straightforward to use. I can't think of any suggestions
Managing Practice Development Lawyer, Pensions
I hope the automated SPA has generally been useful and time-saving? "It has. Loads!"