The Oklahoma Bar Journal January 2025

L aw P ractice T ips

Thoughts on Legal Document Automation By Jim Calloway

M ORE TECHNOLOGY-BASED changes are ahead in legal service delivery, and I believe we are reaching the point where many Oklahoma lawyers will be exploring automated document preparation. Automated document assembly is not new to the Oklahoma legal community. In the 1990s, Oklahoma City lawyer Doug Loudenback created a collection of WordPerfect macros he called the “Grande Macros.” These macros interacted with each other in such a way that they functioned like a current automated document assembly tool. Lawyers entered the data about a case that was needed to prepare family law documents, and it assem bled them. The petition was not only prepared but also the summons, a temporary order and the initial discovery requests. It was a huge time saver, and the macros gave the user the option to save the data so that it could be used again for future pleadings as the case proceeded. Of course, WordPerfect did not win the office suite battle, and Doug Loudenback stopped updat ing the software when he retired. A few Windows and WordPerfect updates later and the macros were no longer functional. Now, we see automation tools becoming easier to use. I appreci ate that some Oklahoma law firms

desired options or alternatives from a list or interview. Instead of manually replacing [testator name] with your client’s name 25 times, you simply respond to on-screen questions and let the computer do the clerical work. Users must only answer ques tions in an interview/questionnaire to produce letter-perfect, com pletely customized documents. Neither word processing nor computer skills are required to use such a system once it is built. Even technophobe, two-finger typists can produce perfectly formatted, complex documents without assistance. The benefits of proper docu ment assembly technology imple mentation were also noted in the same paper: drafting time and increase accuracy. For example, it would be normal for a DA system to compress what normally takes 6 hours of drafting time into 15 or 20 minutes. DA systems can be used as teaching tools, shared with others, and textu ally updated as necessary. If your practice involves generat ing complex documents (or a set of documents is the ultimate Properly deployed, DA technol ogy can exponentially decrease

have embraced automated document assembly tools. At ABA TECHSHOW 2024, one of the presentations was titled (in part) “Why Document Automation Technology Has Become Mandatory.” People, especially lawyers, dislike being told they must do something. However, AI tools are making legal document automation easier and faster by simplifying template creation. Barron K. Henley of Affinity Consulting noted in his paper accompanying the above-mentioned ABA TECHSHOW program: On the most basic level, doc ument automation is the use of software to (very) quickly generate customized Microsoft Word documents. In other words, document automation adds significant functionality to your existing word proces sor. It allows you to capture the consistencies in your documents such as which sections, para graphs, sentences, and words go where under any set of facts. It also allows you to capture the irregularities in your doc uments. Irregularities include custom provisions and intelli gent language building that can accurately consider thousands of inputs to produce the correct phraseology every time. Instead of cut and paste, you can pick

60 | JANUARY 2025

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL