Contracts. Who could imagine a law office—or a lawyer—without them? Contracts are, arguably, the most essential of all law office documents. Yet perhaps due to their very importance, contracts often end up controlling their creators—sometimes for years after the signatures have dried.
Contract management software promises to help attorneys gain the upper hand on contract creation, storage, organization, and related tasks by providing tools designed to streamline routine processes. Will Conroy, an associate with Englander Fischer, a St. Petersburg, Fla., law firm, says that CMS technology has become almost as essential as the documents themselves. “Lawyering in today’s world without a document management system is borderline malpractice,” observes Conroy, who uses an application developed by Worldox. “The ability to efficiently store and retrieve electronic documents is no longer a value-added service to clients, it has become a part of necessary business practice.”
