Case Study: Enhancing Legal Ops with Contract Clause Library

Spotlight

A growing financial services firm was handling more contracts across regions. The legal team handled a large number of contracts. These included vendor agreements and service-level contracts. As the company grew the number of contracts increased. The legal team needed a better way to manage clauses across different teams. They needed a solution to keep clause language consistent and reduce time spent on repeating the same tasks.

Highlights

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Faster Contracts with Less Effort

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Fewer Reviews Saving Time

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Accuracy Reducing Legal Risks

Customer’s Speak

Mike Reynolds

Legal Operations Manager

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Managing contracts manually led to missed deadlines, compliance risks, and inefficiencies. With SharePoint Contract Management, automation streamlined workflows, reduced manual effort, and ensured compliance. Now, we focus more on clients instead of paperwork.

Challenges Faced Before Implementing CLM 365

Despite having skilled legal professionals and well-defined contract templates, the team ran into recurring issues. Here’s what they shared with us.

1. Difficulty in Locating Approved Clauses
Legal professionals often spent an excessive amount of time searching for the correct version of previously approved clauses. With no central repository in place, team members had to dig through archived emails, shared folders, or old contracts to find suitable wording. This not only delayed contract creation but also increased the risk of using outdated or inconsistent terms.

2. Repeated Compliance Reviews
Manually drafting or modifying clauses often resulted in inconsistencies that triggered additional rounds of review by compliance teams. Even small deviations from approved language required rechecking, which extended the contract lifecycle and diverted valuable time from higher-priority legal tasks.

3. Limited Visibility Into Clause Usage
Without a centralized system, the legal team had no structured view of which clauses were frequently used, preferred, or most effective for different contract types. This lack of visibility made it difficult to promote clause standardization and slowed decision-making during drafting.

4. Lengthy Onboarding for New Legal Staff
New hires found it challenging to become productive quickly. With no centralized clause resource to guide them, they had to rely on verbal instructions or learn by observing experienced colleagues. This approach lacked structure, prolonged the onboarding process, and increased the chances of inconsistencies in contract language.

5. Risk of Errors from Manual Clause Handling
Manually copying and modifying clauses from old contracts increased the chances of introducing errors sometimes as minor as a misplaced word, but significant enough to create legal ambiguity or risk. These small errors, though unintentional, had the potential to result in compliance issues or disputes.

How We Solved It – The Solution

The legal firm wanted to improve how they handled compliance, renewals, and deadlines, but scattered clause references made it challenging. With the Contract clause library in place, they now work with greater clarity, faster reviews, and stronger legal operations. Here is how it helped.

1) Centralized Clause Access for All Teams
The legal team no longer needed to dig through emails or shared drives. The most up-to-date, approved clauses were available in one central location categorized by use case, contract type, and risk profile.

2) Accelerated Compliance Reviews
Previously, legal teams had to send contracts back and forth with compliance reviewers, especially when clauses were manually written or modified. With the contract clause library in place, every clause used was already vetted and approved by compliance. This reduced review cycles from days to hours, allowing contracts to move forward faster without compromising legal standards.

3) Smarter Clause Selection for Each Scenario
The library did not just store clauses it actively suggested the most suitable ones based on factors like contract type, region, and deal value. This helped even less experienced team members confidently choose the right language. It also reduced reliance on senior staff for approvals and eliminated the guesswork that often slowed down drafting.

4) Improved Accuracy Through Version Control
Inconsistent clause updates were a recurring issue. With version control built into the contract clause library, every change is tracked with full audit history. Teams can see who made what updates, when, and why. If a mistake is found later, they can easily revert to a previous version ensuring that only the most accurate, approved clauses are used in active contracts.

5) Centralized Access Across Departments
Instead of maintaining separate clause templates in different locations, the contract clause library gave all departments legal, procurement, finance access to a single source of truth. This improved cross-functional collaboration and ensured everyone was working with the same approved language.

Results & Business Impact

By using the contract clause library, our client experienced significant improvements in their contract drafting process. With instant access to approved clauses and reduced review cycles. Here is how it helped,

65% Faster Contract Creation
With a contract clause library readily available, the legal team was able to draft contracts more quickly while maintaining accuracy and consistency.

40% Drop in Internal Review Rounds
Since all clauses were vetted in advance, contracts required fewer compliance checks, cutting down legal back-and-forth and saving valuable time.

85% Clause Accuracy in Final Contracts
By eliminating manual edits and using a centralized contract clause library, the team ensured every contract included the correct, up-to-date language removing risks tied to outdated or inconsistent clauses.