The LEXR Standard Legal Guide ...
The legal ops & tech stack
1min
Why does it matter?
It is easy to overlook the need for a concrete legal document management process in the early stages of your entrepreneurial journey because the number of legal documents to manage is small. However, you will accumulate many legal documents along the way, whether they are corporate documents such as minutes of general assembly or board meetings, as well as capital increase documentation, or contracts with customers, vendors, employees, etc.
Building a solid foundation for your contract management processes is a worthwile investment. Here's why:
- Deadlines: Just like your personal subscriptions, more and more business agreements contain an automatic renewal clause and other important deadlines (e.g., if you do not terminate, the contract renews for another year). Keeping track of important deadlines will save you a lot of money.
- Due diligence and audits: Investors, regulators, tax authorities, banks, customers, and others may ask to see your legal documents. Staying organized will save you a lot of time (and potentially trouble).
- Intellectual property: Trademarks need to be renewed on a regular basis – if you forget, your trademark protection may be lost to a competitor.
How do I do this?
Here are three measures to implement for your legal document management process:
- Accessible repository
- Store all legal documents in a company-accessible repository. This could be a cloud platform, a server, etc. The key is to have all documents in one place, not scattered on everyone's laptops.
- Consistent contract naming and storage
- Always name documents the same way. For example, you can use YYYYMMDD_Title_Author_Version (Example: 20240101_Licensing Agreement_AB_v.2).
- Tracking and reminders
- Implement a tracking and notification system to ensure that you never miss a termination, renewal, or other deadline.
- Link the relevant contract to the actions to be taken so that each employee understands the context.
There are many tools that can help you manage your legal affairs more efficiently. Here's our recommended tech stack:
- LEXR Bridge contract generator: Freely create your own founder's agreement, employment agreement, NDA, DPA, IP assignment, and financing round term sheet.
Updated 01 Nov 2024
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