Standard documents and standard clauses

Standard Documents and Standard Clauses are written by our team of expert attorney-editors, who keep them up to date with current law and market practice. The integrated drafting notes help you to customize them with confidence.

Browse Standard Documents and Standard Clauses

  1. Go to the homepage and select
    Standard Documents
    or
    Standard Clauses
    on the
    Resource Types
    tab 
  2. Select a Practice Area, Sector, or Jurisdiction
  3. Apply filters or use the
    Search bar
    to narrow the list
  4. Select the title of a Standard Document or Standard Clause from the list to open it.

Uses of Standard Documents and Standard Clauses

You can use Standard Documents and Standard Clauses to:
  • Quickly create drafts with minimal rework
  • Handle drafting in-house, even with less experienced attorneys
  • Identify when language favors one party over another

Drafting notes

When you open a Standard Document or Standard Clause, the drafting notes are shown as buttons. Select an individual drafting note button to show the text or use the toolbar to show or hide all drafting notes.
Drafting notes provide explanations and drafting tips, such as:
  • The purpose of the document
  • Sources of controlling law
  • Details about treatment in different jurisdictions
  • Alerts when language favors one party over another
  • Links to other
    Practical Law
    resources
  • Definitions
Example drafting note
Short extract from an Agreement of Merger: LLCs (CA) Standard Document that shows an Effective Date Clause with the full text of the drafting note shown after it. The note refers to how the Effective Date is determined in different circumstances, with links to the controlling law. There's a Close button, which can be used to hide the text of the note.

Related content