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Introduction
Womble Bond Dickinson is a full service international law firm with offices in the UK and the US.
Its growing banking team advises mid-market and specialist lenders on corporate, acquisition and asset finance, as well as public-sector funding projects. As the team expanded and took on more complex deals, the need for innovation became clear: streamlining labour-intensive drafting was essential to support the growth in volume of higher value work.
The challenge
Drafting Loan Market Association (LMA) facility agreements is a persistent bottleneck for banking practices. These documents often exceed 250 pages, with extensive optionality and interdependencies to be considered. Producing first drafts manually takes many hours and relies heavily on experienced lawyers to ensure accuracy and consistency.
However, the banking team often faces tight deadlines to convert negotiated terms into tailored agreements, which increases pressure and risk of errors.
“Funding lawyers are often the last in the deal chain,” explains John Connor, partner and head of the banking team at Womble Bond Dickinson. “Everyone is ready to get on with things, and they’re looking at the banking lawyer to quickly produce a full suite of documentation that accurately reflects the agreed commercial terms – and to do it very, very quickly.”
"As our banking practice grew and took on more complex deals, we needed a way to accelerate first-draft production without compromising the precision, quality, or bespoke character of its work." Their search for efficiency led them to Clarilis.
The solution
To address these challenges, Womble Bond Dickinson adopted a facilities agreement automation tool developed by Clarilis. This solution uses a sophisticated questionnaire that mirrors the structure of a typical term sheet, enabling junior lawyers to accurately capture deal details and generate structured first drafts with confidence. The automation reduces errors and ensures drafts reflect negotiated terms, giving senior lawyers more time to negotiate the finance documentation and deal with complex points such as financial covenants and intercreditor issues.
To ensure efficiency benefits don’t come at the expense of accuracy, Clarilis’ professional support lawyers maintain the underlying automations, ensuring templates remain up-to-date with current LMA standards and market best practice.
Equally important is Clarilis’ ability to incorporate Womble Bond Dickinson’s bespoke positions. This ensures drafts reflect the firm’s style, preferences and client-specific requirements, and not just the LMA’s standard position.
Value
The adoption of Clarilis has delivered several measurable benefits for Womble Bond Dickinson:
- Efficiency: First drafts that previously took tens of hours are now generated in a fraction of the time, enabling smoother deal progression and reducing pressure during critical transaction phases.
- Quality assurance: Clarilis provides peace of mind when drafting facilities agreements, ensuring everyone is drafting based on the most up-to-date template, reducing the risk of discrepancies.
- Capacity: Junior lawyers can produce initial drafts, freeing senior lawyers to focus on complex, client-critical issues and supporting the team’s growth ambitions.
Conclusion
Clarilis provides Womble Bond Dickinson with a strategic advantage, enabling the delivery of high-quality work at speed without compromising the meticulous standards of its banking team. This efficiency helps the firm better serve clients and win more business.
Looking ahead, Womble Bond Dickinson is exploring how Clarilis automation can support a wider range of banking and finance documents, extending the benefits of consistency, efficiency and scalability across the practice.
“LMA based facilities are only part of what we do as a banking team,” John says. “We're also looking to automate a broader suite of our templates – which will be transformative for driving higher volumes.”
As technology-led drafting becomes a competitive necessity, automation is key to maintaining turnaround times and staying ahead in the market.
Learn more about how Clarilis can transform your banking and finance drafting.