The problem
Small business clients send supplier terms, distribution agreements and software contracts for review, usually on a fixed fee and in a hurry. If a solicitor reviews 25 contracts a month and the first pass of mark-up and issues list takes 2 hours each, that's 50 hours a month.
What the AI does
Gavel Exec is an AI add-in for Microsoft Word that redlines full agreements, drafts and rewrites clauses, and runs playbooks automatically. You load your firm's positions on the clauses you always check (liability caps, indemnities, termination, intellectual property, data protection), Gavel Exec suggests tracked changes, and the solicitor accepts, rejects or rewrites each one before writing the advice. Gavel says it doesn't use customer data, prompts or document content to train AI models. The advice to the client is the solicitor's.
A worked example
A two-partner commercial firm in Bristol reviews about 25 contracts a month for small business clients. One solicitor uses Gavel Exec for the first pass of each review, then works through every suggested change and writes the client's advice note.
Before
2 hours for the first pass on each of 25 contracts: 50 hours a month
After
About 80 minutes with Gavel Exec's suggested redline to check: about 33 hours a month
What it's worth
About $1,773£1,333€1,586A$2,559C$2,506 a month of solicitor time, if it is worth $106£80€95A$154C$150 an hour: 40 minutes saved on each of 25 contracts is 1,000 minutes, about 16.7 hours. Gavel Exec is $160 (about $160£120€143A$230C$226) a user a month, or $1,740 (about $1,736£1,305€1,553A$2,506C$2,453) a user a year, about $145£109€130A$209C$205 a month. On fixed fees the saving is margin, and the 40 minutes is an assumption to test.
How to set it up
- Use the free trial's 25 queries on contracts you have already reviewed, and compare Gavel Exec's suggestions with your own mark-up.
- Write a playbook of your firm's standard positions under English law for the clauses you check most.
- Ask Gavel about EU hosting, its data processing terms and sub-processors, and get your COLP's approval before using client documents.
- Run Gavel Exec for the first pass, then accept, reject or rewrite every change yourself.
- Write the client's advice note yourself: what matters commercially, what to push back on and what to accept.
What goes wrong
- Gavel is a US company and its market benchmarks may reflect US practice. Check every suggestion against English law and the client's position.
- Gavel stores data in the United States by default, with EU hosting offered. Client contracts are confidential, so agree hosting and data processing terms first under UK GDPR.
- A tidy redline can hide a missed point, such as an indemnity in a schedule. Read the whole contract, not just the changes.
- Pricing is per user and in dollars, so the sterling cost moves with the exchange rate.