Document automationIn progress

Automating NDA review for a private investment firm

An NDA lands, the workflow reads it against the firm's playbook, and counsel gets a triage call plus a tracked-changes redline draft instead of a cold document.

incoming_nda.docxreading against playbook
term · 5 yrs
non-solicit
triage →negotiateredline drafted · 2 changes
STEP 1
NDA lands
incoming from a counterparty, any format
STEP 2
AI reads the terms
clause by clause, against the playbook
STEP 3
Triage call
sign / negotiate / escalate — with reasons
STEP 4
Redline drafted
tracked changes, the firm's conventions
STEP 5
Counsel decides
accept, adjust, reject — line by line

The bottleneck

At a private investment firm, every new relationship starts with an NDA — and every NDA waits on the same overloaded review path. Most of them are routine. A few carry the clauses that actually matter: an embedded non-solicit, a missing carveout, a term that quietly outlives the deal. The routine ones clog the queue; the dangerous ones hide in it.

The shape being built

The workflow reads an incoming NDA against the firm's own negotiation playbook — their standard positions, their required carveouts, their walk-away terms — and sorts it into one of three lanes: fine to sign, negotiate from a known position, or escalate to counsel. Every flag points at the clause that triggered it, so review starts at the problem instead of page one.

Sign

Mutual confidentiality2-year termStandard remedies

Negotiate

Broad affiliate definitionNo residuals clauseOne-way obligations

Escalate

Embedded non-solicitMissing standard carveouts

For the negotiate lane, it drafts the redline itself — a Word document with tracked changes, in the firm's own conventions, ready for a lawyer to accept, adjust, or reject line by line. The playbook lives in files the firm edits, not in code; when their standard position shifts, they change a row, not a vendor relationship.

Draft redline — tracked changes, ready for counsel

The obligations of this Agreement shall survive for a period of five (5) years two (2) years following the date of disclosure, except with respect to trade secrets, which shall remain protected for so long as they qualify as such.

Playbook · term length

Standard position: 2-year survival with a trade-secret carveout. Counter automatically; escalate only if refused.

Where the line sits

Same rule as every workflow here: the AI reads and proposes; it never decides. Nothing gets signed, sent, or even labeled “safe” without a person looking at it — the deliverable is a better starting point for counsel, not a replacement for counsel. This page is a build in progress; the write-up gets its results section when the workflow has earned one.