Transferring Legal Knowledge
Through Experiential & Blended Learning
Clausehound is
proudly incubated
at George Brown
College!
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“Most Highly Annotated Legal Document Library on the Web”
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“Most Highly Annotated Legal Document Library on the Web”
Our Technology
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Legal Document Design
1
Re-indexed content
2
2
Review drafting guidelines to
prevent errors
3
Precedents shells can be
changed throughout drafting
4
Workflow is no longer
restricted to a single person
3
4
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The Origins of Clausehound
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How Clausehound was born...
Training new lawyers is time consuming and expensive
The review process was inefficient and repetitive
The knowledge being transferred was consistent
Lawyer knowledge becomes institutional knowledge
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Clausehound Offers A Technological Approach to Solicitor Training
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
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Practical training (not just book learning) via problem-based learning based on simulated cases
ONLINE REFERENCE MATERIALS
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“Most Affordable Highly Annotated Legal Document Library on the Web”
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
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Collaboration tool allows students to work together with advising counsel
Learning points (“Tacit Knowledge”) is captured and stored for the future
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The Clausehound Knowledge Platform
Customers can choose an a-la-carte, or end-to-end knowledge solution
Legal
Document
Design with
instant
access to
knowledge
library
Our proprietary
bursting technology
Experiential
knowledge
transfer using
our compare
tool
Learning
tool for
concept
onboarding
Massive
Clause
Library
How Clausehound is being used to bring blended learning into the
classroom
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Technologically assisted learning
Using technology in the classroom and law firm to:
(1) embed knowledge directly into the coursework
(2) increase the ability for self-learning
(3) reduce the necessity for independent instruction
(4) reflect the workflow of law firms
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Independent/Flex learning
Most of the curriculum is delivered via:
(1) a digital platform and
(2) teachers are available for face-toface consultation and support.
This results in the student learning
the materials in a contextualized
environment with support when
needed from experienced lawyers
and professors.
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Evolving curriculum
(1) Learn: Use Clausehound depth of legal knowledge to learn the types of
contracts, what different clauses mean and which cases impact each clause.
(2) Review: Learn firm-level skills of reviewing legal agreements for both
junior and senior counsel.
(3) Draft: Apply commercial principles when drafting agreements for mock
clients using case study method of learning
(4) Compare: Learn high-level analysis of agreement drafting by comparing
student’s work with ‘gold standard’ agreement drafting - understand the
implications and effectiveness of ‘Draft’ component.
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Instruction Area One: Reviewing a contract
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Instructions guide the student through the site’s reviewing functionality
Our
Document
Review Tool
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Instructions guide the student through contract review requirements
Our
Document
Review Tool
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Our Document Review Tool: Compares one-to-one or one-to-many
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Compares one-to-one or one-to-many dynamically
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Reviewed contracts are finalized by the student in MS Word for submission
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Instruction Area Two: Drafting a contract
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Instructions guide the student through the site’s drafting functionality
Our
Document
Drafting
Tool
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Instructions guide the student through contract drafting requirements
Our
Document
Drafting
Tool
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Students will (1) Learn about the meaning of clause language within our
portal
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Students will (2) Vary clause language; (3) Provide Comments and Edits for
review by an instructor; and (4) Retain comments for future consideration
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Assignments are finalized in MS Word for submission
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Communication and guidance is provided throughout the process
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Clausehound Teaches Young Lawyers to Draft
DRAFTING TOOLS
THAT YOUNG
LAWYERS WILL
RELY ON
Experience from
tasks (and
throughout career) is
stored on individual
user accounts,
indexed to contract
clauses
ACCESS TO EXPERT
KNOWLEDGE IMMEDIATELY,
WITH ZERO WAIT TIME
Case Law
Expert commentary and
publications are digitized and
indexed - “pinpointed” - to
contract clauses
COMPARATIVE
LEARNING IS ESSENTIAL
Deep database of variant
clause language assists in the
learning process - learning by
comparison
I feel that my knowledge of legal concepts within a contract has increased as well. Looking at different
contracts and variations of a type of contract has made me more attentive to ways that a client can be
protected.
– Clausehound research analyst
CLAUSE BURSTING AND
MATCHING PROCESS
ACCELERATES LEARNING
OF LEGAL CONCEPTS
The time in which unfamiliar
clauses are identified and
organized has been
accelerated by 85%
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The Tacit Knowledge Transfer Problem
●
Legal drafting and negotiating is scenario-based, and negotiating points are “tacitly”-held
knowledge
Explicit
Assets
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•
Formal corporate assets
Includes: patents, reports,
templates and datasets
Tacit
Assets
•
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Informal assets that are
based on human
experience
Mentoring, training and a
knowledge-sharing culture
● A major challenge that firms encounter is transforming their tacit knowledge into explicit
knowledge.
● A great deal of organizational knowledge remains tacit as it cannot be efficiently
downloaded from experts, and organized/onboarded to new people dealing with a matter
● Being able to convert tacit knowledge to express knowledge is a source of competitive
advantage for a learning institution
We have been teaching law students for a decade
Key Personnel
Rajah S. Lehal – 7 years of management in information technology, Ivey MBA, Western Law, Stikeman Elliott
LLP (top-tier Canadian transactional law firm), Clyde & Co (international law firm)
First Student Director at the Western Business Law Clinic
Formerly an instructor of law at George Brown College
Founder of Cobalt Lawyers, hired and supervised dozens of law students and junior lawyers
Founder of Clausehound
Kathy Tomaszewski – Western Law Gold Medallist, Supreme Court of Canada Law Clerk, Osler LLP (top-tier
Canadian law firm), Harvard LLM
Formerly a Professor of Law at Western University
Knowledge and Content Lead at Clausehound
I believe the clause definitions would go a long way towards its use, as it
helped me with unfamiliar clauses at the beginning
– Clausehound research
Clausehound Teaches Law Students!
“Clausehound makes drafting a legal document easy and efficient. Not only does it
allow the Western Business Law Clinic to decrease its turn around time, but it also
allows us to learn how to professionally draft a variety of legal documents. I would
definitely recommend Clausehound to my co-workers, friends and instructors.”
- Caroline Nhan, Student Director, Western Business Law Clinic
“Clausehound ... allows our Caseworkers to draft agreements that are specifically
tailored to our clients varying legal needs.”
- Alexandra Meffe, Student Director, Western Business Law Clinic
“The software has allowed me to put use to my knowledge and definitely allowed me to
understand its applicability in the legal world much better. It has sharpened my
knowledge of how contracts work and how precise they need to be.”
- Clausehound research analyst
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Thank you!
Please contact
Rajah S. Lehal - [email protected]