We use AI to complete the first review against agreed legal playbooks before experienced commercial lawyers apply sound judgement in verifying the content of the report.
Businesses of any size or sector can be supported with a variety of contracts, including contracts with customers, or suppliers’ terms of sale.
What is Contract Assist?
Ward Hadaway is proud to offer integrated services through our Contract Assist service; bringing together the best of artificial intelligence from ThoughtRiver, and our expert commercial contract lawyers.
What this means for our clients
- Expedited contract reviews
- Confidentiality through enterprise-grade security – ISO27001 certified
- Consistent reviews for consistent decision-making and audit
- Real-world lawyer verified contract analysis and recommendations
The AI is built on nine+ years of training by legal professionals and is rigorously tested three-times weekly against 750,000 verified data points, offering continuous improvement.
Contract Assist can use playbooks that are “out of the box”, which have been developed and tested by Ward Hadaway in conjunction with ThoughtRiver. We can also take a bespoke approach, and tailor the contract reviews to risk issues that are specific to your business.
Contract Assist is trusted technology combined with practical, human legal expertise.
Your solution to contract review overload
Contract Assist is built to help busy people make faster, more consistent decisions in line with internal playbooks and process, helping to close the contract quicker.
If you experience any of the following, talk to us about how Contract Assist can improve your straightforward-contract processes and accelerate outcomes.
Slow review cycles: Contracts sit in inboxes waiting for review, delaying procurement, sales and commercial decisions.
Repetitive manual work: Your team spend hours reviewing routine agreements line-by-line reducing time for strategic advice.
Inconsistent risk decisions: Different reviewers spot different issues, and you are unsure of your key risk and value drivers for contracts. Key risks can be missed, low-priority clauses absorb unnecessary time.
Resource under pressure: Your team has more contracts than time to review them effectively, 
leading to burnout, mistakes or value being left exposed in some contracts.
Teams that benefit from Contract Assist
Regardless of the sector or business type, we give people responsible for contracts a clearer view of what matters, what adds value, and what needs action next by taking pressure off them.
Whether your business is struggling with high volumes of contract work, finding it difficult to be consistently in the detail, or need to add an expert legal perspective, Contract Assist is a cost and time effective solution.
Sales teams: Accelerate customer contract turnaround and focus on key value drivers within contracts.
In-house legal teams: Reduce repetitive review work and improve consistency.
Procurement teams: Identify and mitigate supplier risk before agreements are signed.
Commercial & operations teams: Gain visibility into contractual obligations and exposure.
Owners & senior managers: Improve visibility, consistency and turnaround without upping headcount.
How Contract Assist works
- Provide us with your contracts
- AI compares the contracts against legal playbooks and identifies key clauses, risks and departures from your preferred position.
- Our commercial lawyers review the findings, add legal judgement and recommend next steps.
- You receive a clear, traffic lit report highlighting key issues.
Need more legal guidance? No problem. Our commercial law team can also assist you with amending and negotiating contracts.
When Contract Assist makes the biggest difference
Built for business that are
- Growing quickly
- Not keeping up with contract demand
- Supporting a procurement programme
- Onboarding major customers
- Managing supplier renewals
- Required to contract on their customer’s terms
- Reviewing legacy contracts
- Operating without in-house expertise
Contract Assist is ideal for businesses that have a volume of routine commercial contracts where greater efficiency and consistency can make the biggest difference.
For more complex agreements involving multiple parties, significant commercial value, bespoke legal drafting or strategic negotiation, our experienced commercial lawyers can work directly with you to provide tailored legal advice and support throughout the transaction.
Flexible support, built around your business
Contract assist is designed to fit the way your business reviews contracts. Whether you need ongoing support for day-to-day contract reviews or additional capacity for a major project, we’ll help to tailor a solution around your requirements.
Contract risk and opportunity is different for all businesses. We will work with you to provide a tailored costing proposal based on the type and volume of contracts you review, the level of lawyer involvement you need, and any additional support such as negotiation, contract amendments or AI playbook configuration to reflect your preferred positions.
We’ll take the time to understand your requirements before recommending the most appropriate approach.