Occurrences

Paper

../papers/03-04-04/03-04-04.html

Date of Presentation

Wednesday, 22 May

Time of Presentation

11.45

Presentation Level

In-The-Middle

Abstract

Compliance and conformance are major challenges facing the efficient construction of legal documents. Multiple instances of both compliance and conformance requirements exist in any complex construction of a legal document. Such requirements reflect internal policies, government regulations, product specific language, location specific language, and/or individually negotiated terms. Examples include incorporating state or local regulations, product specific wording and previous negotiated language specific to a vendor/client or group of vendors/clients. XML coding of documents forms part of the solution in that it allows specific fragments to be accessed and interpreted in support of the compliance requirements governing a document. However, the answer is more complex than XML alone. While XML can provide a foundation framework for contract construction and maintenance, attorneys and other legal staff have neither the time nor the desire to learn XML. Legal users therefore need to work in a familiar editing environment that can maintain the information in XML. This presentation outlines the Lease Construction and Conformance System (LCCS), a solution developed by HyperVision, Ltd in collaboration with a Big-5 Consulting firm. LCCS automates the process of authoring structured, legal documents using Microsoft Word as the editing environment. Specifically, this application expedites the construction of shopping mall leases for the second largest self-administered U.S. regional retail mall real estate investment trust (REIT). This REIT demanded flexibility, accessibility, simplicity, conformance, timeliness, and future applicability before choosing the technology. In fact, LCCS uses several technologies. Document editing takes place through the friendly WYSIWYG interface of Microsoft Word. HyperVision’s WorX™ for Word plug-in applies XML structure to the documents. A Visual Basic front-end e-form guides the data entry process. The WorX™ API performs final assembly and compliance tasks. LCCS begins with an e-form session in which authors specify conditions and business rules that drive the lease construction. Conditions include mall name, tenant name, square footage and rental rates. After finalizing the e-form information, the author initiates the lease drafting process, resulting in the automated creation of a new Word document. Information selected and entered in the e-form drives language, calculations, dependencies, and red-lining in the construction of the lease. During the drafting process, the VB e-form merges the user-entered data with standard XML content. This step is performed using the Microsoft XML parser and it involves replacing certain general sections according to specific business rules. Once an XML document is constructed, the information is imported to MS Word and a general plug-in for editing XML takes over. The WorX API allows programmatic import and export of XML data to and from Word that in turn allows run-time access to XML elements and attributes within Word. The API also allows application of Word styles to the XML lease. The resulting lease document is stored as a hybrid between a Word and XML document known as a WorX document. This document can undergo further manual modifications, and can be used as the basis for constructing future leases.