Walk the Week - The Anachronism of Printing
Technology sometimes outstrips practice and yet still we cling to the old ways. In the early days of one of the law firms I worked for the partners would gather in the post room and read all the mail coming in. Every outgoing letter was reviewed by a partner.
Imagine trying to do that with emails and instant messages. The law firm or other professional practice would grind to a halt and lose all of its clients.
Yet there is one area where the past holds obstinately to the present. As we negotiate ever longer contracts running to 700 or 800 pages we all use Word and email exchanges with attachments to develop all of the documents. Track changes and comparison copies allow us to keep track of amendments as the negotiation proceeds.
And it's easy to check what changes are being made to the agreement, do word searches for particular terms and be sure not to miss anything. The terms and conditions and schedules can be kept on a portal such as SharePoint to manage and control versions.
But at the end of the marathon discussions when contract signature approaches what do we all have to do? We go back in technology terms and print all 800 pages, twice for each party! This takes time and even worse on occasions documents can change when put into a print version.
I recall sitting in a boardroom with the champagne on ice and several senior representatives of both sides waiting for a couple of hours while the law firms printed out the contract and brought it over by taxi. Then, at least in theory, the lawyers have to check that the signature copies correspond with the 800 pages of electronic versions - an impossible and thankless task.
Instead surely, surely we should use some form of electronic signature process - Google this phrase and you will see many possible systems that can be used. Then everyone can be sure the documents which are agreed represent the ones negotiated, and the final version can signed and then be maintained electronically.
And by the way this helps save the planet by reducing the amount of trees used!