A framework to draft shorter legal documents. Please visit our homepage at https://reference.legal/.

Every clause and document from reference.legal's online clause library can be hyperlinked. By linking to our standard clauses in your documents, you can dramatically simplify them. Hide templated legalese and focus on what really matters.

1. Choose a standard clause from our library at https://reference.legal/clauses/.
2. Copy the URL and incorporate it into your document. For example: Incorporate https://reference.legal/v1/provisions/general/counterparts/.
3. Send out your shorter and simpler document!

1. Choose a template form from our library at https://reference.legal/forms/.
2. Edit the document right on the page by selecting the various fields with red text.
3. OPTIONAL: Click the download button (only available on Desktop browser) at the top of the form to download the form for Microsoft Office.
4. Send out your document.

Incorporate our standard headings clause by linking to it:

Incorporate https://reference.legal/v1/provisions/general/headings/.

If you want to make any modifications, just call it out immediately after the link:

Incorporate https://reference.legal/v1/provisions/general/force-majeure/ however, "reasonable efforts" may not, under any circumstances, exceed 30 calendar days.

If you want to lock the text to exactly what you see, add a date stamp (YYYY-MM-DD format) to the end of your link. Otherwise, we may make adjustments to keep up with best practices. Text that is not locked down will be considered "amended from time to time" and will be deemed to be accepted by both parties.

Incorporate https://reference.legal/v1/agreements/non-disclosure-agreements/mutual-non-disclosure-agreement/2020-01-08.

1. Link to our clauses to reference templated text and shorten your documents.
2. Absolutely no setup or training required. URLs are already familiar ground.
3. Draft by exception. Call out changes after the reference so your reader doesn't have to sift through dozens of pages to find one single change.
4. Merely curious? Use as much or as little as you want. Replace a simple Counterparts clause or an entire Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement.
5. Read our templates once and re-use it anywhere with any counterparty.

Yes. Agreements are enforceable in any form of media so long as all parties understand, agree and intend to be legally bound by it. Legal documents already make heavy use of links to corporate policies, external notices, etc. Functionally, reference.legal is no different, just rigorously organized for scale.

A clause library is private to the party drafting a document and only benefits the drafter. There is no standard source of truth, and no guarantee the drafter has not modified the language. As such, the counterparty does not save any time at all. They are forced to read the document from top to bottom no matter which clause library is used and whether the language has been modified or not.

The reference.legal GitHub repository is located at https://github.com/dot-legal/reference/. GitHub offers a number of tools to make suggestions or to call out issues. However, our roadmap includes additional tools in the https://reference.legal/ website to make it easy for anyone to comment and make suggestions.

These instructions only cover the basics of reference.legal. If you are interested in the full documentation, head over to https://github.com/dot-legal/reference/blob/master/docs/interpretation-reference.md/.

Copyright 2020 reference.legal

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "as is" basis, without any warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

reference.legal does not offer legal advice.  The use of reference.legal does not create a relationship with reference.legal in any way.  reference.legal and contributors to reference.legal offer no warranty of any kind and disclaim all forms of liability.  Please seek independent legal advice before using reference.legal.