Introducing Summary in LawY Contracts

Reviewing a contract is half the job. Explaining it is the other half. Summary turns the changes you’ve made into a ready-to-send explanation, written for whoever’s reading.

Every contract review ends the same way. The risky clauses are fixed, the markup is done and the document looks like it’s been through a tracked-changes blender. Then comes the part nobody puts in the fee estimate: explaining it all.

Your client needs to know what you changed and why it matters to them. The lawyer on the other side needs to know why they should accept it. Both explanations have to be written at the end of the review, when you’re least in the mood for drafting.

That’s the bit we built Summary for. Once your edits are completed using the LawY Word Add-in, the lawyer clicks ‘Summarise changes’, picks the reader (client counterparty or other) and the format (running summary or table) and LawY generates the summary as a new Word document, ready to drop into an email or letter.

Your client doesn’t read the redline

A redline is a record for lawyers. It shows what moved, not what it means. Clients don’t read strikethroughs; they read what you tell them. So every change still has to be explained: what was wrong, how you fixed it and why it matters. The other side needs to understand the client's position and why the changes matter, or there is little chance of them accepting it. Each summary is strategic legal work in its own right, drafted in a different tone for a different reader. And it lands after hours of reviewing and redlining, which is exactly when it gets rushed. Rush it or explain it poorly, and the advice to the client falls flat or the argument to the other side fails.

Two readers, two registers

Your client and the other side are reading for different reasons, so Summary writes for them differently.

Choose Client, and the summary assumes no legal background. It’s plain English, focused on what each change means for your client’s position.

Choose Counterparty, and the summary reads lawyer-to-lawyer: precise, and aimed at getting the change accepted. The other side won’t accept a change because it’s beautifully marked up. They accept it because someone made the case for it.

The two versions aren’t interchangeable, and that’s deliberate. You wouldn’t send your client’s summary to the other side, and Summary doesn’t pretend one version fits both.

Running summary or table

You also choose the format. A running summary is a short explanation, clause by clause, for clients who want the short version. It drops straight into an email.

A table sets each change out in three columns: clause, summary and comments. It suits sophisticated clients and, especially, the other side. The comments column is where your reasoning goes: the context that isn’t in the contract. Say the parties agreed the deposit terms directly when they negotiated the purchase, and the drafting didn’t reflect the deal:

How it works

Summarising your contract changes takes three quick choices:

1. Review the contract in LawY Contracts and apply your redlines.
2. Click Summarise changes at the bottom of the LawY Document Options panel.
3. Choose who’s reading and the format, then click Generate.

Summary opens as a new Word document, built from the changes you’ve made and ready to check, edit and drop into an email or letter. There’s a step-by-step guide in the help centre.

Two clauses look tidy. Twenty is where it counts.

On a short review with a couple of changes, writing the summary yourself takes a few minutes. On a full commercial agreement with twenty redlines, it’s an afternoon of write-up at the end of a long review. That’s where Summary earns its place: you close the review and the loop in the same sitting.

Summary is live in LawY Contracts now.

Already a customer? Finish your next review and look for Summarise changes at the bottom of the panel. New to LawY? We’ll show you on a real contract.

Book a demo here.