Library Guides: Innovation Clinic Research Guide: Document Drafting Resources

Other Helpful Guides

Contract Drafting
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Research Guide for Institute for Justice Entrepreneurship Clinic
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Drafting Tools

Practical Law This link opens in a new window
Transactional law resource that provides tips on legal drafting, step-by-step checklists, and handy overviews of transactional practice areas
Transactional law resource that provides model documents (with legal drafting and negotiating tips), step-by-step checklists, timelines, handy overviews of transactional practice areas, and legal updates on the latest market developments. PLC focuses on corporate, securities, and finance law. Free accounts are available for Law School students, faculty, and staff; sign up on the PLC website.
Bloomberg Law (BLAW) This link opens in a new window
Bloomberg Law has a couple of great tools for drafting documents. DealMaker Documents allows you to search for precedent documents based on type and jurisdiction.

Draft Analyzer allows you to upload a document you've already started and compare it to Bloomberg's model documents. Make sure that any changes you make are consistent with your client's facts and interests.
From the well-known provider of business and financial news data and includes in-depth legal analysis, filings, judicial opinions, real-time and archival news, and company and biographical information in a single, integrated database. Bloomberg Law includes customized Practice Centers for the following areas of law: Antitrust, Banking & Finance, Bankruptcy, Benefits & Executive Compensation, Corporate, E-Discovery, Health, International Trade, Labor & Employment, Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility, Patents & Trade Secrets, Privacy & Data Security, Securities, Tax, Tech & Telecom, and Trademarks & Copyrights.
Westlaw Edge This link opens in a new window
Westlaw's Form Finder includes forms from West's Legal Forms, Nichols Cyclopedia of Legal Forms Annotated, American Jurisprudence, and various practice materials. You can limit your search to a specific state and practice area, and you can search for clauses in addition to full documents.
Lexis Practice Advisor This link opens in a new window
"Practical Guidance From Leading Practitioners For Transactional Matters"

Free Sources for Drafting Guides & Sample Documents

CooleyGo
Created by Cooley LLP
Founders Workbench
created by Goodwin Proctor LLP
Orrick Total Access
Created by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Document Generators & Startup Forms
PDF list of document generators prepared for US Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship conference 2017.
National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Model Legal Documents
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Set of model legal documents developed by a working group. Will be updated "approximately once a year to determine whether any changes need to be made to the documents, including in light of any recent legal developments or actual experience using the documents in deals."
YCombinator
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Y Combinator provides seed funding for startups. YC 's website also features other resources for startups, including .

Drafting Documents in Illinois

Illinois Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) materials are published to support practitioners and others working on legal issues in Illinois in a majority of practice areas. They provide a good overview of all applicable law on a topic in Illinois, including federal and local law, as well as practice tips and forms.

IICLE Online Library This link opens in a new window
Online version of Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education course handbooks. You can browse the list of titles or search by keyword, and print PDF files of relevant sections or chapters. Forms are usually included.

Use of this resource requires logging in with a University of Chicago IP address. To logon to a University of Chicago IP address remotely, please use the cVPN.

Midwest Transaction Guide
This guide, available through Lexis Nexis, provides guidance and forms for transactions in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. This guide covers business, wills and trusts, commercial, real estate and personal transactions. It summarizes state and federal law, relevant statutes, important regulations and secondary legal sources.