Long read, June 15, 2025
precedent banks and the half-life of a good clause
Imani Osei-BonsuHead of Legal Engineering7 min read
The problem
The short version: precedent banks and the half-life of a good clause is easier to get wrong than most teams assume, and the failure is usually silent.
What we do about it
In the current build this runs as part of the standard pass, so it applies to every document in the set rather than only the ones someone thought to check.
Where it breaks
Scanned originals with poor image quality remain the weakest input. So do agreements that were assembled from three precedents and never reconciled, which is common in long-lived supplier relationships.
practiceredlining
Working notes from the Lawrs team. General information about legal technology and practice, not legal advice.