Boot Strap Legal Ai for syndication document prep like PPMs

[William Kyle Walker]

Does anyone have feedback or experience with this company? They say their documentation prep costs ($5k-$7k) about 1/3 the cost of having a regular attorney draft your documents. They use a computer that runs you through a series of questions and scenarios and then that program inputs all the data into your docs.  The founder @amywan is an attorney that reviews everything. 

[Brian Burke]

I second what @Mark Robertson said.  I know Amy but haven't used her legal services (I've had an existing relationship with my securities counsel for years so this is nothing against using her services--I would).  She consulted with me when she was in early concept stage on this service.  I was not a paid consultant and I have no financial interest nor conflict.  I bring this up because Amy wanted to make sure she was developing a useful product and wanted the perspective of someone in the syndication space.  I know that she also consulted with other active syndicators to gain their perspective.  This just goes to show that she put a lot of thought into the product.

I must admit that I'm a bit skeptical of the concept of automating legal services (I told Amy this) and I've posted many times on BP with warnings against using "out of the box" PPMs or copying someone else's document to use as your own.  It's just bad business.  But I don't think that's what this service is.

I met up with Amy a few months later at a conference and she showed me the product in action and from what I saw it appeared to be everything she set out for it to be.  I was impressed and my inner skeptic was won over, to an extent.

My opinion then, and it remains now, is that this is not a be-all, end-all solution for syndication documents in every circumstance.  This business is complex and there are so many variables in deal structure that hands-on legal services and drafting are still necessary in many cases.  But for many of the syndications that a high percentage of BP members would be doing, this product could be a solution to contain costs and speed up the time for drafting offering documents.  And I think this is exactly what Amy intended for it to be. 

That said, I still don't see any of that as a negative.  If your syndication has complexities beyond the scope of what the service can handle, my guess (and this is just my guess) is that Amy can draft the language that you need.  From what I understand, this is not a fully-automated thing--the documents are still reviewed by an attorney.  It's more semi-automated, which has a goal of speeding up the time and reducing the cost--not replacing your counsel with a microchip.

And if I'm wrong about any of that, hopefully Amy will see this and correct me!