Contracts shouldn’t get in the way of business.
We’re a specialist commercial law firm helping legal, commercial, and procurement teams find and fix Contract Drag.
Commercial Law + Design + Systems Thinking
Proud to be B Corp
Accredited Specialist
We love contracts
Your contracts might be causing more drag than you realise...
We call it Contract Drag.
Contract Drag… the unnecessary friction created by the documents, decisions, processes, behaviours and systems around contracts in your organisation.
The problem is rarely just the contract document.
It’s the contracting system around it.
Are contracts holding you back?
You notice things like:
Negotiations keep getting stuck in the same places.
Contracts take too long to get signed.
There are too many templates.
Your CLM or AI project is exposing problems underneath.
Nobody is quite sure which version to use.
Legal keeps answering the same questions.
Every negotiation seems to escalate.
Different lawyers take different positions.
The business finds the process difficult.
You've inherited a contracting system that nobody designed.
Everyone agrees it could work better, but nobody knows where to start.
Contracts have grown enormous.
Contracts shouldn't get in the way of
We start with the law
A beautifully designed contract with the wrong legal position is still a bad contract.
Checklist Legal is a specialist commercial law firm. We bring legal analysis and commercial judgment, together with design and systems thinking, to make that legal work easier to understand, negotiate, and use.
Our 3 phased approach
Legal
Is the legal substance right?
Legal content • rights + obligations • risk allocation • regulatory requirements • commercial positions • fallbacks + escalation
Design
Is it usable and understandable?
Document architecture • plain language • information hierarchy • schedules • guidance • navigation
Systems
Does it work in the real world, not just on paper.
Contracting process • people + capability • technology • automation + AI • data • self-service
Will it work in the real world, not just on paper?
Contracting process • people + capability • technology • automation + AI • data • self-service
Measure
Did it really work? • Cycle time • readability • deviations • capacity • consistency • UX
Contract Transformation looks at the whole system.
Sometimes the legal position needs to change. Sometimes the contract needs restructuring or simplifying. Sometimes the document is fine and the process around it is broken. Sometimes the team needs better negotiation guidance. Sometimes the technology is automating a mess.
The answer might be one intervention. Or it might be several working together.
Contract Transformation 📄 ✨
Improving the legal content, documents, processes, tools and capability around contracting systems in an organisation.
Our job is to work out what is actually causing contract drag and what changes will make the impact you need.
What can better contracting really change?
Better contracting creates room for better business
More capacity
Give skilled people back time currently lost to bureaucracy, information hunting, repetitive work, and frustration.
Faster decisions
Reduce unnecessary negotiation, waiting and escalation.
Better relationships
Make contracting less adversarial and more win-win with better experiences for customers, suppliers and internal team members.
Earlier ROI
Make CLM, automation, and AI platforms work on something worth automating.
Better isn't just a vibe. We measure it.
We use baseline data, testing and follow-up evidence to understand whether the change actually made contracting better.
Change the system.
Bring the people with you.
Good transformation is collaborative, evidence-led and designed to work outside the legal team.
Our proprietary Contract Transformation System™️gives this important work structure without turning it into a black box.
Diagnose - Understand the current state, friction, risks, users, legal issues, data and root causes.
Plan the Path - Turn the diagnosis into an executable project.
Legal Laboratory - Explore, prototype and build the better contract system.
Data Party - Pressure-test it with data and real people.
People Power - Engage, train and upskill the people who need to use it.
Prove + Improve - Measure what changed and keep making it better.
No black boxes. No document dumps.
You'll leave stronger than you started.
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![Illustration of a global FMCG business simplifying complex contracts across APAC, with consumer products, business teams, streamlined documents and regional connections.]()
Case Study 01: Simplification Program
Simpler contracts. Faster contracting. More capacity.
A global FMCG business behind a portfolio of well-known household food and beverage brands needed to simplify and rationalise key contracts used across multiple APAC markets.Checklist Legal combined commercial legal advice, contract simplification, legal design and capability building to create shorter, clearer agreements and a more consistent contracting approach across the region.
The result: fewer words and pages, materially shorter reading times, stronger consistency across templates and significant potential capacity returned to legal and business teams.
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![Kate Sherburn smiling. She is wearing a Red jacket and a white tshirt. Kate has red curly hair and wears glasses.]()
"We approached Verity because we knew that what she would create would reflect who we were as a company. She took a boring document & made it delightful - exactly what we wanted to achieve!"
Kate Sherburn
Legal Beagle, Who Gives A Crap -
![Illustration of a professional services organisation transforming complex legal documents into a clearer, more accessible client agreement through human-centred legal design.]()
Case Study 02: Complex law, made easier for real people to understand.
A national Australian professional services firm needed to rethink a highly regulated client agreement containing complex pricing, disclosure and legal concepts.
Checklist Legal combined detailed legal analysis with legal design to restructure the agreement around the information clients actually need to understand, while preserving the organisation’s legal and regulatory requirements.
The result: a more human and accessible client-facing agreement that remained legally robust while making important information easier to find, understand and use.
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![Nat Byrant smiling in front of a red background. She has short brown hair.]()
"The Sharesies legal team considers Verity a valuable asset and regularly taps into her expertise for legal contract design advice and more. Verity has been involved in document automation for consent to use personal information and has facilitated legal quarterly review meetings."
Nat Bryant
General Counsel, Sharesies -
![Illustration of an Australian critical infrastructure organisation turning complex procurement and contract negotiations into a clearer, more aligned contracting system.]()
Case Study 03: Bold transformation in a risk-sensitive environment.
A major Australian top 50 ASX-listed infrastructure organisation operating critical infrastructure wanted to reduce repeated negotiation friction across complex procurement contracts without weakening the legal and commercial protections the business relied on.
Checklist Legal worked across Legal, Procurement, Insurance, Risk, Security, Cyber and operational teams to redesign key agreements and create practical guidance for high-friction issues including liability, indemnities, insurance, termination and intellectual property.
The result: clearer agreements, stronger alignment on legal positions and a more practical contracting system designed to help people negotiate and decide faster while preserving sound legal judgment.
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"Verity is amazing at getting to the heart of the matter, simplifying legal terms and making it easier for legal documents to be understood by all."
Jenni Harding
Founder/MD, Greatest Good
We’re a proud B Corporation
Checklist Legal is one of the few law firms around the world that have achieved B Corp certification.
This is our commitment to having a positive social impact with our business and encouraging others to do the same.
Find out more about our impact and theory of change on our Impact page.
Contract Capability
Need capability rather than transformation?
We also run practical workshops and training for legal, procurement and commercial teams. We can deliver standalone sessions for specific issues, a bundle of targeted sessions for deliberate upskilling, or tailored sessions as part of a broader transformation..
Who we work with
Surely these contracts could work better??
If you’ve been having that thought, then you are right!
You tell us where and how contracting is getting in the way. We help you work out what is causing the drag.
You can create an amazing contract system
If contracting is creating friction, slowing work or consuming more capacity than it should, that's enough of a starting point.
Tell us what's happening.
We'll work out the right next step from there together.
Sometimes the challenge isn’t a lack of capability or effort, it’s complexity. Multiple parties. Multiple jurisdictions. Regulatory overlays. Specialist expertise. Systems dependencies. Recognising that isn’t making excuses; it’s understanding what the project truly requires.