Start from your firm's templates

The firm has done this kind of work before. There is a standard group chart for a holding structure, a procedural timetable for an arbitration, a closing checklist for a share purchase. Starting from that template saves hours of setting up, and the work comes out in the firm's house style from the first draft.

Two questions decide where you start. Is there a template for this kind of work? And are you starting something new, or adding the standard content to work you already have?

See what the group has

Templates are kept in groups, not in matters. When you choose a template, Juristic offers the templates in the matter's group and those in the firm-wide library your admins keep.

1. Open the client's or practice team's group and click Library.

2. Templates in the group's name shows how many Structure templates, Timeline templates, Task board templates and Insight templates the group holds. If you look after the group's templates, click a card to open the list and work on them; for everyone else the cards show what is there.

   

3. Below, Blocks in the group's name counts the group's standard building blocks, such as Elements, Relationships, Attributes, Red flags, People and Documents, that each new matter in the group starts with.

Start new work from a template

The quickest route is to choose the template as you create the work, inside the matter.

1. Open the matter and click Create new in the box for the tool you need: Structure, Timeline or Project management for a task board.

2. Give the work a Name that says what it is for, such as "Beta Holding A/S, structure before the reorganisation".

3. Under Template, pick the template. If the templates are filed in folders, the list shows them under the folder names; hover over the info icon beside a template to read its description. Leave it on Blank to start from nothing.

   

4. For a timeline, set Date to the day the template's steps run from, such as the filing of the claim. Each step lands its set number of days after that date.

5. Click Save.

Add a template to work you already have

A structure

1. Open the structure, click Import in the ribbon, then Template. In the compact toolbar, click the Import structure button and choose Template.

2. Choose the template under Template and click Import. Juristic adds the template's slides after the slides already in the structure, so your own work stays as it is.

   

A timeline

Click Import in the timeline's toolbar, open the Template tab, pick the template, set the Date and click Upload. The full steps are in lay out the procedural timetable from a template.

A task board

1. Open the board, click Board and choose Import.

2. Open the Template tab, pick the template under Template and click Import.

   

3. The board receives the template's task groups and tasks, its columns, views, permission sets and automations, and takes on the template's board settings, such as working days and numbering. A column the board already has with the same name and type, or a view with the same name, is kept rather than added twice. See start from the firm's template or an earlier deal for choosing between the two.

What comes with the group

Tips from practice

• Name templates after the task. "Share purchase, buyer side" is found at once; "Checklist v3 (final)" is not. A description on the template tells colleagues when to use it.
• Fix the template, not your copy. If the firm's template is out of date, ask whoever looks after the group to update it, so the next matter starts right. A private copy helps one matter and leaves the next one wrong.
• Start from the template before you add the facts. The template gives the work its frame, and what you add afterwards falls into place around it.

Next: bring your team into the matter. Looking after the templates yourself? See set up a group's templates and standard content, reuse a structure as a template and build the firm's deal checklist template.