Standard-form contracts, routed for signature, with a clerk-free paper trail
Matter openings, engagement letters, NDAs, and standard-form commercial agreements drafted from the patterns your team already uses — routed for signature with a tamper-evident audit trail and a clean handoff to your DMS.
ESIGN, UETA, and eIDAS recognised e-signatures. Free plan, no credit card required.
What goes wrong today
The day-to-day contract pain for law firms & legal ops — spelled out concretely, not dressed up.
Fee agreements and engagement letters sit in the partner's inbox for a week, then get printed, signed, scanned, and re-uploaded — a paralegal's morning gone on what should be a five-minute task.
Every commercial matter that starts with an NDA and a services agreement ends up as three separate signed PDFs in three different folders, and assembling a clean matter file for a client or an audit takes longer than drafting the original documents.
Legal ops want standard-form templates reused across the business without the sales team going off-script; lawyers want every signed version to be clearly versioned so a dispute on 'which version did we sign' never becomes a dispute.
How FastContracts handles it
No magic — real product features mapped to the pain above.
Engagement letters and matter openings signed the same day
Send the engagement letter with fee schedule, conflicts confirmation, and scope attachment in a single signing ceremony. The client signs on the phone, the responsible partner counter-signs, and the signed PDF with full audit trail is delivered to the matter folder within minutes, not days.
Standard-form templates with controlled variation
Save your firm's or legal ops team's approved NDA, MSA, and SOW wording as templates with structured fields. Business units generate contracts from the approved version — the wording that matters does not move, only the parties, dates, and deal-specific variables do.
Clean audit trail for matter files and diligence
Every signature carries a tamper-evident audit trail (timestamps, IP, email verification, counter-signer's identity) that attaches to the signed PDF. For client audits, acquisition diligence, or later disputes, producing the signed version and its provenance is one export, not a file hunt.
Multi-party sequential and parallel workflows
Signing orders map to real matter flow: client signs first, opposing counsel signs second, managing partner countersigns last. Or — for internal routing — compliance, finance, and legal all sign in parallel. No more chasing initials out of order.
Templates for law firms & legal ops
The agreements this segment actually uses, pre-built with the clauses you expect to see.
Why FastContracts for law firms & legal ops
Purpose-built for small law firms, legal ops teams, and in-house counsel who need standard-form contracts out the door without losing evidential quality.
Version-controlled standard forms
The version of the NDA or MSA that was sent out is preserved with the signed PDF. Later edits to the template do not rewrite history — the document on file is exactly the one signed.
Conflict and identity checks baked into the flow
Email verification and IP capture on every signature are standard. For higher-stakes matters, add SMS one-time codes or knowledge-based authentication before the signature counts.
Designed for legal review workflows
Drafts can be reviewed and amended inside the editor before the signing ceremony starts. Each revision is tracked. Once the final version is routed, the signed output cannot be altered without breaking the tamper-evident seal.
Matter-ready exports
Signed PDF plus the audit-trail certificate in one file. Drop it into your DMS, Box, or SharePoint folder; the file is self-contained evidence.
Frequently asked questions
The questions law firms & legal ops ask before they commit.
Are electronically signed engagement letters and NDAs recognised the same as wet-ink copies?
For the vast majority of commercial contracts, yes — ESIGN and UETA in the US and eIDAS in the EU and UK recognise electronic signatures. A narrow list of document types has specific formalities (some real estate, wills, certain court filings). For anything on that list, or for contracts in jurisdictions where you are not confident in the local treatment, confirm the requirement before substituting e-signature for wet ink.
How is an audit trail different from an email confirmation?
An email confirmation says a specific email address opened a document. The audit trail attached to a signed PDF records the signer's email verification, the IP address from which the signature was applied, the timestamps for delivery, view, and signing, and any second-factor verification. It is sealed into the signed PDF so altering the document after signing breaks the seal and is visible on inspection.
Can my firm's wording be locked so business users cannot edit it?
Yes. Firm or legal ops templates can be structured with fixed clauses and free-text fields only where variation is expected. Business users fill in the parties and deal-specific fields; they cannot edit the approved wording. This is how legal ops teams prevent standard-form drift across a sales organisation.
Does this integrate with our document management system?
Signed PDFs and their audit-trail certificates can be downloaded and uploaded to your DMS (iManage, NetDocuments, Box, SharePoint) as self-contained files. API access for automated export is on the roadmap; ask for the current integration status if it is a requirement.
Can I use this for QES (qualified electronic signatures) in the EU?
FastContracts currently supports advanced electronic signatures with tamper-evident audit trails, which are recognised under eIDAS for most commercial contracts. Qualified electronic signatures (QES) — the highest eIDAS tier, typically requiring a qualified trust service provider — are not yet built in. If a specific document in your jurisdiction requires QES by statute, check the requirement and plan accordingly.
Ready to send your first engagement letter?
Pick a template, fill in the fields, and route for signature. Your signed PDF comes back with a tamper-evident audit trail.
FastContracts provides contract templates and e-signature software. Templates are drafted from industry-standard patterns for informational purposes and are not legal advice. For high-stakes agreements, have a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction review the final document before signing. Read the full disclaimer.