The Case for Contract Review Playbooks

If you’re a lawyer or general counsel, you’ve probably noticed the same patterns in your contracts: payment terms that always need tightening, liability caps that never match your risk profile, termination clauses that creep beyond what’s acceptable.

You already know your positions — but unless they’re written down, applied consistently, and accessible to everyone reviewing contracts, they’re just tribal knowledge. That’s a risk.

What a Playbook Does

A contract review playbook is simply a written, structured set of rules for reviewing agreements.
It spells out your organisation’s preferred positions and red lines, so any lawyer on your team can apply them without guesswork.

A strong playbook will:

• Enforce consistency – Whether a partner, associate, or secondee is reviewing, the same standards apply.
• Cut review time – No more rethinking positions you’ve decided a dozen times before.
• Reduce risk – Weak clauses don’t sneak through because someone didn’t know the policy.
• Support delegation – Junior team members can handle more reviews without constant escalation.

Playbooks are living documents — they evolve with your business, your risk appetite, and changes in law or regulation.

Building One That Works

At a minimum, a useful playbook should include:

• Clause categories (payment, termination, liability, indemnities, governing law, etc.)
• Your standard position for each clause
• Fallback positions you’ll accept in negotiation
• Escalation triggers — the point where you need senior review or client sign-off

Many GCs start with a simple table in Word or Excel. Over time, it’s worth moving to a system that lets you update rules centrally and apply them automatically.

Where Technology Fits

You don’t need software to create a playbook — but software can make it a lot more powerful. With goHeather, for example, you can set up your rules once and have every contract checked against them automatically. That means your playbook isn’t just a reference document; it’s part of your review process, every single time.

Whether you use a spreadsheet, a PDF, or a tool like goHeather, the key is to get your positions out of your head and into a playbook. The sooner you do, the sooner you stop fighting the same battles twice.