What arrived
The Supplier shall be liable for all losses arising from any cause whatsoever.Clause 11.3. Uncapped, one-way, and outside anything the firm has signed in four years.
Playbooks
Write the position down once.Argue from it every time.
Your house standard, written down once, approved by a partner, and applied to every draft that comes in as a marked-up Word file you can send back.
Every firm has a house standard, and in most firms it lives in the heads of the four people who have done the deal before. A playbook writes it down: where you open, what you will concede and on what terms, what you will not sign, and the precedent behind each. A partner approves the version, and every review from then on argues to it, whoever is holding the pen.
- Where you openIn the words you would actually put in the draft, not a description of them.
- What you concedeAnd on what terms, so a junior negotiating at nine on a Friday does not have to guess.
- What you will not signMarked, so the review escalates to a partner instead of quietly trading it away.
- The precedent behind itThe executed agreements each position is drawn from, attached to the position itself.
A standard is a ladder, not a list.
Every clause your firm cares about gets three positions and the reasoning between them. The review works down the ladder until it finds where this draft actually sits.
Limitation of liabilityv4 · approved
- Open atCap at twelve months of fees paid, mutual, with the usual carve-outs excluded.
- Concede toTwenty-four months, where the counterparty accepts a mutual construction and the indemnities stay carved out.
- NeverUncapped indirect liability, or a cap that survives our own wilful breach. This one goes to a partner.
3 executed precedents · in force since 14 Aug 2026
From a position to a signed document
Draw the standard out of what you have signed
Point a playbook at contracts you have already agreed. 8rney proposes the positions it can see, and you edit them into the language you would defend.Approve a version
An approver signs it and that version becomes the live standard. Nothing applies to a real document until someone with the authority to approve has done so.Review a document against it
Findings come back anchored to the clause they came from, each with the position behind it, the rationale, and the precedent that supports it.Send a redline, not a memo
Accept the changes you want and export tracked changes into the original DOCX, with the document’s own numbering and styles intact.
From their draft to what you send back.
The review does not hand you a report about the contract. It hands you the contract, marked up, with the reasoning attached to the clause it concerns.
What you hold
Cap at twelve months of fees paid, mutual, carve-outs excluded. Never uncapped indirect loss.Limitation of liability v4, approved 14 Aug 2026, drawn from three executed agreements.
What goes back
The Supplier’s aggregate liability shall not exceed the fees paid in the twelve months preceding the claim, save for losses arising from wilful breach.Tracked change in the original Word file. Numbering and styles untouched.
- It says where it got thatEvery point names the position, the version in force, and the executed precedent behind it.
- It says when it is unsureLow confidence is labelled. A point that turns on commercial judgement goes up, not through.
Six practice areas, out of the box
- CommercialSupply, services, distribution, and the liability and indemnity fights inside them.
- CorporateShare purchase, shareholder arrangements, warranties, and completion mechanics.
- EmploymentContracts, restrictive covenants, exits, and the policies attached to them.
- Intellectual propertyLicensing, assignment, ownership of improvements, and infringement risk.
- LitigationSettlement terms, releases, confidentiality, and cost provisions.
- RegulatoryData, sector compliance obligations, and the audit rights that follow them.
Governance
Who decides what the firm signs
- Who can change a position?
- Playbooks carry roles: owner, editor, approver, and viewer. An editor can propose a revision, an approver signs the version that goes live, and a viewer can read the reasoning without changing it. A solo workspace can own and approve its own playbook.
- What happens to reviews already run?
- Nothing. Every finding records the playbook version that produced it, so an old review stays readable against the standard that was live at the time.
- Can I test a change before it is live?
- Yes. A draft version can be run against a document alongside the active one, so you can see what a proposed position would have changed before you approve it.
- Does the redline preserve the original formatting?
- Yes. Changes are applied to the original DOCX as tracked changes, with the document's own numbering, styles, and structure intact. It is a file your counterparty can open and accept in Word.
- Where do the positions come from?
- You write them, or 8rney proposes them from contracts you have already signed and you edit and approve what it proposes. Either way a person approves the version before it applies to anything.
- What does 8rney refuse to decide?
- Findings that turn on commercial judgement are marked as needing a human, not silently resolved. Low-confidence findings are labelled rather than presented as settled.