Building a clause library on a Mac

§ 1 The clause library every drafter rebuilds

Every transactional lawyer keeps a mental — or scattered — library of language: a clean indemnity, a tested limitation of liability, a governing-law and forum clause, a set of definitions. The problem is never writing them once; it's recalling the good version fast, in the right matter, without copying the wrong thing.

§ 2 The clipboard-manager way

A clipboard manager turns that library into something you operate from the keyboard. Copy a clause into history, pin it, and it stays at the top of the list. When you need it, recall it with a keystroke and paste — as plain text, so it adopts your document's styling instead of importing a previous draft's fonts.

Pinned clauses behave like a scratchpad for the matter: the handful of provisions you'll reuse this week, one keystroke away.

§ 3 Doing it without dragging old client text along

There's a real risk in clause reuse that has nothing to do with the clipboard and everything to do with copying: residual content. Lawyers reuse old client documents as templates, and deleted text or tracked changes can linger as metadata, exposing one client's information in another's file. Clio and several bar associations have flagged this repeatedly.

§ 4 Building yours

Start small. Over a week, each time you write a provision you know you'll reuse, copy it and pin it. You'll quickly have ten or fifteen pinned clauses covering most of your routine drafting. Keep the wording generic — no party names, no deal specifics — so the pinned version is a true template, not a one-off.

§ 5 Frequently asked questions