Using Claude for drafting transactional documents (capital markets perspective)
I’m a debt capital markets lawyer, and a big part of my day-to-day is drafting transaction documents. As a junior, I’m usually the one responsible for putting together the first drafts and doing most of the “dirty work” on the docs.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been using Claude heavily inside Word / coworking tools, and it’s been a pretty meaningful upgrade in how I work.
For the more operational side of documents (which takes a surprising amount of time), it’s extremely effective:
- cleaning defined terms
- fixing leftovers from precedents
- checking cross-references
- generating a solid first draft from prior deals (with enough context)
It genuinely changed my day-to-day. Less time on mechanical drafting, more time actually thinking about the structure of the deal.
On structuring, it’s helpful but not quite there yet — it organizes logic well and helps sanity-check things, but still lacks that “deal instinct” / creativity you build over time in negotiations. But always give me very good insights, great for second opinions.
Still, the productivity gain is very real. It feels like moving from fully manual drafting to something closer to a semi-automated workflow.
Vibe drafting is here.
I wonder how many lawyers / firms actually understand how much this is going to change a big part of the work.