5 Contract Bottlenecks Slowing Down Your Legal Team

What Are the Most Common Contract Bottlenecks in Business?

The most common contract bottlenecks that slow down legal teams include manual drafting processes, lengthy approval workflows, siloed legal knowledge, missed compliance deadlines, and over-reliance on external counsel. These issues create delays, increase costs, and can put your business at risk.

Understanding and addressing these bottlenecks is crucial for maintaining competitive advantage and operational efficiency.

Here are the five most common contract bottlenecks that might be holding your business back:

1. Manual Contract Drafting That Takes Time

Whether it's a sales agreement, supplier contract, or NDA, manually drafting legal documents is still the norm at many companies. It's time-consuming, repetitive, and introduces risk - especially when non-lawyers are improvising with old templates or legal teams are buried in reviews.

This process often involves starting from scratch each time, searching through folders for the right template, and spending hours customising language that should be standardised. Legal teams report spending up to 60% of their time on routine contract drafting tasks that could be automated.

How to Fix It:

• Implement pre-approved contract templates with standardised clauses
• Use contract automation tools that allow non-legal teams to generate documents safely
• Create clause libraries with approved language variations
• Establish clear guidelines on when legal contract review is required versus when teams can self-serve

2. Approvals That Block Progress

Even simple agreements can hit roadblocks when every contract requires manual review or approval from legal. Without clear rules or automation, deals get stuck in inboxes, waiting for signatures or sign-off - particularly during busy periods.

The problem is compounded when approval workflows aren't clearly defined, leading to confusion about who needs to review what, and in what order. Sales teams often report losing deals due to slow contract turnaround times, with some prospects walking away rather than waiting weeks for simple agreements.

How to Fix It:

• Create risk-based approval workflows that automatically route contracts based on value, terms, or complexity
• Establish clear approval criteria and delegate authority for low-risk contracts
• Implement digital approval systems with automated notifications and reminders
• Set up parallel approval processes where possible to reduce sequential delays

3. Siloed Legal Knowledge

When only a few people hold the keys to legal knowledge - like where a clause lives, what the latest contract version is, or what a standard payment term should be - it creates dependencies that slow down everyone else at the firm.

This knowledge hoarding often happens unintentionally, but it creates significant bottlenecks when key people are unavailable. Teams waste time hunting for information, using outdated templates, or waiting for answers to basic questions that should be readily accessible.

How to Fix It:

• Create a centralised knowledge base with searchable contract templates and clause libraries
• Document standard terms, approval processes, and legal guidelines in accessible formats
• Implement collaboration tools that make legal resources available across teams
• Regular knowledge sharing sessions and cross-training to distribute expertise

4. Compliance That's Easy to Miss

Renewal dates. Termination notice periods. Regulatory updates. When compliance is tracked in spreadsheets and calendars, things get missed. Missed obligations can lead to fines, lost revenue, or reputational damage.

Manual compliance tracking becomes increasingly difficult as contract volumes grow. Important deadlines get buried in email chains, renewal opportunities are missed, and regulatory changes aren't properly communicated across the organisation. The cost of these oversights can be substantial.

How to Fix It:

• Implement automated contract management systems with built-in deadline tracking
• Set up automated alerts for key dates with multiple stakeholders notified
• Create compliance calendars that integrate with existing business systems
• Regular compliance audits to identify and address gaps before they become problems

5. Overdependence on External Counsel

Many companies lean heavily on external law firms because their internal resources are limited or overloaded. But when every NDA, contract change, or simple question requires billable hours, legal becomes a major cost center.

This overdependence often stems from internal teams lacking the tools or confidence to handle routine legal work. The result is inflated legal budgets and slower turnaround times, as external counsel may not prioritize your routine requests over more complex work from other clients.

How to Fix It:

• Invest in legal technology that empowers internal teams to handle routine tasks
• Develop internal capabilities through training and better processes
• Reserve external counsel for truly complex or specialised matters
• Create clear guidelines on when to engage external help versus handling work internally

How to Eliminate Contract Bottlenecks in Your Workflow

The key to eliminating contract bottlenecks lies in combining the right technology with well-designed processes. Successful organisations focus on automation for routine tasks, clear workflows for approvals, and centralised systems for knowledge management.

Start by auditing your current contract processes to identify where delays typically occur. Map out your approval workflows and look for opportunities to streamline or parallelise steps. Most importantly, invest in tools that enable self-service for routine legal work while maintaining appropriate oversight.

Pocketlaw is designed to help businesses streamline their legal work, from contracts to compliance, without compromising on quality or control. Here's how our platform solves all five challenges:

1. Faster, smarter drafting: Pre-approved templates and AI-powered assistance let teams create contracts confidently, without waiting for Legal.

2. Automated approvals: Customize flows based on risk so low-risk contracts fly through, and high-risk ones get the right level of attention.

3. One source of truth: Everything from templates to contract status to legal guidance lives in one platform, accessible to everyone.

4. Never miss a deadline: Get automated reminders and a clear overview of all your contractual obligations.

5. Reduce legal spend: Enable teams to self-serve the majority of legal work, reserving external counsel for what really matters.