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Gavel Review: Legal Document Automation

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Lawyerist Rating for Gavel

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Rating Breakdown

Our Rating: 4.7/5

Our rating is based on our subjective judgment. Use our resources—including our rating and community ratings and reviews—to find the best fit for your firm.

4.7/5

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What is Gavel?

Gavel (f/k/a Documate) is a document assembly & automation platform that allows users to create templates and forms to speed up document creation. Attorneys can generate document sets for internal use and create intake forms for clients to complete themselves. Additionally, workflows—a series of automated actions—can be easily shared with colleagues. Users can check out the following Gavel review of its features and pricing to determine if the platform is right for their purposes.

Starting Cost: $83/month

Pros
  • White Labeling
  • MS Word Add-in
  • Guided Interviews
Cons
  • Weak Zapier Integration
  • No Ready-made Templates
  • Expensive
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Gavel Review: Legal Document Automation Features

Customer Experience & Support

/5

Price & Value

/5

Security

/5

Innovation & Future-Proofing

/5

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Gavel Review: Legal Document Automation Video

Compare with Other Document Management & Automation Products Download the Field Guide

Product Details

Services Offered
  • Document Automation
Apps
  • Web
Software Integrations
  • Clio
  • Word
  • Zapier
  • Stripe
  • DocuSign

Core Features

For Document Management & Automation, the following are essential features, and you should therefore expect to see a check in every box in this section.

Yes
No

Free Trial

Open API

An open API means that the program has an application programming interface that will allow it to directly integrate with other software programs such your firm's timekeeping, accounting, or custom relationship management software.

Version Control

This means the software provides information on document revisions and makes sure you are using the most recent version of a template.

Encryption

Built-In E-Signing

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Metadata Scrubbing

Document Templates

The document management program creates resuable templates.

Court Forms

Guided Interviews

The program can create a guided interview and then use the client's answers to automatically create a document.

Conditional Logic

If the software uses conditional logic, this means that you can choose to have certain text in your assembled document included only under certain conditions

Tables

This means the software can generate tables of any size and place them in your assembled document.

Calculations

If this field is checked, it means the software can perform calculations based on numerical or text input.

Compare Gavel Similar Products

Select another product to compare:

Gavel

4.7/5

Gavel Logo
Pros
  • White Labeling
  • MS Word Add-in
  • Guided Interviews
Cons
  • Weak Zapier Integration
  • No Ready-made Templates
  • Expensive

Clio Draft

4.6/5

Lawyaw logo
Pros
  • MS Word Add-in
  • Low-Code
  • Ready-made Forms
Cons
  • No Guided Interviews
  • No ePayments
  • No White Labelling
Read Clio Draft Review

HotDocs

3.9/5

HotDocs logo
Pros
  • MS Word Add-in
  • Integrations
  • Open API
Cons
  • No ePayments
  • Complex Set-up
  • Not for Solos
Read HotDocs Review

Afterpattern

4.7/5

Afterpattern logo
Pros
  • Built-in eSignature
  • White Labeling
  • Online Payments
Cons
  • No Ready-made Templates
  • Complex Set-up
  • Not Turn-key
Read Afterpattern Review

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the price of Gavel?

Gavel pricing starts at $83/month.

Does Gavel integrate with my Law Practice Management Software?

The platform integrates directly with Clio Manage and allows the import of Client and Matter information. Additionally, through their Zapier integration, lawyers can connect to a whole host of Law Practice Management Systems and other applications. As of this review, however, Gavel's Zapier integration is a bit weak.

Can my law office accept eSignatures through Gavel?

Yes. Using DocuSign integration, users can easily add eSign capabilities into their application. The firm must subscribe at the Pro level ($290/mo) in order to access the DocuSign integration.

Can my law firm accept ePayments through Gavel?

Yes. Through its integrations with Stripe, lawyers can add a paywall anywhere in the Gavel workflow. The firm must subscribe at the Pro level ($290/mo) in order to access the Stripe integration.

Does Gavel have Guided Interviews or client-facing forms?

Yes. With Gavel, users can create Guided Interviews (and include video instructions), or simply use client-facing forms to input and manipulate information in their documents.

Is Gavel easy for lawyers to use?

As a no-code solution, Gavel's MS Word add-on makes it relatively easy for non-programmers to create documents. As with all document assembly solutions, however, users will need to have an idea of basic programming concepts like loops, variables, and conditional logic. You can likely learn these from Gavel’s how-to videos and tutorials.

Can my law firm use our own templates?

Yes. In fact, loading your own templates and then using the MS Word add-on to automate them is probably the best way to begin.

Does Gavel have ready-made templates?

Yes, Gavel offers some pre-built workflows that include documents. However, as of this writing, the pre-built workflows cover only 19 states, and a subset of practice areas within those state. But, with the MS Word add-on, it is relatively easy to get started using your own forms.

How difficult is Gavel to set-up?

The platform is a no-code solution with a Microsoft Word add-on. For simple documents and workflows, users can generally get set-up almost immediately. However, as with all document assembly products, we suggest taking advantage of Gavel's on-boarding process and reviewing their how-to videos. This app's strength is in some of its more complex features, and users will want to take advantage of that.

Will Gavel work on my computer?

As a browser-based solution, Gavel will work on any computer with a modern browser. Obviously, in order to use the MS Word add-in, users will need separate access to MS Word. The Gavel add-in works on Word for Windows and Word for Mac.

Additional Details about Gavel

Pre-Built Workflows

Gavel launched free, pre-built workflows tailored to specific practice areas and jurisdictions. These workflows are designed to encourage adoption of document automation, especially among small and mid-sized firms.

Some Workflows Include Document Templates

For those pre-built workflows (like the California divorce, probate, and estate planning packages they launched in August 2024), they do include documents. Here’s how it works:

  • The workflows come with pre-configured questions, logic, and document templates already built in.
  • You can use them as-is — generating ready-to-use documents for clients — or you can customize the workflows and documents to fit your practice’s preferences and jurisdictional nuances.
  • Gavel designed these to help lawyers get up and running quickly with automation, especially for high-volume or form-heavy areas like family law, probate, and estate planning.

PDF Automation

Gavel released a new product enabling users to automate fillable PDF forms. This feature allows for the creation of intake questionnaires that automatically generate documents like court and government forms, streamlining processes that traditionally required manual entry.

Use Existing PDFs

Easily upload your PDF forms and specify which PDF fields you want to automate inside Gavel’s visual PDF editor. Once you or your client(s) fill out the intake form, the PDF will be generated with your desired information.

Visual PDF Editor

With Gavel’s visual PDF editor, you can view your entire PDF side by side with any fields. Connect the fields to variables, set default values, or leave them blank.

Move Data Easily from Intake Forms to PDFs

Automatically generate PDF document sets by pulling data from a Gavel intake form, ensuring formatting is always consistent. Documents are always accurate and error-free because attorney’s rules are used.

Redaction

This platform allows users to collect sensitive data, such as Social Security Numbers, on intake forms, but redact that information on the document that is generated. Which means that the information is still retained but will not appear in the document.

Custom Development

Gavel can help get a user’s forms and templates up on their system with its Automation Specialist program. This is particularly useful for busy firms who don’t have time to set up hundreds of templates.

Server Location Choices

Set up a server anywhere in the world to comply with data security laws in your jurisdiction.

Who Gavel is for

Gavel is an excellent document automation tool for firms wanting to create documents that include guided interviews, both internal and client-facing, those looking to create multiple documents simultaneously, and those hitting the limitations of document assembly tools built into many LPMS products.

Not sure where to begin? Download our Field Guide

Take the guesswork out of researching, purchasing, and implementing the right legal tech products and services for your law firm. Our Field Guide answers your essential questions and breaks down the features most important to your business, so you can buy with confidence.

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Gavel Community Reviews

4.7

Based on 7 Ratings

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  • Susan L. says:
    December 23, 2024 at 12:33 pm

    So powerful and my clients love it

    (5)
    Gavel is the all in one. I started using it for document automation years ago, and they have added so many features. I now use it for all of my document drafting, and I also use it for client intake, CRM functionalities, and some payments on flat fee services. Great product that is always advancing. They also have court forms built out for many states.
  • Ruby L. says:
    August 25, 2023 at 7:22 am
    You wouldn’t think this but I looked at so many software providers, and Gavel is the one who had the most power, was easiest to use, and had the most supportive and responsive team. They truly care about their customers – the customer team and the founder are really helpful and supportive. My customers love the workflows and intakes I put in front of them, and my team finds the software easy to use and was easy to transition to.
  • Arisa F. says:
    August 15, 2023 at 4:05 pm
    Using Gavel as my client intake, document automation, and portal has been a game changer for my and their happiness. I have created several workflows that I created into bundles that my clients can take in their client portal. They are able to log in at their pace, and then I use their client data to generate documents for them. The automation engine is really powerful and was surprisingly easy to set up. Great software.
  • Robert B. says:
    June 13, 2022 at 2:05 pm

    June 7, 2022 Update Renders Software Useless for Lawyers

    (1)
    After using documate for over 2 years, documate randomly re-wrote their software on June 7, 2022. The software is now only useful if you have 2 or fewer “interviews” or only 1 client. The software, while it had its limitations, could at least pull answers from one interview into another answer file allowing you to use the new updated template with your client’s data. Now, however, you can no longer search answer files by client name, preventing you from finding your client’s most recent answer file and importing those answers into a new template. My office spent over 2 years building templates and training around the software as it was formerly built. All of that time is now a waste and documate has no answer or solution.
    • . says:
      September 9, 2022 at 2:03 pm
      Hi Robert – We discussed and resolved this issue for you immediately after you raised it in June 2022, but I wanted to leave a note here for public visibility since this review remains live. We care immensely about building a powerful product that evolves with new features, but that always continues to meet our customers’ needs. When we heard your concerns with the new feature release and your use case, we assigned members of our engineering team to immediately add your request into the new version of Data Manager, and that resolved your needs. Thank you for continuing to trust us with your automation and online legal practice. We have also invited you to our customer feedback group, where we always run new features by current customers before we release to make sure we’re accounting for all use cases.

      Thank you!
      Dorna
      CEO, Documate

  • Noel F. says:
    November 13, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    been looking for this for years

    (5)
    Great product and team. Excited I found it here! Robust enough that I can do almost anything in my documents and not have to make edits after they generate. But also dead simple to get started. And it can be client-facing. Their team is responsive at all hours of the days, nights, and weekends – dont know if their team sleeps!!! I have tried pretty much every solution out there, and the others are all so developer-centric that I couldn’t figure them out, and I’m pretty tech savvy! Best platform out there – been looking for something like this for my entire time practicing.
  • Kristofer S. says:
    October 22, 2020 at 8:53 pm

    Not just doc automation, but legal product/app builder!

    (5)
    I cannot emphasize how much Documate has changed my practice. I started using it for pure document automation, but I have now built a suite of legal products and web apps (e.g., I have a “TurboTax” for uncontested divorces, one for wills, and another for employment docs, and many more coming!) that I charge consumers for using Documate and the paywall integrations. So the software has paid dividends in allowing me to monetize my practice by building flat fee tools. I was going to hire a developer to help me do this, but Documate is like your own personal software development tool for your firm (but I didn’t need to learn anything about code).

    It’s been easy and intuitive to set up, but whenever I’ve had questions, their customer service has far surpassed my expectations. I’ve made a few feature requests that they implemented. So, for that, you’re welcome to the rest of you… :)

  • Josh J. says:
    April 7, 2020 at 1:36 pm

    Goldilocks of legal platforms

    (5)
    Lots of power, but also super easy to use. Justttt right.
  • TJ J. says:
    March 25, 2020 at 12:33 pm

    Powerful tool for complex document automation and client collaboration

    (5)
    Our firm uses Documate to generate a variety of contract sets. Because no coding knowledge is required, we were able to set it up very quickly. It allows for quite a bit of complexity in formatting your documents, adding conditional logic, and setting up complex calculations. The system passed our high privacy and data security requirements, and they set every user up on a dedicated instance, which is crucial when you’re dealing with sensitive legal information.

    Whenever we have had any “wish list” items, they’ve been quick to add features. The customer service is excellent.

  • Susan L. says:
    March 6, 2020 at 11:20 am

    Our firm loves Documate

    (5)
    Used to be HotDocs users, but we switched to Documate last year. We love the software. It’s very easy to set up workflows, but it also has been able to do everything we want it to – all kinds of formatting, conditions, calculations, etc. Thanks to the Documate team for their excellent customer support, too.

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