Brisbane, QLD
Your contracts are a legal filing problem.
Most growing companies do not have a contracting problem. They have an unversioned folder, four slightly different sets of terms, and nobody who owns the approval step. SNJ Legal builds the system that fixes that.
The Consultant will map the Company’s existing commercial documents, establish a single versioned Template Library, and define an Approval Matrix setting out who may issue, vary and execute each document type.
The engagement concludes on delivery of the Handover Pack and a working session with the Company’s nominated document owner.
$380 per hour$3,900 fixedThe same engagement, estimated at fourteen hours. Quoted against this scope before any work starts.
Particulars
The position, stated
Set out the way an engagement sets out its particulars, so there is nothing to infer.
- What it is
- Document systems. Structure, versioning, approval flow, registers.
- What it is not
- Not a law practice. No legal advice, and no documents prepared for you.
- Who it is for
- Companies of roughly ten to two hundred people, where the document layer has no owner.
- How it is priced
- A fixed fee against a written scope, agreed before the work starts. Exclusions listed beside it.
- Who runs it
- The person who scoped it, start to finish, to a documented method. No handoffs, no juniors learning on your matter.
- How it ends
- A handover pack and a working session, so the system survives whoever commissioned it.
Engagements
Services
Each engagement produces a system you own and operate: a template set, a version history, an approval path, and written instructions for running it.
Governance document systems
One authoritative set of governance documents, versioned, with a register that stays current.
Terms and template libraries
One library, one current version, a log of every variation you have agreed to.
Employment document systems
Role-based document sets, issued consistently, with a record of what each person holds.
Property document management
A register of every premises, every document, and every date you cannot afford to miss.
Transaction document coordination
Data room structure, checklist discipline and version control while a transaction is running.
Fractional legal operations
A monthly engagement that runs the system after it is built, so it does not decay.
Document assessment
A full inventory of what is actually in circulation, with the differences marked up.
Contract intake desk
One place requests go, with tracked status and somebody chasing the approval step.
Contractor IP assignment audit
A register of who produced what, and whether the assignment paperwork exists.
Retention and disposal schedule
What you keep, for how long, and who is allowed to delete it.
Post-acquisition document integration
Two document systems collided. This is the engagement that merges them.
Board and minute book systems
A minute book that is current, and a checklist for the things that change it.
Position
What this actually is
SNJ Legal is a systems business. The work is document architecture: what templates exist, which version is authoritative, who is allowed to change what, and where the whole thing lives so it is still true in eighteen months.
That is deliberately not the same as producing your documents for you or telling you what they mean. SNJ Legal does not provide legal advice and is not a law practice. When a document needs professional judgement applied to it, that goes to your own external adviser, and part of the work here is making that handoff cheap by having the system already know which clauses are settled and which are open.
The result is that the next time someone asks for your standard terms, one person can answer in a minute, from one place, with confidence about which version they are sending.
How an engagement runs
Inventory
Everything currently in use gets collected and listed: every version of every commercial document, wherever it is living. This step is usually the uncomfortable one.
Map
Documents are grouped by type and lifecycle. Duplicates and orphans are identified, and each type is assigned an owner, a trigger and an approval path.
Build
A single versioned template library is established, with defined-term consistency across documents, a change log, and an approval matrix that names roles rather than people.
Handover
The system is transferred with written operating instructions and a working session, so it survives the person who commissioned it leaving.
Free, instant, ungated
How is your document layer actually running?
Twelve questions about filing, versioning, ownership and approvals. It takes about four minutes, the result appears on this page, and no contact details are needed to see it.
Insights
One question per post, answered in the first line
18.08.2026
Governance
When did your minute book last match reality?
Almost certainly at the last event somebody paid an accountant to lodge, which is not the same as the last event that happened.
11.08.2026
Integration
What happens to two sets of contracts after an acquisition?
Nothing, usually, which is the problem. Both sets stay live, nobody decides which governs, and the question resurfaces at the next transaction.
28.07.2026
Retention
How long should a business keep its commercial documents?
Longer than you think for some classes and far shorter than you are keeping them for most, and the point of a schedule is that nobody has to decide case by case.
Questions
Asked and answered
- Is SNJ Legal a law practice?
- No. SNJ Legal is a business services company that builds document systems: template libraries, version control, approval workflows and registers. It does not provide legal advice, does not prepare documents on your behalf and does not act for you in any matter. Nobody here is presented as qualified to do so.
- So what do you actually deliver?
- Structure. An inventory of what you have, a single versioned library, a register that stays current, an approval matrix that names roles rather than people, and written instructions for running all of it. You own and operate the result.
- What happens when a question needs professional judgement?
- It goes to your own external adviser, and part of the value here is making that referral cheap. They receive the current version, the history and a specific question instead of a folder, which is the difference between a bounded question and an open-ended one.
- Why is every engagement a fixed fee?
- Because hourly billing makes the client carry the risk of an estimate they were never in a position to check. The scope is written down as a clause, the exclusions are written down beside it, and if the scope changes that is a new number agreed in advance.
- Do you work outside Brisbane?
- Yes. The work is document structure, and almost all of it happens remotely. The inventory step occasionally benefits from being in the room, and that is discussed in the scoping call rather than assumed either way.
- What does the first conversation cost?
- Nothing, and there is no obligation afterwards. It ends either with a written scope and a fixed fee, or with a straight answer that this is not worth your money yet: said on the call rather than after an invoice.
Next step
Start with the inventory
Nothing can be quoted until somebody has established what is actually in circulation. That is the first call, it costs nothing, and it ends with either a written scope and a fixed fee or a reason not to bother yet.