Your Guide to Legal Innovation

Smarter Drafter Builder Community of Practice

Written by Smarter Drafter | May 11, 2026 1:13:38 PM

We’re launching a pilot of the Smarter Drafter Builder Community of Practice (COP).

This is a new forum designed specifically for existing Smarter Drafter customers and partners who are actively building and scaling automation.

Most firms are now beyond the “first automation” stage. The challenge is no longer whether automation works - it’s how to structure it so it scales. That’s where the COP comes in.

A forum for people doing the work

This is not a product update and it’s not training. This is a working session for practitioners.

We’re bringing together a small group of:

  • Builders and Admins inside customer organisations
  • Implementation and consulting partners
  • The Smarter Drafter team

The goal is to share what’s actually working in practice, and where things are breaking down.

Inaugural session - 3 June

The first session will be chaired by Sean Kelly-Kobes (IT Manager, Moores).

Sean has led the rollout of Smarter Drafter at Moores, including deploying over 200 automations integrated with Unity and iManage.

He’s also suggested the focus for the first session, based on a challenge they’re currently working through.

The topic: Who owns automation?

As firms scale automation, one question keeps coming up: who owns the documents once they’re automated? Most organisations start with a centralised model. A Knowledge or IT team builds the first automations and sets the standards. But over time:

  • Practice teams want more control
  • Updates need to happen faster
  • Ownership becomes less clear
  • Maintenance starts to spread

There’s no single right answer - and most firms are still working this out.

What we’ll cover

The first session will focus on how different organisations are approaching:

  • Centralised vs decentralised models
  • How responsibility is split across IT, Knowledge, and practice teams
  • Where governance sits vs where flexibility is needed
  • How ongoing maintenance and updates are managed

Sean will open the session by sharing his experiences and lessons learned from the Moores rollout. We’ll then open up the discussion to attendees to share their own experiences, approaches, challenges, and technical questions with the broader group.

This is a pilot

We’re testing the waters with this first session. If it’s valuable, we’ll continue running these sessions, with topics shaped by the group.

Smarter Drafter will host and facilitate, but the direction will come from participants.

Want to be part of it?

This pilot is open to existing Smarter Drafter customers and partners only, and is designed for people actively involved in building or managing automation.

If that's you, keep an eye on your inbox for the invitation email.