Gavel Exec for legal teams at a glance
- Built for
- Legal departments and law firm practice groups with more than one reviewer
- Shared standards
- Playbooks, Organization-wide instructions and Projects
- Access
- Share with everyone in your Organization or with specific people, with Read-Only or Edit Access
- Reasoning
- A priority and reasoning on every redline; a pass or fail with a reason on every playbook rule
- Price
- 25 free queries per user, then $160 per user per month
Why do reviewers on the same team take different positions?
Reviewers take different positions because each one works from a different source. One lawyer remembers what was accepted last quarter, another works from an old checklist, and a new hire starts from the counterparty's draft. Without a shared standard applied at the moment of review, each reviewer fills the gaps with their own judgment.
How does Gavel Exec standardize contract review?
Gavel Exec, an artificial intelligence (AI) contract review tool for Microsoft Word, puts the team's positions into contract playbooks and Organization-wide instructions that every reviewer runs. Each reviewer then checks agreements against the same rules, and each result comes with its reasoning. A rollout takes five steps:
- Write down your positions as a playbook. Start with the contract type the team reviews most. Choose Generate from Files and upload your checklist, spreadsheet playbook or signed agreements, then edit the rules Gavel Exec drafts.
- Set Organization-wide instructions. Add the conventions that apply to every chat and playbook in the Organization, such as your preferred governing law or how the team words comments.
- Calibrate the playbook. Run it against an agreement the team considers correct and adjust any rule that fails until every rule passes.
- Share the playbook. Share it once every rule passes on the agreement you calibrated against, either with everyone in your Organization or with specific people. Give Edit Access to the lawyers who own the positions and Read-Only access to everyone else, so reviewers can run the playbook without changing its rules.
- Review with it. Reviewers run Use a Playbook on each new agreement in Word. Failed rules come with a reason and proposed changes for the reviewer to accept, edit or reject.
How do you turn your precedent into a shared playbook?
Generate from Files works in three steps: describe your goals, upload your standards documents, then upload templates or finalized agreements. It accepts .docx, PDF and .csv files, so a checklist, a spreadsheet playbook or a set of signed agreements can all become rules.
You can also start from the built-in playbooks, developed with attorneys in corporate and real estate law. They come in two kinds: market-standard benchmarks and client-favorable positions. Playbooks exported from Gavel Exec can be imported and merged, and a playbook kept in another tool can be saved as a .csv or PDF file and run through Generate from Files.
Who can see and edit the team's standards?
You decide for each playbook. Share it with everyone in the Organization or with specific individuals, and choose Read-Only or Edit Access. People with Read-Only access can run the playbook but can't change its rules, and people with Edit Access can change the rules and share the playbook onward.
How do supervising lawyers check the output?
Every redline and playbook result carries its reasoning. Each redline shows its priority and why it was proposed, each failed playbook rule shows the reason it failed, and each passing rule explains why it passed and links to the supporting language in the document. When Gavel Exec redlines a draft that already has tracked changes, those changes keep their original authors, so edits by colleagues or the counterparty stay attributed to them.
What still varies from one reviewer to the next?
Redline suggestions and chat answers can differ between reviewers. Since August 2026, Gavel Exec's redline suggestions adapt to each user's redlining style, and chat answers depend on how each lawyer asks. Playbook rules stay fixed: every reviewer who runs the same playbook checks the agreement against the same rules. Whether a borderline clause passes is still the model's judgment, so reviewers should read passing rules as well as failing ones. Put any position that must not vary into a playbook rule.
Does it work for law firm practice groups as well as legal departments?
Yes. Any group that reviews contracts together can share playbooks and instructions in an Organization, whether it is a legal department or a practice group at a firm. For role-specific detail, see in-house counsel and transactional attorneys.
Can a paralegal run the team's playbook?
Yes, once a lawyer has set it up. Martin Algie, Principal at MIA Contract Lawyers, built an in-licensing playbook of close to 80 rules that his paralegal runs before he settles the draft, and his first-cut review fell from about 15 hours to about 5.
“Now that I’ve set up the playbook correctly, my paralegal can easily run those rules both in the chat and also the playbooks and deliver to me a draft that I can then settle. That’s where the magic is.”
What should a lawyer still check?
Redlines and playbook results appear in the Gavel Exec panel first, with their reasoning, and go into the document only when a reviewer applies them. Each applied change appears in the draft as a tracked change that a supervising lawyer can keep, edit or reject.
The American Bar Association's Formal Opinion 512 (July 29, 2024) applies the duties of competence, confidentiality and client communication to lawyers' use of generative AI, and its discussion of supervisory duties covers lawyers who oversee others using these tools. The opinion also says managerial lawyers should set clear policies on permissible use of generative AI, and a shared playbook and Organization-wide instructions are one place to record those policies.
Is contract data secure in Gavel Exec?
Gavel Exec is SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) Type II certified. Gavel has Zero Data Retention agreements with the AI model providers it uses, including OpenAI, and does not use customer data, prompts or documents to train AI models. Details are on the Gavel security page.
Over 2,000 legal organizations in 28 countries use Gavel, which is part of Relativity.
How much does Gavel Exec cost?
Each user starts with 25 free queries, with no credit card. Paid plans cost $160 per user per month, or $1,740 per user per year, and include 1,000 queries per user per month. Teams of 10 or more seats get discounted pricing. See Gavel Exec pricing, start free or request a demo.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to standardize contract review?
Start with the agreement your team reviews most often. Generate a playbook from your checklist or signed agreements, calibrate it against an agreement you consider correct, then share it with the team. Add more contract types once the first playbook is working.
Will every reviewer get identical redlines?
Not always. Redline suggestions adapt to each user's style, and chat answers depend on the question. Playbook rules are the same for everyone who runs the playbook, so put fixed positions into rules.
Who can change a shared playbook?
The playbook's owner and anyone given Edit Access. People with Read-Only access can run the playbook but can't change its rules.
Can we import the playbook we already use?
Import works for playbooks exported from Gavel Exec. For a playbook kept elsewhere, save it as a .csv or PDF file and use Generate from Files.
How often should we update a shared playbook?
Update it when a position changes, such as a new approved fallback or a revised template, and when reviewers keep overriding the same rule. Run the playbook against your calibration agreement again after each change.
Last updated October 29, 2026.
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