How can I manage Engagement Letter Templates?

All organizations have access to the PERSUIT standard Engagement Letter template.  In addition, you can upload your own customized templates to:

• Use your preferred layout (e.g. company header or wording) to personalise the process for your company.
• Configure the templates to pre-populate with data points from the request and/or proposal to save time for your lawyers and legal ops teams and ensure continuity of data throughout the process.

In this article, you’ll learn about:

1. Navigating to the Engagement Letter Template Library
2. Engagement Letter Template Page
3. Creating your Engagement Letter Template
   1. File Types
   2. Data-Tagging System in your Template
   3. Available Template Tags
      1. PERSUIT Tags:
         1. Simple Tags
         2. Complex Tags
      2. Organization-built Tags:
         1. Custom Tracking Tags
   4. Highlighting in your template
   5. Example usage
      1. Simple data and custom tracking tags: example usage
      2. Complex tags: example usage
4. Uploading & Publishing your Engagement Letter Template
5. Engagement Letter in Action
6. Unpublishing and Editing Engagement Letter Templates
7. Best Practice Recommendations

Note: only users with the Template Manager role can access and manage the Engagement Letter Template Library. If you would like access, please reach out to support@persuit.com.

Navigating to the Engagement Letter Template Library

Engagement Letter Templates are found in the expandable, main menu. 

This library holds all of your organization’s engagement letter templates, whether unpublished or published. 

Engagement Letter Template Page

When you click into a specific engagement letter template, you will see the unpublished or published status in the top left.

Delete, Save and Unpublish/Publish live at the top right of this page. 

You can add a Title and Description, and Attach the engagement letter template you’ve built. This is what the end user will see when they generate the Engagement Letter.

Below, you’ll find the available Template Tags that can help populate your engagement letter.

Creating Your Engagement Letter Template

Engagement Letter Templates must be created in a certain structure using a data-tagging system in order for the necessary information to be properly pulled from the request.

1. File Types
2. Data-Tagging System in your Template
3. Available Template Tags
   1. PERSUIT Tags:
      1. Simple Tags - Emits a single text value
      2. Complex Tags - Emits formatted data
   2. Organization-Built Tags:
      1. Custom Tracking Tags - Emits tracking tag values that are on the Request
4. Highlighting in your template
5. Example usage
   1. Simple data and custom tracking tags: example usage
   2. Complex tags: example usage
       

File Types

Engagement Letter Templates can only be created using a Microsoft Word Document (.docx). You can format and customize the Word document to meet your preferences or requirements.

Below is an example of PERSUIT’s standard Engagement Letter template. You can see that it pulls through details from the request and proposal (such as matter name, ID, firm name). 

Data-Tagging System in your Template

PERSUIT leverages a data tagging system to help you build your customized engagement letter template. This tagging system is valuable because it:,

• Ensures data is accurately captured from PERSUIT, removing human error
• Increases efficiency, saving the user from having to manually copy and paste any information

You can use any number of tags when building your Engagement Letter template in Word to pre-populate the necessary data when generated by the user. Below is a list of the available tags you can use in your engagement letter template.

Note: The tags must be formatted, either with the {#loremIpsum#} hashtags and brackets or with the +++loremipsum+++ three + signs on either side, in the proper order. If a user receives an error message when generating the engagement letter, please double check that the hashtags and brackets are correctly in place before reaching out to our support team for assistance.

Available Template Tags

• PERSUIT Tags
  • Simple Tags - emits a single text value
  • Custom Tracking Tags - emits tracking tag values that are on the request
• Organization-built Tags
  • Complex Tags - emits formatted data

PERSUIT Tags

PERSUIT has two types of standard tags for you to use: Simple and Complex.
 

Simple Tags

Simple tags emit a single text value. These can be values like a Request Title, your organization’s name, the firm’s name, and more. Here are some examples but you can view the full list of the available Simple Tags at the end of this article.

• {#rfpHeadline#}  →  Request subject
• {#clientOrgName#}  →  Client's company name
• {#firmOrgName#}  →  Firm name

Complex Tags

Complex tags transform large sections of the request’s body text into formatted data blocks.  These large sections are taken from request, such as the entire proposal summary or pricing details section, and inherit the formatting from the request (e.g. bullet points, lists, tables). These tags do not inherit font or style formatting from your template document.  Here are some examples but you can view the full list of the available Complex Tags at the end of this article.

• +++proposalSummary+++  →  Proposal summary rich text field
• +++pricingDetail+++  → Proposal pricing in detail

Note: where possible, avoid using complex tags within tables. It is not guaranteed that the formatting within your engagement letter will be “perfect” as it is determined by the amount of values within the tags used.

Organization-built Tags

Custom Tracking Tags

These are specific to your organization based on the custom tracking fields your Group Managers have set up within Settings. These tags emit values that are currently captured in the Internal Tracking section of the request. Here are some examples but for a longer list of additional examples, please view the table at the end of this article.

• {#tracking.legalPracticeGroup#} →  Legal Practice Group
• {#tracking.countryOfService#}  →  Country of Service

Highlighting in your template

Additionally to data tagging, you can also use highlighting within your Engagement Letter template to guide your colleagues’ behavior and usage. Highlighted fields inform the user that these fields should be manually filled out. 

Example usage

Simple data and custom tracking tags: example usage

In this example, you’ll see that simple tags and custom tracking tags are used to pull information from the request, as well as highlighted values that must be manually filled out with the information required.
 

For readability and structure, you may wish to use a table in your template to lay out the information, for example:

You can also use the data tags within sentences/paragraphs, if this is a more appropriate format for your letter.  In this example, the tags are in bold to stand out:

The purpose of this Engagement Letter is to set forth the terms agreed for {#rfpHeadline#} ({#persuitId#}) between {#firmOrgName#} and {#clientOrgName#}.  The combination of the terms of the Engagement Letter dated {#currentDate#}, the terms of the relevant Schedules as listed therein, and the Billing Guidelines shall together constitute the agreement between {#clientOrgName#} and {#firmOrgName#} for the Engagement.

These tags would look like the bolded content in a generated engagement letter:

The purpose of this Engagement Letter is to set forth the terms agreed for Request from Acme Co. - Renewable Energy Supplier Project(s) Advice (REQ-077164) between Zenith Provider and ACME Inc.  The combination of the terms of the Engagement Letter dated 19 June 2024, the terms of the relevant Schedules as listed therein, and the Billing Guidelines shall together constitute the agreement between ACME Inc. and Zenith Provider for the Engagement.

Complex tags: example usage

In addition to the simple tags, you can populate the template with larger sections of text and data from the different areas of your request.  You may choose to do this if you would like a copy of specific sections the agreement in a document outside of PERSUIT.

This could look something like:

Note:  Standard users will need to review the text pulled from these tags and remove extraneous information. It will pull all available language and content within that section that may not apply to an engagement letter.

Uploading & Publishing Your Engagement Letter Template

After finishing your template in Word, you’ll need to upload and publish it to make it available for generation in matters.

In the Engagement Letter Template Library, you’ll see the Upload Template button at the top right.

Fill out the Template Title and Description. 

Click Attach Files to attach the customized Engagement Letter template Word document. You’ll see the attachmen underneath the title and description. 

Press Save to save this template as an unpublished version. These are not yet accessible to users.

Press Publish to make this Engagement Letter template available for all users to generate when closing out their RFP. You’ll see the status update to a green “PUBLISHED” at the top and the title and description will no longer be editable. 

Engagement Letter in Action

Users can view all the published Engagement Letter templates when managing a provider’s proposal:

See this article for more information on how to generate and use these Engagement Letters.

Unpublishing & Editing Your Engagement Letter Template

To edit existing engagement letter templates, you must ensure they are first unpublished.

You’ll see the status change to a yellow “UNPUBLISHED” status. From here, you can edit the template title or description. 

To update the template, you’ll need to first delete the existing template attachment by clicking on the Trash icon. 

Next, make any edits and save to the template document via Microsoft Word. Via the Attach Files button, re-upload the newest, most updated engagement letter template. 

Re-publish again once ready. 

If necessary, you can delete the engagement letter template from the library entirely by clicking the Delete button. Once deleted, there is no way to reverse or recall that engagement letter template.

Best practice recommendations

• Test thoroughly!  Start with a couple of simple tags to familiarize yourself, and then iterate and develop a more complex version if needed.
  • Testing process:
    • Download PERSUIT’s standard engagement letter template.
    • Edit template, changing wording and data tracking tags as needed.
    • Upload the new, updated template.
    • Temporarily publish the template (only while testing, and before client approval for go-live).
    • Identify a sample matter and generate an engagement letter.  This will exemplify how any tracking tags pull through.
    • Unpublish the template.
    • Iterate and refine the template.  Repeat above until it is finished.
• Review with your customer stakeholders - this is a collaborative effort, and needs to be something that they are comfortable with communicating to lawyers.
• Include an instructional first page for users to reference when they generate the Engagement Letter. Here is an example of some instructions:
  • Instructions for use:
    • Review all text in highlighted yellow for accuracy and for additional instructions regarding what information should be included in the SOW.
      • For example, tables with pricing elements will appear in two locations due to technical reasons. Please ensure that you only include the pricing items table in the Fee Arrangement section.
    • Prior to finalizing, ensure that all text is in Arial font, size 11.
    • Delete this instruction page prior to sending to outside vendor via Docusign.
    • Save final version to your desktop prior to sending via Docusign to Outside Vendor.
    • Optional: Upload final signed SOW via PERSUIT.
          

If you have any other questions or feedback about managing Engagement Letter templates, please reach out to our support team at support@persuit.com.

AVAILABLE PERSUIT SIMPLE TAGS

AVAILABLE PERSUIT COMPLEX TAGS

 
CUSTOM TRACKING TAG EXAMPLES

Non-exhaustive list of more common examples. Custom Tracking Tags are dependent on the organization and their custom tracking fields.