TL;DR
A typical one-off contract review via outside counsel runs a few hundred dollars per document and can take days (or longer when negotiations stretch). ClauseQuick Pro is $9/month for unlimited AI reviews with ~30-second turnarounds—use it to triage routine agreements and reserve lawyers for negotiation strategy or edge cases.
What does a lawyered contract review cost?
Two pricing patterns dominate:
Flat fee per contract
Marketplace data pegs the average contract-review project at about $608, with many reviews falling $250–$600 depending on pages and complexity.
Hourly billing
Broad US averages for lawyers settled around $341/hour in 2024 (higher for corporate or big-city specialists). Your final bill reflects review time, edits, and back-and-forth with counterparties.
Turnaround time: For straightforward 10–15 page agreements, many firms quote 2–5 business days. Complex or multi-party matters commonly expand to four–eight weeks from first pass to signature due to negotiation cycles.
What does ClauseQuick cost?
Direct Cost Comparison
Traditional Lawyer
ClauseQuick Pro
ClauseQuick Pro: $9/month with unlimited contract analyses (plus a Free tier for light usage). The pricing page also contrasts a "traditional lawyer" benchmark of $450–$750 per 15-page review—useful for ballpark comparisons when budgeting.
What you're buying with ClauseQuick: 30-second analysis, structured plain-English summaries, risk flags (e.g., liability caps, indemnities), suggested wording, and auto-deletion privacy defaults—so non-lawyers can triage quickly and escalate only when needed.
Side-by-side: direct fees & time
Turnaround Time Comparison
| Dimension | Traditional Lawyer | ClauseQuick |
|---|---|---|
| Direct price | $250–$600 flat fee typical (avg ≈ $608) or $341/hr US average | $9/month (unlimited) |
| Per-doc marginal cost | Medium–High | Near-zero |
| Turnaround | 2–5 days for simple; 4–8 weeks with negotiations | ~30 seconds for first pass |
| Format | PDF memo / tracked changes | Summary + risks + suggested edits |
| Best for | Strategy, negotiation, complex deals | Screening, first pass, checklists |
Total cost of delay (the hidden line item)
Legal fees are only half the story. If a contract sits in a queue for days or weeks, yourdeal velocity drops: revenue recognition shifts, onboarding stalls, and internal teams context-switch. Industry guidance notes that manual review timelines are routinely budgeted weeks in advance to accommodate revisions and stakeholder calendars—time AI can absorb by front-loading a quality first pass.
Workflow tip: Use AI to pre-flag liabilities, indemnities, auto-renewals, sunset periods, and governing law before counsel sees the draft. That turns a lawyer's effort from "hunting issues" into "resolving a prioritized list." (Most firms bill less when the problem list is crisp.)
ROI snapshot (conservative)
Assume you review 5 contracts/month:
ROI Snapshot: 5 Contracts/Month
Even if you still send 1–2 complex contracts to counsel, AI screening on the rest usually cuts thousands from monthly review spend and can shave days off cycle time (which matters to sales and procurement KPIs).
When should you still hire a lawyer?
Negotiation strategy
on indemnities, liability caps, IP ownership, data protection addenda
Non-standard deals
(M&A, large enterprise MSAs, heavily regulated industries)
Disputes or potential litigation
Think of ClauseQuick as your first-pass risk engine; lawyers remain essential forjudgment and dealcraft. AI excels at consistency, speed, and checklists—counsel excels at trade-offs and bespoke language.
Implementation playbook (fast path)
Implementation Playbook (Fast Path)
This hybrid model keeps legal spend focused on high-leverage work while giving business teams same-day clarity.
Caveats & fairness
Prices vary widely. A specialist in NYC or a BigLaw partner may quote far above averages; conversely, routine NDAs can be cheaper via templates or small firms. Recent surveys also show rate increases across many firms in 2024–2025. Calibrate with your vendors.
Not legal advice. Treat AI output as decision support, not counsel. Keep a human in the loop for final calls on red-flag issues.
Bottom line
If your team handles dozens of routine agreements, ClauseQuick converts variable legal spend into a predictable $9/month operational cost and returns hours per deal to the business. Bring lawyers in where their expertise creates outsized value—after AI has done the heavy lifting.
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© 2025 ClauseQuick Inc. | Author: Benjamin
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