SimpleDocs today announced the launch of SimpleDocs EDU, a new division dedicated to bringing AI-powered contracting solutions to colleges and universities across the United States. As legal and procurement teams in higher education face rising contract volume, stricter compliance requirements, and persistent budget constraints, SimpleDocs sees a meaningful opportunity to serve a market that the traditional legal tech vendors have long underserved.  

The initiative reflects a strategic priority for CEO Preston Clark, former Assistant General Counsel at the University of Miami, who brings firsthand experience with the contracting pressures and governance complexity that define university operations. To lead the expansion, SimpleDocs has appointed Jennifer Davidson as Vice President, Higher Education Partnerships. Davidson is a seasoned higher-education operator with more than 15 years of experience delivering enterprise technology to legal, compliance, student affairs and risk-management teams across colleges and universities.  Her leadership experience includes senior roles at Togetherall North America and EVERFI, where she worked with thousands of institutions ranging from large public systems to R1 research universities and community colleges.

For years, traditional contract lifecycle management (CLM) systems have struggled to take hold within higher education. Institutions operate differently from corporate organizations: their governance structures are often decentralized, procurement processes are highly structured, compliance requirements are demanding and the regulatory environment subject to change.  Further, contracting often spans multiple stakeholders, from the Office of General Counsel to IT, data governance, risk, academic affairs, student and auxiliary services and advancement. The cost, rigidity, and lengthy implementations associated with legacy CLM platforms have historically made them difficult to justify and even harder to deploy across these environments.

SimpleDocs EDU changes the game with SimpleAI Pro and SimpleAI Repository. These AI-powered tools automate management rapidly and affordably, without the complexity of a full CLM deployment. 

The launch of SimpleDocs EDU reflects the company’s belief that higher education requires technology built for its reality—not retrofitted from corporate use cases. Clark’s in-house legal experience combined with Davidson’s deep background in partnering with diverse institutions gives SimpleDocs a unique advantage in delivering Legal AI software for Higher Ed. 

The new division will focus on two core products: SimpleAI Pro, an AI-powered contract review and redlining tool that operates as a simple Microsoft Word add-in, and SimpleAI Repository, a SOC 2–compliant, AI-native contract repository that centralizes institutional clause libraries, templates, vendor agreements, and historical contracts. Both products are built to support decentralized institutional workflows and enable seamless collaboration across legal and cross-functional teams - regardless of the size.

To support the specific needs of Higher Ed, SimpleDocs will also launch a suite of university-specific AI Playbooks in January 2026. These playbooks will cover vendor contracting, IT and data privacy, research and clinical agreements, medical center workflows, auxiliary agreements. The playbooks will be deeply integrated into SimpleAI Pro to power tailored, institution-aligned automated contract reviews.

Furthering its commitment to Higher Ed, SimpleDocs recently completed TX-RAMP, Level 2 certification underscoring the company’s commitment to meeting the stringent data and security standards required by both public and private institutions. Additional system-level and regional compliance enhancements will roll out throughout 2026 to further align the platform with higher-education procurement and IT governance expectations.

To meet the financial and operational realities of colleges and universities, SimpleDocs EDU will offer non-for-profit discounts for both public and private institutions, as well as flat-fee site license packages to enable predictable budgeting. 

“Higher-education legal teams have been underserved by legal tech software for far too long,” said Preston Clark, CEO of SimpleDocs. “Legacy CLM never fit the way they operate. With SimpleAI Pro and the SimpleAI Repository, we can finally offer institutions an affordable, AI-native legal tech solution tailored to their unique contracting requirements. SimpleDocs EDU reflects our deep commitment to this sector.”

“Universities face unique contracting challenges with complex governance structures, state and regulatory requirements, and cross-functional workflows that traditional legal tech has never fully supported,” said Jennifer Davidson, Vice President of Higher Education Partnerships at SimpleDocs. “SimpleDocs is uniquely positioned to help institutions modernize quickly and responsibly. I’m excited to lead this expansion as we bring AI-powered contracting to campuses across the country.”

About SimpleDocs

SimpleDocs is an AI-native contract automation platform built for in-house legal teams and law firms. The platform combines AI-powered drafting, redlining, and review with configurable playbooks and an AI-first contract repository, enabling legal teams to manage contracts from first draft to negotiation and storage. By grounding its tools in real-world contract data and adapting to each team’s standards, SimpleDocs ensures faster turnaround, greater accuracy, and more consistent results—delivering measurable ROI and confidence across every stage of the contracting lifecycle. Explore the future of AI-powered contracts with SimpleDocs at www.simpledocs.com

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