ServiceNow has deprecated Legal Simple Contracts. It is no longer supported or available for new activation, and it is hidden for new customers, according to ServiceNow's documentation. Existing users are pointed to Contract Management Pro for Legal Service Delivery. You have three realistic paths: migrate to it, add a contract lifecycle management app from the ServiceNow Store, or integrate a standalone contract tool.
This guide covers what changed, what the migration moves and what it leaves for you to decide, the questions to answer first, and a fair comparison of the three paths. Confirm current scope and licensing with your ServiceNow account team before you commit to any of them.
What changed with Legal Simple Contracts?
Legal Simple Contracts was a light way to keep legal contracts inside ServiceNow. ServiceNow now lists it as deprecated: no longer supported, not available for new activation and hidden for new customers (ServiceNow documentation).
For existing users, ServiceNow points to Contract Management Pro for Legal Service Delivery. It is a licensed application installed separately, and it depends on Legal Request Management and Contract Management Pro (ServiceNow documentation, ServiceNow Store listing). If you are new to the wider product family, our glossary entry on ServiceNow Legal Service Delivery explains how the pieces fit.
Nothing here forces an emergency. It does mean the contract process you run today sits on an application that will not move forward, so the sensible time to plan is before a renewal, an audit or a new contract type forces the question.
What does the migration move, and what does it not?
ServiceNow provides a migration script, run by a legal contracts administrator. According to ServiceNow's migration documentation, the script copies contract types and contract repository records into the new application. Your Legal Simple Contracts data stays available after migration.
One detail matters for planning: changes or deletions you make to contract types in the old table after migration are not synced to the new table (ServiceNow documentation). Freeze contract type changes in the old application before you run the script, or plan to repeat them in the new one.
| Item | What the documentation says | What you still decide |
|---|---|---|
| Contract types | Copied by the migration script | Whether the old types still match how you work |
| Contract repository records | Copied by the migration script | Whether the records are complete and correct |
| Legal Simple Contracts data | Stays available after migration | When to retire the old views |
| Later edits to old contract types | Not synced to the new table | Who owns the freeze and the cutover |
What ServiceNow documents about the migration, and the decisions left to your team.
Which questions should you answer before you migrate?
A migration copies records. It does not tell you whether the process around those records is the one you want for the next several years. Answer these five questions first.
- Templates and clauses: where do your approved templates and fallback language live today, and who maintains them? A shared contract clause library is easier to govern than clauses copied into documents.
- Intake design: how do business users ask legal for a contract? If requests arrive by email and chat, a migration will not fix that. See our guide to legal contract intake on ServiceNow.
- Repository data quality: are counterparties, dates, values and contract types filled in on every record? Records with blank fields copy over with the same blanks.
- Obligations after signature: who tracks renewals, notice periods, service credits and insurance certificates once a contract is signed, and where?
- Procurement link: do supplier contracts start from a sourcing event? If so, decide whether award details should flow into the contract record automatically.
What are your three options?
Option 1: Migrate to Contract Management Pro for Legal Service Delivery
This is the path ServiceNow documents. It keeps you inside the ServiceNow product family, uses the provided migration script and builds on Legal Request Management. It suits teams whose needs are close to what the application offers and who are already licensed for the related products, or ready to be. Confirm current scope and licensing with your ServiceNow account team.
Option 2: Add a contract lifecycle management app from the ServiceNow Store
Store apps such as Aavenir Contractflow run natively in your instance, so contracts stay on the platform you already govern, under your roles, single sign on and audit history. This path fits teams that want deeper contract work than the basics: AI review, a governed clause library, obligation tracking and a link to sourcing. In Aavenir, Aavenir AI extracts and reviews contracts, Avy, the AI contract assistant, answers questions about a contract, summarizes, simplifies and compares clauses and recommends clause language, and a person approves every AI action. See Contractflow on ServiceNow.
Option 3: A standalone contract tool integrated with ServiceNow
Some teams already own a standalone contract tool, often bought by legal before ServiceNow was in place. Integrating it with ServiceNow keeps that investment, at the cost of maintaining an integration and running two sets of permissions, audit logs and user experiences.
How do the three options compare?
The table compares the options on how they are built and deployed, not on claims about speed or savings. Check each cell against your own instance and contracts.
| Dimension | Contract Management Pro for Legal Service Delivery | ServiceNow Store app (for example Contractflow) | Standalone tool, integrated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where contracts live | In your ServiceNow instance | In your ServiceNow instance | In the vendor's system, synced to ServiceNow |
| Migration route from Legal Simple Contracts | Script documented by ServiceNow | Data import planned with the app vendor | Data import plus integration build |
| Licensing | Separate license, with dependent applications | Licensed from the app vendor through the Store | Licensed from the tool vendor |
| Permissions and audit | ServiceNow roles and audit history | ServiceNow roles and audit history | Two systems to govern |
| Who supports it | ServiceNow | The app vendor, on ServiceNow | The tool vendor and your integration owner |
A factual comparison of the three paths. Confirm current scope and licensing with each vendor.
For a longer side by side of Contractflow and ServiceNow's own contract applications, see our ServiceNow contract lifecycle management comparison.
What happens to obligations and sourcing after signature?
Legal teams often choose a contract tool for drafting and approval, then find the harder problems arrive after signature. Whatever you pick, decide where these live.
- Obligations: Obligationflow lists each commitment from a signed contract, assigns an owner once a contract manager approves the list, and tracks it with reminders, escalations and the evidence the owner attaches. See contract obligation management.
- Sourcing awards: RFPflow connects a sourcing award to the contract record, so the supplier, scope and agreed terms carry over instead of being retyped.
- Legacy documents: older contracts that never made it into Legal Simple Contracts can be read with AI contract extraction, with a person checking each extracted field before it is saved.
What should be on your migration checklist?
- Confirm licensing: ask your ServiceNow account team about current scope and licensing for Contract Management Pro for Legal Service Delivery and its dependencies.
- Inventory what you have: count contract types, repository records, templates and the users who touch them.
- Clean the data: fill blank counterparties, dates and contract types before anything is copied.
- Freeze contract types: stop edits in the old table before cutover, since later changes do not sync.
- Map intake: write down how requests reach legal today and how they should.
- Decide on obligations and sourcing: name where post signature tracking and award handoff will live.
- Compare the three options: score each against the table above, using your own contracts.
- Plan the cutover: pick a date, a rollback plan and who answers user questions in the first weeks.
If you want help with steps six and seven, our team can walk through the legal contract management setup on a sample of your records, or you can book a demo.
The bottom line
The deprecation of Legal Simple Contracts is a good reason to decide how your legal contracts should work, not only where they should be stored. Migrating to Contract Management Pro for Legal Service Delivery is the documented path and suits many teams. If you need AI review, a governed clause library, obligation tracking or a sourcing link inside the same instance, compare it fairly with a native ServiceNow Store app before you run the script.