In my previous devshop, we had a similar situation RE: contracts. At first we had a lawyer on retainer to handle the relatively complex contracts that we signed with companies.
Eventually, we moved to a format of having a 2-page "contract" which basically specified our rates, gave a few short sentences on the most important topics (rates, billing policy, IP licensing, liability), and used this both as a "price proposal" as well as a final "contract".
This worked very well for 85% of customers. Another 15% were either specific situations, in which legal counsel was required, or were (usually large) companies that had a fixed contract which we could either accept or not.
My experience with Matasano was that for our median contract (mid 5-figures), companies routinely expect to close their deal on their own paper, and will balk at using ours as a starting point.
Eventually, we moved to a format of having a 2-page "contract" which basically specified our rates, gave a few short sentences on the most important topics (rates, billing policy, IP licensing, liability), and used this both as a "price proposal" as well as a final "contract".
This worked very well for 85% of customers. Another 15% were either specific situations, in which legal counsel was required, or were (usually large) companies that had a fixed contract which we could either accept or not.