Legal documents Lawrence initially put in drawers (7)

I believe the answer is:

patents

'legal documents' is the definition.
(patent is a kind of legal document)

'lawrence initially put in drawers' is the wordplay.
'lawrence initially' becomes 'TE' (initials of TE Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia).
'put in' is an insertion indicator.
'drawers' becomes 'pants' (synonyms).
'te' placed inside 'pants' is 'PATENTS'.

(Another definition for patents that I've seen is " Inventors' protections".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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