Monthly Archives: February 2008

Reader Michael Fleming informed me of US Salt, Inc. v. Broken Arrow, Inc., Civ. No. 07-1988, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10841 (D. Minn. Feb. 11, …

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Here’s a quick way to save three words: instead of saying in accordance with the terms [or provisions] of section 6, say simply in accordance …

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Today I read in a work on contract drafting an explanation of the purpose served by the phrase as the case may be. I think …

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As I noted in this post, from April 21 through April 25 I’ll be giving my “Contract Drafting—Language and Layout” seminar at the Geneva, Switzerland …

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Bylaws is spelled both with and without a hyphen. For example, Black’s Law Dictionary gives a definition for bylaw but notes that it’s sometimes spelled …

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In a recent post I suggested that accurate is a “less dopey” alternative to true and correct. (Yes, I know, I too thought that an …

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I suggest that for purposes of contract drafting, you can always do without automatically. Consider the following fragment: … and each January 1 thereafter, this …

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Perhaps because they’re aware that I’ve had occasion to consider punctuation, some readers contacted me about the February 18 New York Times article about use …

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I’m pleased to announce that from Monday, April 21, through Friday, April 25, I’ll be giving five consecutive one-day seminars on “Contract Drafting—Language and Layout” …

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Today’s issue of the New York Law Journal contains my article on the recent litigation between Cerberus and United Rentals. Click here to go to …

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A couple of days ago reader David Munn—ever vigilant against the forces of contract-drafting darkness—sent me the following: I couldn’t find that you had blogged …

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In the past year, 265 contracts filed as “material contracts” on the SEC’s EDGAR database contained a provision stating that the recitals were true and …

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Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs has posted a Q&A with yours truly. Click here to go to it.

I received the following from reader Nigel Madeley, of the U.K. law firm Addleshaw Goddard: Ken, I know this one raises your blood pressure a …

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Avoid the prefixes bi- and semi- for purposes of references to time—they’re confusing. Bimonthly means “every two months” and semimonthly means “every half-month,” in other …

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What’s wrong with this picture: “Subsidiary” includes only any company in which the applicable entity, directly or indirectly, has a beneficial ownership interest of greater …

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Reader Steven Sholk of the Gibbons law firm alerted me to the February 6 decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court in Barbour v. Mississippi ex …

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Here’s yet another issue regarding the introductory clause that I haven’t previously written about: How, if at all, should you address in the introductory clause …

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A couple of days ago I received from a reader an email that included the following: I’ve got a question about the use of apostrophes …

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As I mentioned previously, Alliance Data Systems and Blackstone Group are in litigation over Blackstone’s proposed acquisition of ADS. More specifically, ADS has filed a …

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Quick—what’s the difference between promptly and immediately? I bet that what comes to mind is the notion that immediately requires speedier action that does promptly. …

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This post on use of all capitals in contracts—it’s from Legal Frontier, Andrew Mitton’s blog—reminded me of a question that I’ve asked myself occasionally. The …

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A few months ago someone at a public company mentioned to me that her department was about to embark on a redraft of their templates. …

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