Ken Adams

The Challenge of Addressing Your Client’s Needs

Andrew Stokes is CEO of The Law Machine, “a contracting platform that makes contract content modular so lawyers can automate contracts visually through a drag and drop UI.” I enjoy Andrew’s posts. I noticed his two most recent posts. In this one, he gripes about the notion of “market” contract terms: If ever again a $1000/hour lawyer dares tell me … Read More

My Essay in the ABA Journal About “Nonlawyer”

The ABA Journal has published my essay entitled What Should We Do with “Nonlawyer”? Go here. I wrote it because I thought polemic on the subject (including a couple of contributions by me) doesn’t tell the whole story. In my essay, I suggest that for two reasons, we can ease up on the indignation over nonlawyer. First, this use of … Read More

A Malpractice Fight Shows the Substantive Implications of Copy-and-Paste

A client of the law firm Proskauer Rose has sued the firm for malpractice, seeking $636 million in damages. Robert Adelman alleges that because of a provision mistakenly included in a contract relating to control of a hedge fund, the hedge fund’s manager was able to seize Adelman’s stake in the fund. Adelman’s lawyers allege that Proskauer negligently copy-and-pasted the … Read More

I Appear on the “Procurement Reimagined” Podcast

Go here for episode 16 of Gatekeeper’s “Procurement Reimagined,” with host Daniel Barnes. The title is Moving Beyond Cut and Paste: The Criticality of Contract Language with Ken Adams, Chief Content Officer at LegalSifter. Yes, it consists of a chat with yours truly. My thanks to Daniel for keeping the conversation moving!

It’s a Bad Idea to Rely on Principles of Interpretation in Deciding on Contract Language

Yesterday I encountered this LinkedIn post about “canons of construction.” (I call them “principles of interpretation.”) The post begins as follows: Tip for law students and newer attorneys: Familiarize yourself with the rules of contract interpretation (often called “canons”), if, like me, you didn’t learn them in law school. Courts rely on these default rules to interpret contracts and statutes. … Read More

The Nature of L2L Contracts: Thoughts Prompted by a Chris Simkins Blog Post

I noticed the most recent post by Chris Simkins on his Improving Contracts blog. Entitled L2L Contracts: Thinking beyond B2C and B2B, it explores the implications of, well, L2L contracts. What are L2L contracts, you ask? Here’s what Chris says: When I use L2L, I don’t mean a contract between two lawyers, or two law firms. I’m using it to … Read More

New T-Shirt: “The Traditionalist”!

For the sheer heck of it, I’ve added another T-shirt to my collection of snarky contract-drafting gear. It uses a design by Russell Christian that I commissioned years ago. I used to call it “The Scrivener”, but now I’m calling it “The Traditionalist”. On the back is the Adams on Contract Drafting logo. The T-shirt is available here. As always, … Read More

How Many Years of Education Does It Take to Understand the Average Business Contract? (Trick Question!)

I noticed that WorldCC and Deloitte Legal have produced a report entitled The ROI of Contracting Excellence 2023. (Go here to ask for a copy.) It’s mostly unrelated to what I do, but I noticed this passage on page 11 of the report: In consumer markets, many organizations (and regulators) have grasped the importance of greater balance and of simplifying … Read More

A Testimonial for a Private Series of “Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass”

In addition to public series of my online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass (information here), I also do private series for organizations. The dynamic is different when the only participants are people from your organization. And I customize my PowerPoint presentations with examples drawn from your templates. I’m a little lax about harvesting testimonials, mostly because I don’t want to … Read More