My Articles

Where My Article on the Ambiguous “Material” Is Headed

I’ve occasionally mentioned on social media that I was working on an article about how the word material is ambiguous. Well, I finished it. The title is The Word Material Is Ambiguous in Contracts, Why That’s a Problem, and How to Fix It. It will be published next year in Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, but I’ll put a “forthcoming” … Read More

My Article in the ACC Docket on Reviewing Business Contracts

Today the ACC Docket published my article with Michael Fleming entitled Reviewing Business Contracts: What to Look For and How to Look for It. Michael and I go way back. He was one of the first commenters on this blog. If you have any comments or think we missed something, we’d be happy to hear it.

My New Article, “How Contract Managers Can Gain More Control Over Contracts”

The latest issue of World Commerce & Contracting’s Contracting Excellence Journal contains my article How Contract Managers Can Gain More Control Over Contracts (here). How do contract managers gain more control? By becoming informed consumers of contract language. And they should also consider using technology to help with review of draft contracts. (Yes, I have a horse in each of … Read More

A Humdinger of an Opinion from the Delaware Chancery Court: AB Stable VIII LLC v. MAPS Hotels and Resorts One LLC

If you’re weary of the shitshow, I suggest you check out the work of an exemplary public servant—the Delaware Chancery Court opinion by Vice Chancellor Laster in AB Stable VIII LLC v. MAPS Hotels and Resorts One LLC (here), issued on 30 November 2020. It’s another epic Laster opinion, weighing in at 242 pages. The dispute involves the proposed purchase of … Read More

My New Article “Common-Law Drafting in Civil-Law Jurisdiction”

My article Common-Law Drafting in Civil-Law Jurisdictions has been published by Business Law Today. Go here. There’s not much of a back story. It’s a topic that has long been on my mind. I did it as an article instead of a blog post for the usual reason: I thought it would reach a more diverse group. How did Jan … Read More

I Contributed a Chapter to Juro’s Ebook on Contracts

Juro, the contract-management-software company, has produced an ebook called The Modern Contract Handbook. It consists of chapters by different authors on issues in contracts and the contracts process. I was among the contributors; you’ll be shocked to hear that my chapter is about the language of contracts. It’s based on a conversation I had with someone at Juro, so it’s … Read More

Now Available: My Law-Review Article “Interpreting and Drafting ‘Efforts’ Provisions: From Unreason to Reason”

The summer 2019 issue of The Business Lawyer—the law review published by the Business Law Section of the ABA—contains my article Interpreting and Drafting Efforts Provisions: From Unreason to Reason. Go here for a PDF. No one has ever offered an even halfway serious attempt to explain a distinction between different efforts (or endeavours) provisions, or lack of a distinction. … Read More

Instances of “Best Efforts” and “Reasonable Efforts” in the Corpus of Contemporary American English

My article Interpreting and Drafting Efforts Provisions: From Unreason to Reason is in the summer 2019 issue of the journal The Business Lawyer, published by the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association. (PDF here.) The article refers to instances of the phrases best efforts and reasonable efforts the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA. Go here … Read More

“English-Language Contract Drafting for Civil-Law Jurisdictions”: Seeking Co-Author for Proposed Article

I’d like to write an article about English-language contract drafting for civil-law jurisdictions. It’s pretty much the only blank spot on my particular map. But I’d need a co-author. They’d have to do the bulk of the research. We’d devise the outline together, and we’d write it together. I’m looking for someone who’s enthusiastic, isn’t a bullshitter, has a track … Read More

My New Article on “Endeavours”

The English website The Lawyer has just published my new article Putting an End to Endeavours Nonsense. (Go here; free registration required.) I’d like this article to prompt some discussion, but the evidence I lay out is so clear-cut, I don’t think there’s any room for debate. Game over, case closed. The article mentions only briefly how to handle endeavours (or, … Read More