Month: July 2009

Signing Off for August

I’m looking forward to August. I’ll be spending time in Cap Ferret, on France’s west coast; in Geneva, Switzerland; and in Saratoga Springs, in upstate New York. I’ll enjoy showing my daughter a bit of Europe (including Geneva, the city where she was born) and having her get reacquainted with family members she sees too infrequently. She’s already insisting that one … Read More

Contract Drafting and the Limits of “Free”

Publication of Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price has prompted a lot of online discussion about the extent to which a thriving business can be built on giving stuff away for free. At My Shingle, Carolyn Elefant has offered some thoughts on “Biglaw Free and the Solo.” Here’s the part that grabbed my attention: Lawyers need to … Read More

If You’ve Watched the Webcasts and Are Contemplating Attending a Seminar

If you’ve watched my webcasts and are contemplating attending one of my live seminars, you might want to read the following: The seminars cover the same topics as the webcasts—that’s why the seminars and webcasts will, by 2010, share the same title, “Drafting Clearer Contracts.” Furthermore, currently the seminars and webcasts use the same materials, as it would have taken … Read More

“Drafting Up” and Extraneous Prepositions

Today I noticed that someone said on Twitter that they were “drafting up a screenplay contract for legal revisions” (emphasis added). That sent me to Google, where the search [“drafting up” contract] resulted in 4,090 hits . The search [“draft up” contract] resulted in 12,900 hits, but they included a greater proportion of irrelevant results, such as “You screwed this draft up.” But … Read More

Webcast 7: It’s on Automating the Contract Process, and It’s Free

Webcast 7 in my Drafting Clearer Contracts series of webcasts will be launched with a live session starting 1:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 22. (“Live” means that panel members will be on hand to reply, by email, to questions submitted in writing during the session.) Thereafter webcast 7 will be available on demand. Unlike the other webcasts in the … Read More

“Contractual”

I can’t recall ever having used the adjective contractual, meaning “of, pertaining to, or secured by a contract.” I find it an awkward mouthful. As a general matter, I’d rather simply use contract, as in contract terms and contract obligations rather than contractual terms and contractual obligations. And rather than referring to contractual instruments or contractual arrangements, why not just … Read More

Webcast 6: My Conversation with Bryn Vaaler

Excuse me if I mention another upcoming webcast, the sixth in my Drafting Clearer Contracts series. It runs for the first time as a “live” webcast on Tuesday, July 14, starting at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Thereafter it will be available on demand. This webcast consists of my conversation with Bryn Vaaler, longtime partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP and their … Read More

Yet Another Instance of Semantic Ambiguity: “Salary”

The case of Citgo Petroleum Corp. v. Ranger Enters., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58676 (Conn. Mar. 17, 2009), revolved around whether, as used in the context of a separation agreement, the word salary included bonuses. A careful drafter would want to avoid any confusion on that score. By the way, I don’t intend to devote a post to each instance … Read More