This spring I’ll be back in Geneva, giving my “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminar on Monday, March 12; Wednesday, March 14; and Thursday, March 15. Once again, Akin Gump’s Geneva office will be acting as my host. Please spread the word! I hope to see some of you there.
Here’s another categories-of-contract-language issue that I’ve been mulling over: It’s commonplace for consulting agreements to contain a provision regarding the consultant’s status as an independent contractor rather than an employee. But what category of contract language should you use for such provisions? Obviously, it wouldn’t make sense to use language of obligation—The Consultant shall be an independent contractor. You could … Read More
With an eye to the third edition of MSCD, I’d like to revisit something that I first discussed in this November 2009 post on AdamsDrafting—the relationship between license-granting language and language of discretion. Here’s what I said in that earlier blog post: But more importantly, any discussion of the meaning of contract language has to start with semantics. I suggest … Read More
I was recently contacted by Nancy Hupp. She’s a lawyer who’s director of practicelaw.org, a legal-practice resources website for members of the Minnesota State Bar Association. She’s also enrolled in a graduate class at the University of Minnesota, for which she’s writing a paper on visual representation of legal information. She was wearing her graduate-student hat when she contacted me. … Read More
I’ve searched a dozen contracts on my computer, and another dozen on EDGAR, without finding the word very. That might seem odd, given that very is such a basic word. So basic, in fact, that Lexis won’t allow you to include it in a search. But as a measure of magnitude, for contract purposes very is essentially unusable—the reader has … Read More
[Updated December 8, 2011: I can confirm that despite the flooding in Thailand, the Bangkok seminar will be going ahead.] I’m delighted that in February 2012, I’ll be presenting in the following cities, under the auspices of Marcus Evans, my two-day seminar “Effective Contract Drafting: Concise Language, Efficient Process”: February 13–14, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (go here for more information) February … Read More
