Today I received the following inquiry from Akiva Schonfeld, a lawyer at Technology Practice Group LLC: I recently graduated from law school and accepted a position at a law firm that specializes in drafting and negotiating contracts for technology transactions. My boss recommended that I read your book, A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. I have found your book … Read More
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be giving day-long “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminars in Geneva, Switzerland, on 8, 10, and 11 April 2013 (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) and in Hamburg on 15 and 16 April 2013 (Monday and Tuesday). These seminars will follow my seminars in Asia and Australia. It will be an adventurous start to 2013! My host for the … Read More
I’m pleased that in cooperation with Melbourne Law School (in particular senior lecturer Andrew Godwin), I’ll again be giving my “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminar in Australia. It will be held in Melbourne on Tuesday, 12 March 2013, and in Sydney on Thursday, 14 March 2013. Go here for information about the Melbourne seminar; go here for information about the Sydney seminar. (At the … Read More
Via @TomMighell, I learned from this post on Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites that the American Arbitration Association has launched a document-assembly system for drafting arbitration and mediation provisions. Here’s how Bob describes it: The American Arbitration Association has launched ClauseBuilder, a web-based tool designed to assist in drafting clear and effective arbitration and mediation agreements. The new tool provides parties with the AAA’s standard arbitration agreement, in addition to an array … Read More
As an experiment, a few weeks ago I searched on the SEC’s EDGAR system for a bizarre usage—I don’t remember what it was—that I thought I wouldn’t find anywhere. To my surprise, it had in fact been used in the past year, in a contract drafted in India. I forgot about that until a reader pointed out to me a … Read More
I’ve sent the ABA my comments to the galleys of the third edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. Those who volunteered to read extracts did an amazing job; the text is in great shape. We’re now turning our attention to the cover. One task is coming up with the back-cover text. It could just consist of the … Read More
Generally, when I disagree with someone, it’s not over some discrete usage issue. Instead, it’s because they’ve bought into one of the three great misconceptions of contract drafting. You’re already familiar with them, but since I encounter them alarmingly often, I thought I’d take this opportunity to air them again: 1. “Everyone Has Their Own Drafting Style” Just yesterday I … Read More
I’d like to revisit and/or. For the most part, there’s nothing to say about and/or other than (1) A and/or B means A or B or both, (2) and/or can create confusion and be misused, and (3) it’s clearer to use instead the structure A or B or both. Beyond that, I don’t get worked up about and/or, as many … Read More
In case it’s of interest to any readers, this blog was included in the ABA Journal’s 2012 Blawg 100. It’s nice to be noticed; thank you to those readers who saw fit to nominate this blog. Any such “best of” compilation is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, but I think the ABA Journal does a good job. But I won’t be asking … Read More
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