Steven Sholk, that bloodhound, let me know about an article in the current issue of the Journal of Legal Education. It’s by Robert C. Illig, associate professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, and it’s entitled A Business Lawyer’s Bibliography: Books Every Dealmaker Should Read. (Go here for a PDF copy.) Here’s its stated purpose: This article briefly surveys … Read More
Koncision’s confidentiality-agreement template is intended for sophisticated users. No surprise there—contracts can get complicated. So any nonlawyer who wants to use Koncision might well benefit from a lawyer’s input. In this 2011 post I describe how a lawyer might help a nonlawyer with the template process. Koncision could facilitate such cooperation by maintaining a list of lawyers willing, without charge, to … Read More
I’ve re-upped at Penn Law: this fall, a scant twenty JD and LLM students will be taking my course in contract drafting. Once again, I plan on closing out the semester with a drafting, or redrafting, project for a not-for-profit organization. The idea is that we’ll work on a contract, or part of a contract, for whichever organization is selected, then … Read More
[Updated 5:30 p.m. EDT, May 15, 2012, to revise what is now the next-to-last bullet point and add a new final bullet point, as well as supplement the closing sentence.] I find myself revisiting a favorite topic: stating in a contract how a nonparty is to act. (That something I explored most recently in this post about shall require.) Consider … Read More
[Revised 8:00 a.m. EDT, May 13, 2012, prompted by Mark Anderson’s comment and a good night’s sleep.] Consider the following, culled from the SEC’s EDGAR system: The Parties believe that the provisions of this Agreement are in compliance with the requirements of Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (“Section 409A”), as presently in effect, if and to … Read More
In its recent opinion in In re C.P.Y. (copy here), the Texas Court of Appeals had occasion to consider the phrase “full-time basis,” and it concluded that it’s ambiguous. Youst (the husband) was required to pay Wells (the wife) alimony until, among other events, she returned to work “on a full-time basis.” Wells got work as a contract attorney, so … Read More
On December 1, 2007, AVAX Technologies and one Francois Martelet entered into an employment agreement providing for Martelet to serve as AVAX’s CEO. It all ended in litigation, and recently the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued this opinion. The only part that caught my eye involved the following provision: Discretionary Performance Bonus. Employee shall be entitled to … Read More
MSCD notes how in the U.S., traditionally exhibit is used to refer to a stand-alone document that’s attached to a contract, whereas schedule is used to refer to materials that could have been in the body of the contract but were moved to after the signature blocks. An exhibit might consist of a form of noncompetition agreement that’s to be … Read More
Behold commit to used to express obligations: each of the Guarantors hereby … commits to make a contribution to such Guarantor’s capital in an amount at least equal to The Employee commits to perform his/her duties pursuant to this Agreement on full time basis and not to engage in any other endeavors without the express permission of the Board of Directors of the … Read More
In this recent post, I discussed a case in which the word “termination” was held not to apply to “expiration” of a contract. Thanks to reader, I learned about a case, Olympus Ins. Co. v. Aon Benfield, Inc., No. 11-CV-2607 (D. Minn. March 30, 2012), in which the court came to essentially the opposite conclusion, due to nuances of contract language. … Read More
