When Thomson Reuters told me about how a Contract Express client, the Nevada law firm McDonald Carano, has gone about automating contracts, I volunteered to write about it—case studies make a nice change from free-floating speculation. So here’s my Q&A with Rob Sawyer, IT director at McDonald Carano. (That’s him in the photo to the right.) Ken: Hi Rob. Please … Read More
File this under “Better late than never.” Today a reader told me they couldn’t find online anywhere the table of contents of my book The Structure of M&A Contracts. That was an oversight on my part, so here it is. For more about the book, go here. If you can tolerate the extra hoops you have to jump through, I … Read More
I’m pleased that once more I’ll be giving “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminars in Singapore and Hong Kong with Asian Legal Business (part of Thomson Reuters). The Singapore seminar is on 10 October 2018. For more information, go here. The Hong Kong seminar is on 12 October 2018. For more information, go here. (The photo of Singapore is from VisitSingapore.)
I’ll be the keynote speaker at an English legal event called … “The Legal English Event.” It’s being held in London on 1–2 November 2018. Here’s the description: The Legal English Event 2018 is a unique assembly in the field of English language training for international commercial lawyers. It is an opportunity for lawyers, law students, legal translators and English language … Read More
A year ago I published in this post the first draft of what I called a “quick reference” to the categories of contract language—a summary of the different categories, what they look like, what they’re used for, and where you can find more information. Go here for the version included in chapter 3 (The Categories of Contract Language) of the fourth … Read More
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
Above is a screenshot my daughter sent me a few days ago, showing texts she exchanged with a friend. “Hahaha” indeed. I thought of it on reading Casey Flaherty’s post touching on my work (here). Casey accurately summarizes my, uh, lack of restraint. I know some people wonder why I’m so in-your-face. A commentator on litigation writing once earnestly advised … Read More
A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting isn’t a promising candidate for a book review. Unless you’re willing to immerse yourself in detail, perhaps the most sensible approach would be to do a quick in-and-out, skating over the hundreds of pages of exegesis and exiting with a sigh of relief. Well, thank goodness for contrarians like Casey Flaherty. In this … Read More
[Updated 11 Dec. 2021: For more on this topic, see this July 2018 post and this April 2020 post.] For a while now, I’ve asked myself what category of contract language to use when providing for one party to invoice the other. Here are the possibilities: Language of obligation: Widgetco shall invoice Acme monthly in arrears for purchases under this … Read More
The recent opinion of the Delaware Chancery Court in ITG Brands, LLC v. Reynolds American, Inc., No. CV 2017-0129-AGB, 2017 WL 5903355 (Del. Ch. Nov. 30, 2017) (PDF here), stands for the proposition that making a contract a bit less clear than it could be might be all that a disgruntled contract party needs to start a stupid fight. Here’s … Read More
