Today one of my former Penn Law students sent me the following email:
I just thought I’d write you a quick note and let you know how incredibly helpful your class has to been to me over my last 3 months of law practice. I am drafting all the time—largely because the partners I work for are very impressed with how clear my contracts are and how quickly I can draft them, without sacrificing quality. I use your book constantly. Several partners here also have your book in their offices.
At any rate, I again want to thank you for teaching Contract Drafting at Penn. It was probably the most helpful class I took, in terms of everyday practicality. Hope all is well.
Besides making me feel a little bit more hopeful about my own shortcomings as a teacher, this note also reinforced my feeling that if you’re planning to be a corporate associate, you’d be crazy to turn down the opportunity to take a rigorous course in clear, concise, and effective contract drafting. And if you’re a law school, you’d be crazy not to offer such a course. Of course, finding someone to teach it would likely be a challenge.