Dale Carnegie, an early-twentieth-century U.S. writer and lecturer on self-improvement, famously said, “Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.” Whatever the merits of that gem, it doesn’t apply to contracts. In particular, don’t say what you’re going to say, as in this example: This agreement states […]
Ending Enumerated Clauses Not with a Bang, But with a Period
MSCD 4.34 says that in a set of enumerated clauses, the period should occur at the end of the last enumerated clause. This post is about what it can look like if you don’t do that. Consider the sentence above. (It’s a long one.) All we’re concerned with is the initial set of enumerated clauses […]
Wading Through Caselaw Probably Isn’t a Good Use of Your Time
Recently I did this post prompted by an exchange with a reader. That exchange started with my reader asking this question: How do you stay on top of contract dispute cases that deal with imprecision of language, as you discuss on your website? Are there certain search terms you use in Westlaw? I have tried […]
“Coterminous”
A few days ago I encountered the word coterminous for the first time … ever? Of course, it was in a contract. Here’s the Blacks Law Dictionary definition: coterminous (koh-tər-mə-nəs) adj. (18c) 1. (Of ideas or events) coextensive in time or meaning <Judge Smith’s tenure was coterminous with Judge Jasper’s>. Is coterminous a worthwhile term […]
Improving Contracts Isn’t a Matter of “Academic” Versus “Practical”
This is the first of two posts prompted by what a reader said in a recent exchange of emails. Here’s one thing they said: On more than one occasion, a colleague has used the term “academic” as a pejorative to describe my interest in an issue. For example, “well, let’s try to stay away from […]
Fix this Glitch on Page 52 of MSCD Fourth Edition
Today we salute Meade Ali. Meade is a longtime reader, but he also happens to be a participant in one of the current series of Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass. It was in that capacity that he laid it on me: in chapter 3, in table 1, on page 52, example [1-2b] is marked with two […]
Two October 2020 Series of “Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass”!
I’m getting the hang of Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass. I’m no Zoom maestro, but I’ve sorted out my two-device setup (so I can annotate my PowerPoint presentation while keeping an eye on things), and it’s been a while since I screwed things up. And my ring light shows my ravaged mug to great effect! I’m […]
My Guest Post “Suggestions for a New Contracts Blogger”
Other than my posts for LegalSifter (which don’t really count), I can’t recall having ever done an original guest post on someone else’s blog. Well, if you want to read my post Suggestions for a New Contracts Blogger, you’ll have to go to Nada Alnajafi‘s new blog, Contract Nerds. I wish Nada all the best […]
“Anniversary Month”
Thanks to a tip from @ZedtheGamer, I encountered the concept of anniversary month in this bit of convolution: Anniversary month evidently means the month in which the anniversary of a given event occurs. Here’s how it’s defined in an Illinois statute: “Anniversary month” means the month in which the anniversary of the limited liability company […]
Why Contract Managers?
In today’s post about nonlawyers and contract drafting (here), I offer contract managers a discount on my new online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass. Why contract managers? Why not other nonlawyer constituencies? One reason is that contract managers might be the biggest, most homogenous nonlawyer bloc working with contracts. But mainly it’s because I’ve long […]