Having just responded to a traditionalist asserting that I’m flirting with disaster by deviating from “tested” contract language, I was pleased to receive the following email from Andrew Mitton, a lawyer in private practice in Anchorage, Alaska: I’m a faithful reader of your blog and regularly refer to your Manual of Style. I recently redrafted some stock purchase documents to … Read More
I culled the following from a security agreement on EDGAR: … SwissINSO hereby grants, assigns, conveys, mortgages, pledges, hypothecates and transfers to the Secured Party a lien on and security interest in, all of SwissINSO’s right, title and interest in, to and under, all of the property and assets currently owned by or owing to, or hereafter acquired by or … Read More
Thanks to Eric Goldman (@ericgoldman) I learned about a recent opinion out of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. (PDF copy here.) It relates to a dispute between Corbin Bernsen, actor, and Innovative Legal Marketing. Bernsen acted as spokesperson for an ILM campaign, but it all ended in tears. What caught Eric’s eye, and mine, was … Read More
[I’ve deleted this post because it has been supplanted by this post. Sorry for the discombobulation!]
My industrious assistant Max the Pekingese died today. Why write about it on this blog? Well, I dedicated the second edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting in part to him; I hope that’s enough of an excuse. Max joined us nine years ago, after he was found wandering the not-so-mean streets of our town, Garden City. I’d never … Read More
Earlier this year I wrote this post about Ridacto, a new contract-analysis tool. When recently a reader asked me what had happened to Ridacto, I went to its website and found it vacant. Ridacto is no more. That doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s a safe bet that most new ventures in any field are more likely to fail than … Read More
My attention has been turning to the third edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, and I’d appreciate your input on a vital issue: What should I call it? The current title is fine, but it’s generic. And it’s not conducive to being shortened—MSCD leaves something to be desired as a moniker. The obvious thing to do would … Read More
Yeah, yeah, attorn has an established legal meaning, although I’ve never had occasion to use it. From Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage, here’s the definition of the related noun: attornment has two analogous senses, the first relating to personal property and the second relating to land. It may mean either (1) “an act by a bailee in possession of goods … Read More
I thought it time to hoist out of the comments a discussion of obligation versus duty. Here’s what reader AWB said in this comment: By the way, any time is a good time to reconsider your preference of “obligation” (ten letters, four syllables) over “duty” (four letters, two syllables). They’re equally Latinate, but “duty” is easier to chew and has … Read More
I received the following email from a new U.S.-trained lawyer working outside the U.S. Hi there, I’m a new lawyer starting my first real legal job as in-house counsel for a new legal department in a foreign company. Much of the work I’m doing involves taking over and reviewing a broad range of contracts for projects or deals already underway. Some of these … Read More
