The word signatory is ambiguous. Black’s Law Dictionary defines signatory as “A party that signs a document, personally or through an agent, and thereby becomes a party to an agreement.” But it’s also used to mean someone who physically signs a contract, whether as a party or on behalf of party. For example, after “Title” under the contract signature line … Read More
Here’s a usage I haven’t written about before: placing under the contract signature block of an corporation, below the signature line, the notation I have authority to bind the corporation. Some wrinkles: When a signature block provides for two signatures, the notation is in the plural: We have authority to bind the corporation. Sometimes corporation is given a capital C, but … Read More
I’ve long read the Strategic Legal Technology blog by Ron Friedmann. Ron has spent most of the last two decades in legal technology, but recently he has shifted his focus to legal outsourcing, becoming SVP Marketing for Integreon. In his blog, he writes about innovation, or the lack of it, in the legal profession generally. It crossed my mind that chatting … Read More
Today I heard from a client with an interesting proposition. They had wanted me to do my day-long “Contract Drafting—Language and Layout” seminar as part of a week-long program for their global contracts personnel, but due to the economic downturn they’ve had to postpone the program. Would I be willing instead to do my presentation in the form of a … Read More
In the current edition of New York magazine, someone agitating about Facebook’s new terms of service is quoted as saying “No Latin! I’m not sure what forum non conveniens means, and I shouldn’t have to [know].” As a general principle, No Latin! makes sense to me. I’ve found on the SEC’s EDGAR system contracts filed in the past year that contain … Read More
A chapter of MSCD is devoted to syntactic ambiguity, in other words uncertainty over which part of a sentence a given word or phrase modifies. One source of syntactic ambiguity is closing modifiers. MSCD discusses how to avoid ambiguity caused by closing modifiers, but it doesn’t discuss in each case (or the wordier in each such case). That’s what I’ll … Read More
Not satisfied with having prompted my recent foray into fax terminology, reader David Baghdassarian posted to that item the following comment on providing for notice by email: As for email notices, the problem I have is that there is too much room for an email to inadvertently be deleted or overlooked, email server to crash, email to be stuck in … Read More
I’ve just returned from my trip to Philadelphia to speak at the DELVACCA conference. It was great finally meeting my co-presenter, Karen Gray of Christie’s. She’s a great speaker, and I think we made an effective team. I styled myself “Mr. Theory” and Karen “Ms. Practice.” Included in our handout was a table listing the products mentioned in our presentation, … Read More
John Gillies, director of practice support at the Toronto law firm Cassels Brock, spoke on contract drafting at a conference put on by the Ontario Bar Association last week. He was kind enough to send me the paper he had prepared. John is no stranger to what I do. For one thing, I’ve conducted a couple of seminars at Cassels … Read More
Every issue of contract language, no matter how minor, is worth addressing correctly. And some readers have clearly embraced that approach. For example, I received the following note from reader David Baghdassarian, an associate at K&L Gates: Have you opined on use of the word “telecopier” instead of “facsimile” (or “fax”)? I believe “telecopier” was Xerox’s brand name for an … Read More
