Blog

How Many Years of Education Does It Take to Understand the Average Business Contract? (Trick Question!)

I noticed that WorldCC and Deloitte Legal have produced a report entitled The ROI of Contracting Excellence 2023. (Go here to ask for a copy.) It’s mostly unrelated to what I do, but I noticed this passage on page 11 of the report: In consumer markets, many organizations (and regulators) have grasped the importance of greater balance and of simplifying … Read More

A Testimonial for a Private Series of “Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass”

In addition to public series of my online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass (information here), I also do private series for organizations. The dynamic is different when the only participants are people from your organization. And I customize my PowerPoint presentations with examples drawn from your templates. I’m a little lax about harvesting testimonials, mostly because I don’t want to … Read More

Meet Another Proponent of “Tested” Contract Language

I noticed that another legacy-media holdover, Scientific American, has devoted an article (here) to that recent study on lawyer attitudes to contracts legalese. In this recent post, I explain how that study is misleading. But that’s not what this post is about. Instead, in passing I noticed this in the Scientific American article: Jeremy Telman, a law professor at the … Read More

Tiptoeing Around “Nonlawyer”

I’ve previously written about the word nonlawyer, in this 2020 blog post. Prompted by something I posted on LinkedIn yesterday (here), I thought I’d try again, to reflect a further thought. So this post is my definitive take, until my next nonlawyer post! I think what Julie Savarino says in this LinkedIn post (see also Julie’s follow-up post here) captures … Read More

Getting Contract-Drafting Stuff Done

I was among the few million people who noticed a video of President Obama urging young people to become known for getting stuff done. Here’s the tie-in to contract drafting: It would indeed be to a junior person’s benefit to acquire a reputation for getting stuff done. That requires competence. I suggest that for purposes of contract drafting, being an … Read More

Could You Use Artificial Intelligence to Check Whether a Contract Complies with “A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting”?

Today someone asked me this in an email message: Are you exploring training AI to incorporate A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting for proofreading contracts? I could see value in a plug-in that incorporates (in track changes) relevant proposed modifications after “learning” the contents of MSCD and applying it to all or part of a contract. This isn’t the … Read More

This Week in Training Feedback

As I wait for various shoes to drop, I’m currently devoting much of my attention to the training I offer. Part of the process involves promoting what I do. I’d rather be understated about that, but I assume that understated doesn’t always get you far enough these days. In that spirit, here’s some feedback I received this week: But I’m … Read More

I Was Interviewed by Brian L. Frye for His Ipse Dixit Podcast

If you would like to spend 42 minutes listening to me discuss what I do in response to questions from an experienced interviewer, go here. The interviewer is law professor Brian L. Frye and the forum is his long-running Ipse Dixit podcast. (I’m interviewee 780!) Why listen to this kind of interview? Perhaps to get a conversational summary of a … Read More

Using Your “Masterclass” Digital Credentials

In 2021 I implemented digital credentials for my online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass. I’ve now revisited the process and fixed some omissions. This post tells you how to get the credentials and how to use them. To get the digital credentials, you have to click through every lesson in the curriculum, then click the button inviting you to get … Read More