Recently I saw this LinkedIn post by Jerry Levine in which he outlines six different styles of contract. The accompanying image is of how his post describes the first two kinds of contract, namely “Traditional/Legalese” and “Modern Precise.” He tags me in “Modern Precise,” saying I “built a whole discipline around this.” Jerry’s post got me thinking. In effect, he … Read More
In my article Merger Agreements Are Poorly Drafted, published today in Corporate Counsel Now (go here for the article, go here for the related blog post), I discuss the implications of an analysis I did of drafting shortcomings in the merger agreement for one of the biggest deals of 2025. Although this analysis is my most ambitious yet, I’ve done … Read More
Remember the ACC Docket, published by the Association of Corporate Counsel? Well, it has morphed into Corporate Counsel Now. They’ve just published my article Merger Agreements Are Poorly Drafted. It’s here. The spicy thing about this article is that it’s not just an article. Instead, it’s also a portal to my analysis of the merger agreement providing for Union Pacific’s … Read More
In this post, I consider the risks posed by medical AI, then consider how to structure contract-drafting AI. The Risks of Medical AI Let’s start with medical AI. If you want some gripping reading, check out this LinkedIn article, The Great Inversion: How Healthcare AI Stopped Helping Doctors and Started Replacing Them. It’s by a surgeon, John Ferguson. It describes … Read More
In an exchange of messages today with a contact, they signed off with this: … and thinking is not popular these days. That sounds pretty terrible. But it might play out in ways that aren’t too terrible, at least when it comes to contract drafting. We apply our thinking to what we enjoy. Or what we have to do. So … Read More
A reader sent me a link to this Times article on “weasel words.” I’ve already done battle with weasel words. See this 2012 post about likely and probable, which features two court opinions expressing differing notions on how likely relates to probable. And here’s some of what MSCD has to say: Even if you assume that it’s clear what likely … Read More
If you’ve read my recent posts, you might have noticed a consistent theme: does being an informed consumer of contract language matter? If it does matter, then presumably the more ways one has to become an informed consumer of contract language, the better. Hence Drafting Clearer Contracts: On Demand, in addition to Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass and Drafting Clearer Contracts: … Read More
I think of my core mission as helping you become an informed consumer of contract language. By “an informed consumer of contract language,” I mean someone who knows how to say clearly and concisely in a contract whatever you want to say. As a practical matter, I suggest that means someone who’s familiar with my book A Manual of Style … Read More
The next piece in my Drafting Clearer Contracts, uh, empire is Drafting Clearer Contracts: On Demand. It’s now live: go here. Currently, it consists of 45 videos and four multiple-choice quizzes. On 1 May 2026 and on the beginning of each subsequent month, I’ll make available a further 25 or so videos and who knows how many quizzes. Once the … Read More
Thanks to tipster Glenn West, I learned of an opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit: Netflix, Inc. v. DivX, LLC, No. 2024-1541, 2026 WL 405791, at *1 (Fed. Cir. 13 Feb. 2026). It involves a patent dispute. Here’s the language at issue, from claim 1 of the patent: locating encryption information that identifies encrypted portions … Read More
