You cannot be an informed consumer (or producer) of contract language without consulting A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. (See this 2024 blog post.) So doesn’t it follow that to be an informed consumer of contract language, all that’s required is that you get yourself of copy of MSCD? Well, no. For one thing, you have to apply yourself. Contracts … Read More
Last week, a couple of dozen participants joined me in session 2 of a public series of my online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass. The topic was what I call “the categories of contract language”—my framework for how to determine what kind of meaning you wish to use in each sentence in a contract and what verb structure you use … Read More
I noticed a 3 Geeks and a Law Blog podcast (here) that features Toby Brown answering a “crystal ball question.” Here’s the teaser: Toby Brown takes on our question this week by talking about the fact that attorneys are resistant to changing behaviors, not because they are unwilling to adapt to new technology, but because this is an industry that … Read More
Periodically, I proclaim how getting rid of the copy-and-paste system for drafting contracts will require change at the wholesale level. In other words, it will require a new system that offers a compelling alternative to copy-and-paste. I wrote about that a couple of weeks ago, in this post. But I don’t mean to give short shrift to change at the … Read More
You’re familiar with “the tragedy of the commons,” right? Individual users have open access to a resource. In using that resource, they’re unconstrained by formal rules or shared social structures, so each user acts independently according to their own self-interest. But that’s inconsistent with the common good, because through their uncoordinated action, users deplete that resource. Hence the tragedy. The … Read More
Thanks to Glenn West, I learned about the recent opinion of the Texas Supreme Court in Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Co. LP v. Texas Crude Energy, LLC (PDF here). The fight was over a technical oil-and-gas issue that’s way above my pay grade. Both parties claimed the language was unambiguous and each offered a vastly different interpretation. The court … Read More
A couple of recent articles make the sensible point that it’s meaningless just to clamor for innovation in legal. There’s this article by Mark A. Cohen (@legalmosaic, but this post is about this article on Above the Law by Ivy Grey (@IvyBGrey). The title is Innovation Is A Red Herring Without Cultural Change, and in it she asks, “So how do … Read More
You don’t have to be a physicist to experience the force of gravity. Similarly, I’m only a casual student of inertia, but I’ve long grappled with it. Casey Flaherty is a serious observer of inertia. I’ve returned several times to the following in this post: My most obvious error has been predicting the pace of change. While there is sufficient … Read More
Tim Cummins is the head of the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM). Over the years I’ve discussed with Tim the future of contracting. After a recent exchange of emails, we decided try a more formal approach. We agreed to address on our respective blogs the following proposition: We want new technologies to sweep away traditional contracting, so … Read More
I had a brief exchange on Twitter that ended as follows: @ronfriedmann I was just curious if you had data to back up the claim that it doesn't work. It seems the answer is no. NBD — Rᴏʙᴇʀᴛ Aɴᴅᴇʀsᴏɴ (@ProfRobAnderson) February 19, 2017 I like to think I’m not that guy who always has to have the last word on … Read More
