When we speak with potential clients, some remark to us, with a sage nod, that, well, LegalSifter doesn’t mark up the draft being reviewed. To make sure we understand what they’re referring to, we looked into this. We quickly determined that what these companies are alluding to is something I’ve seen already. This post is […]
Check Out My Hot Take on Notices Provisions
Check out my latest video for LegalSifter, Ken’s Hot Take on Notices Provisions—all 8 minutes and 35 seconds of it. It’s available here. You can also get my latest and greatest notices provision and a list of related resources. Why notices provisions? Because I’ve been noodling with my notices provision over the past couple of […]
Spotting in Contracts the Provisions You Really Care About
Last week I asked this on Twitter: Is there a kind of term you really DON'T want to see in the other side's draft contract? Something that sets the alarm bells ringing? pic.twitter.com/8ICeW8OAQ4 — Ken Adams (@AdamsDrafting) March 11, 2021 And I posed the same question in a post on the LinkedIn group for A […]
Check Out My Video Hot-Take on Jurisdiction Provisions
No, you’re not dreaming! I’ve done a video critiquing a random couple of sentences plucked from EDGAR that deal with jurisdiction stuff. Well, OK, it might not be quite that compelling. But here’s what it does have going for it: it’s clear from the data that you people would rather pluck your eyeballs from your […]
The Human Factor: Why Our Mapping of Contracts Won’t Always Go As Planned
Starting in 2018, when I joined LegalSifter as a consultant, I’ve helped design the specifications for our “Sifters”—algorithms intended to spot a given issue expressed in contracts. Although I’m now LegalSifter’s chief content officer and have an array of responsibilities to match, I still create sifter specs. It’s work that’s conducive to humility, for reasons […]
Kevin Miller, LegalSifter’s CEO, on the Role of Expertise in Contracts AI
When it comes to skills relevant to business, I’m good at one thing and pretty terrible at the rest. Kevin Miller, LegalSifter’s CEO, is good at a whole bunch of stuff; I salute him. What the heck, this week he even did this post, entitled What We Mean When We Talk About Our Expertise, on […]
Casey Flaherty on the Limits of Incremental Improvements and “Razzle Dazzle AI”
I noted with interest Casey Flaherty’s recent post entitled The Limits of Incremental Improvements. This sentence captures the gist of it: “[O]nce you cut something in half, there is nothing you can do, save eliminating it entirely, that will ever again deliver the same raw level of improvement.” This post is on LegalSifter’s blog. To […]
The Obligation Not to Disclose Versus the Obligation to Keep Confidential
I recently found myself once more poking around the entrails of confidentiality agreements. The issue related to one of the core obligations, namely the obligation not to disclose confidential information. (The other is the obligation not to use confidential information except as specified.) The rest of this post is on the LegalSifter blog, here.
My Newfound Respect for Hotel Agreements
Here’s the beginning of my new post on LegalSifter’s blog: This week I had the pleasure of visiting North Falmouth, Massachusetts. (Hence the photo.) I was there to do a “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminar for the global contracts team of a multinational. But this post isn’t about the seminar. Instead, it’s about the fact that […]
Contract Review, Meet Contract Drafting
After almost a year working on the factory floor at LegalSifter, it has become clear to me that contract review and contract drafting are closely allied functions. … This post is on LegalSifter’s blog. To read the rest of it, go here.