MSCD

Here are the first two sentences of the fourth edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, as I currently imagine them: This manual offers guidelines for clear and concise contract language. If you’re making decisions regarding contract language without consulting it, odds are you’re copy-and-pasting, relying on flimsy conventional wisdom, or improvising. I hear you saying to yourselves, … Read More

[Updated 9 March 2017: Thank you all, but I now have all the volunteers I can handle.] OK, girls and boys, it’s time to start the process of publishing the fourth edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. The first part of that process is having some brave souls crawl over the manuscript looking for problems big and … Read More

Although it won’t see the light of day for at least another year, my attention is turning to the fourth edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. Compared with the difference between the first edition and the second edition, and the difference between the second edition and the third edition, the fourth edition won’t represent as dramatic an upgrade. … Read More

I was surprised to notice that the first two Amazon reviews of the third edition of MSCD (here) mostly complain about the Wire-O binding. I’m a little perplexed, as I’m firmly of the view that the binding makes the book a lot easier to use. This was thrashed out on the blog in 2008, and I include a link to that … Read More

This has been a week of enforced idleness: I’ve been reminded, yet again, that capping off a demanding seminar tour by spending an entire day with the teeming masses in various airport terminals and airplanes is a great way to get sick. But during my convalescence, I bring you the following tidings: Amazon is now selling the print edition of MSCD (go … Read More

In case they’re of interest, two more reviews of MSCD have appeared: One by employment-law guy Daniel Schwartz, in this post on Connecticut Employment Law Blog. One by Luis Villa, deputy GC of the Wikimedia Foundation, in this post on his blog at tieguy.org. [Updated: As Chris notes in his comment, Luis’s review is particularly thoughtful and creative.] For other reviews, go here.

I apologize for these repeated non-thrilling updates, but word is filtering in that although MSCD is available in, for example, the UK iTunes store, it isn’t available in other non-U.S. stores: Russia! New Zealand! Very annoying. The publisher is trying to figure out what the problem is.

[Updated July 19, 2013] In this recent post I grandly announced that the ebook version of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting was available on iTunes, but it later transpired that pretty much everything I had to say on the subject was wrong. I don’t hold that against myself or anyone else—when it comes to law books, this ebook … Read More

[Updated July 16, 2013: Go to this post for an updated and correct account of ebook version of MSCD.] Huzzah! The third edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting is now available on iTunes. You can buy it from the iBookstore on your computer and on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. But to buy it on your computer, you’ll … Read More

You can find on ContractsProf Blog two reviews of the third edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. Go here for a review by Daniel D. Barnhizer, professor at Michigan State University College of Law, and go here for a review by Irma S. Russell, dean and professor at the University of Montana School of Law. In this … Read More