In this post I discuss the illustration above. It graces one of the T-shirts and one of the mugs on offer in my new A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting merchandise store (here). I set up my store as a light-hearted way to allow those who value MSCD to express that. But if anything is worth doing, it’s worth doing … Read More
In this 2020 blog post, entitled somewhat gradiosely The Deafening Silence: Why People Generally Don’t Take Me On in the Marketplace of Ideas, I explain why, well, people generally don’t take me on in the marketplace of ideas. But this article by Katy Barnett of Melbourne Law School got me to thinking further about the role that academics play, or … Read More
This week, I received an email with this opening line: “Researching the topic of contract drafting, I seem to keep stumbling across your content as the subject matter expert.” And yesterday I noticed that the ACC Docket has designated my article with Michael Fleming on reviewing contracts (here) as one of 2022’s Most Read Docket Articles. This sort of recognition … Read More
Last night I watched the Netflix movie Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery with my daughter Sydney, who’s home for the holidays. (If you haven’t seen the movie, this reveals a piece of the puzzle, so you might want to stop reading.) We found the movie entertaining, but given that my life’s work consists of rooting around in the contracts … Read More
In calling this post The Myth of the Lone Pizza Genius, I’m not suggesting that such a myth is widely held. Instead, it’s just a notion that casually lodged itself in my mind. In addition to baking pizza, I’ve had the opportunity to visit three noted pizza joints. In 2017, I dropped by Anthony Mangieri’s restaurant Una Pizza Napolitana, when … Read More
Legal commentary has gone through changes in the past twenty years that are comparable to what has happened to all commentary, in this country and throughout the world. Here are my impressions. Gatekeepers and Scriveners Twenty years ago, if I wanted to publish an article, I had a handful of possible outlets owned by various media companies and bar associations. … Read More
Inspired by this morning’s post about not making contract language too informal, here are my 11 commandments for drafting business contracts: Contract language should be clear. Contract language should be only as complicated as it needs to be. Contract language should be precise. Contract language should omit redundancy. Contract language shouldn’t say the same thing twice. Contract language should be … Read More
Learning involves relying on others. It’s not remotely feasible for everyone to, uh, do all their own research. Instead, you have to rely on others who really have done research and written it up in a way that makes it accessible. But who do you rely on? The overwhelming majority of commentary out there isn’t reliable, or it’s lightweight. For … Read More
In the early days of the pandemic, the fortunate among us had the luxury of wondering what to do with themselves in isolation. It seems that for many, the answer was, “Baking!” In particular, Ooni pizza ovens have been selling like crazy. If you find yourself in the company of people who own an Ooni pizza oven, be prepared for … Read More
Hell is other people’s reviews. In October I bought a copy of The Joy of Pizza, by Dan Richer with Katie Parla. Richer is owner of the restaurant Razza, a noted pizza joint in Jersey City. Parla is a food writer and cookbook author based in Italy. After buying it, I looked at some reviews on Amazon. I quickly spotted … Read More
