Odds and Ends

As Alec Baldwin didn’t say, A. B. L. Always be learning. I’ve spent much of the past couple of weeks working on a law-review article. In the course of that work, I’ve learned something new about four different topics: The sorites paradox. It’s invaluable for putting vagueness in context. For more, go to Wikipedia and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. … Read More

You all know how I earn a living, but it’s a sideshow to my real passion, the time my contracts buddies and I spend in an immersive contracts virtual reality. There you might find, for example, @IPDraughts playing Hadley, @AlexHamiltonRad playing Baxendale, and me playing the crucial role of “another,” Hadley’s partner. It all takes weeks to unfold, and the … Read More

In this post from last November, I suggested that the glory days of this blog are over. That might have been a bit premature. In that post, I said that my focus will be building contracts that comply with my guidelines. I now realize—duh—that that will involve wrestling with all sorts of substantive issues. For an example of that, consider this … Read More

Sporadically I hear from readers who simply want to thank me for my work. I know people read my stuff, but it’s gratifying when someone takes the time to let me know that they’ve found it worthwhile. Because it’s a particularly nice example of this sort of communication, here’s an email I received yesterday: EMAIL MESSAGE THIS EMAIL is written … Read More

Does contract prose matter? Of course it does. Even if you assume that the parties have notionally agreed on the terms of the deal, how you express those terms in a contract can determine how that transaction fares. But many people who work with contracts don’t realize that. Some might be contract managers who regard contract prose as a lawyer … Read More

From a reader: I can usually get opposing counsel to shut up by pointing to your blog or book. This is what progress looks like.

Above is a screenshot my daughter sent me a few days ago, showing texts she exchanged with a friend. “Hahaha” indeed. I thought of it on reading Casey Flaherty’s post touching on my work (here). Casey accurately summarizes my, uh, lack of restraint. I know some people wonder why I’m so in-your-face. A commentator on litigation writing once earnestly advised … Read More

While I was in London in November, I recorded a 26-minute Practical Law Company video with Daphne Perry on how to make contracts clearer. (What else did you expect!) Go here; if you don’t have a Practical Law Company account, you’ll have to sign up for a free trial to view it. I’d be happy to hear what you think.

A saving grace of what I do is that I’m not trying to win a popularity contest—if you, and you, and you find value in my writings, that’s enough for me. But I can’t help but notice two kinds of people untouched by A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. First, there are know-it-alls. I might encounter a know-it-all on … Read More