Twice previously, I’ve critiqued articles written by three cognitive-sciences co-authors, Eric Martinez, Frank Mollica, and Edward Gibson. This 2022 blog post considers their article that aims to show that contracts are poorly written. That article tells us nothing we don’t already know. And this 2023 blog post considers their article examining why lawyers write in such a convoluted way. Because … Read More
I know people find what I do worthwhile. Some individuals and organizations buy copies of MSCD. Others pay for the training I provide. And sporadically, people make a point of saying they find MSCD valuable, find my training worthwhile; I pass some of that feedback along to you all. That’s all to the good, but there’s no need to make … Read More
I was among the few million people who noticed a video of President Obama urging young people to become known for getting stuff done. Here’s the tie-in to contract drafting: It would indeed be to a junior person’s benefit to acquire a reputation for getting stuff done. That requires competence. I suggest that for purposes of contract drafting, being an … Read More
This is from a 20 June 2022 Artificial Lawyer item entitled CLM Without Expert Legal Input Is “Quite Scary”, about how the UK-based law firm Addleshaw Goddard (AG) is helping clients implement contract-lifecycle-management (CLM) systems: The rest of this post is on the LegalSifter blog, here.
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
oneNDA is a new initiative that “set out on a mission to standardise the NDA so that lawyers can spend less time on them and more time on more valuable work.” For more about oneNDA, go here. This week they released their “simple, plain English, open-source NDA,” also called, somewhat confusingly, oneNDA. My verdict is that it’s mediocre and doesn’t … Read More
Excuse me if I quote my own tweet: Let's start using number of words, instead of number of pages, to say how long a contract is. Reading 1,500 words won't go any faster because it's on 3 pages instead of 4. In fact, it might take longer, if you use gimmicks like shrinking the font to fit it on one … Read More
In this recent article and this recent blog post, I argue that nothing prevents nonlawyers from handling deals and wrangling contract language—that what matters is competence, not which hat you wear. But to assess realistically the prospects of nonlawyers in the world of contracts, you have to recognize two factors that favor lawyers. Law School as a Credential First, lawyers … Read More
Future-of-law commentator Richard Susskind has written with Neville Eisenberg, a partner in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, this article in the current issue of The Practice. It’s entitled Vertically Integrated Legal Service, and it reflects a vision of the future of legal services that, when it comes to handling contracts, is at odds with my experience and what LegalSifter is doing. … Read More
A few years ago I did an in-house Drafting Clearer Contracts presentation for a group that included several people who had attended one of my public presentations a couple of years previously. Here’s the gist of a brief discussion we had: Me: Why are your company’s templates still so crappy? Them: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For a while now I’ve … Read More
