This is the first of two posts prompted by what a reader said in a recent exchange of emails. Here’s one thing they said: On more than one occasion, a colleague has used the term “academic” as a pejorative to describe my interest in an issue. For example, “well, let’s try to stay away from […]
Nonlawyers and Contract Drafting: Commentary by Some Connections
In today’s post about how nonlawyers can help with contract drafting (here), I advance an idea I don’t recall having seen expressed before. It hardly seems a revolutionary idea, but I thought it appropriate to hear what other had to say about it. So I reached out to a handful of my connections, some long-standing, […]
Nonlawyers Can Help With Contract Drafting (As Long as They’re the Right Nonlawyers)
Recently I tweeted this: Legal builds contracts because lawyers are good at claiming turf. Contracts are business documents: that they're legally enforceable and contain dispute resolution provisions isn't a reason to make them a legal fiefdom. Give them to people skilled in deals and contract language. — Ken Adams (@AdamsDrafting) August 16, 2020 I’ll now […]
Contract Creation Is the Stepchild of the Contracts Process
The legal profession has a love-hate relationship with technology. On the one hand, lawyers are, uh, challenged when it comes to using basic technology. And technology vendors tend to grouse that selling to lawyers is a hassle. On the other hand, the legal profession is prone to spasms of enthusiasm over technology. It periodically throws […]
The Difference Between Simplifying a Contract and Making It Clearer
Recently I posted on LinkedIn two comments (here and here) regarding the distinction between simplifying a contract and making it clearer. In those comments I say that simplification relates to what you say in a contract whereas clarity relates to how you say it. What you say falls on a spectrum between simple and complex; […]
“Evolution”? “Revolution”? Whatever, Just Fix Contracts Already
Recently I noticed blog posts written by thoughtful people under the auspices of prominent names. One is The Evolution to Modern Legal, by Jason Barnwell; it’s on the Legal Evolution blog, which is edited by Bill Henderson. The other is is here; the other is We Need a Legal Revolution, Not Reformation, by Leigh Vickery; […]
In Contract Drafting, It’s Better to Be Right Than Experienced
On occasion, someone who doesn’t agree with me on a given issue will blurt out, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and ….” Or if they wish to be more low-key about it, they might simply observe that experienced drafters take a different approach. In some activities, being experienced is a suitable proxy for […]
Why Are Templates Bad?
Recently I noticed Mark Anderson’s post entitled Why Do We Tolerate Bad Templates? Spoiler alert: Mark says it’s because people like what they’re used to and because they assume that if they haven’t encountered problems yet they won’t in the future. Bad I’ll now explore the assumption underlying Mark’s post—that many, or most, templates are […]
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 […]
Marking Changes on the Signature Copy of a Contract
The image above is from a hotel agreement I examined as part of my LegalSifter duties. It caused me to wonder how people go about making final changes to the signature copy of a contract. What are the alternatives, apart from marking changes by hand? It’s been forever since I last did a deal, so […]