[Updated June 30, 2015: Here’s an update from Blake: In our job search, we stated that knowledge of MSCD was a “preferred qualification.” Out of dozens of qualified applicants, we narrowed the pool to four people. We gave all four candidates a “homework” assignment of drafting a contract in accordance with MSCD. (We assigned the candidates random numbers and graded … Read More
Yesterday Tim Cummins of the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management posted this item on his blog. It’s on the need for change in contracts, a subject Tim writes about regularly. Tim is used to my nagging, so I permit myself the following thoughts. Tim’s post was prompted by a recent IACCM webinar on the new ASC606 revenue recognition standard. … Read More
I noted with interest this post by Ken Grady on Seyfarth Shaw’s Seytlines blog, particularly as last year I did a Q&A with Ken on this blog (here). Ken’s post is about quality in contracting. He starts by discussing the limitations of determining quality by proxy. As he says, “Trusting the brand, versus trusting metrics that measure desired characteristics, is … Read More
Here’s the opening of this Gigaom story, by Stacey Higginbotham: One of the biggest roadblock to adopting the public cloud for Rich Roseman, former CIO at 21st Century Fox had nothing to do with bandwidth, vendor-lock in or security. It had to do with lawyers. Specifically, old lawyers who couldn’t adapt their contracts to the new world of the cloud. … Read More
I’m in the habit of dividing the task of contract drafting into determining what to say and how to say it. But that’s not to suggest that they represents separate tasks. Instead, they’re two ends of a spectrum, as how you say something can affect what you say in unexpected ways. And you work on both aspects concurrently. But I’d … Read More
In the early days of my rummaging through the entrails of contract language, I logged a lot of time with the second edition of Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. My recent visits have been fewer, but I did turn to the third edition, now called Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage, to see if it had anything to say … Read More
Years ago a wrote briefly about contract-lifecycle-management (CLM) software, which is software that allows an organization to keep track of its contracts and key contract information, such as deadlines. See for example this 2007 post. Apttus and Emptoris are just two examples of CLM software. But I’ve never had any direct experience with CLM software, and I’ve had only brief conversations … Read More
I recently came across this blog post on Clio’s website. Clio is software that handles time and billing, calendaring, and collaboration, but this blog post is about something else—how law firms can use “commercial legal forms.” It suggests three possible uses: You can copy them. You can resell them. Or you can create and sell your own. Here’s my take … Read More
Via this post by Tim Cummins, I learned of this article in the National Law Journal by Mark Harris, chief executive officer of Axiom, “a provider of technology-enabled legal services” (to quote the author note). In the article, Mark describes the costs and risks of an improvised approach to managing the contract process. He then proposes an alternative, offering as an example steps taken by … Read More
I noted with interest this article in the New Yorker by James Surowiecki. It’s about how a focus on incremental gains, in sports and elsewhere, has led to a “performance revolution.” It begins by describing how a “technological and analytical arms race is producing the best athletes in history,” but it goes on to describe similarly dramatic improvements in performance … Read More
