Process

Convincing the Other Side to Fix Their Draft

This week I received the following inquiry from a reader: I’m a lawyer, and I’ve been working with contracts for the past five years. Your blog has been the first place I look for guidance on drafting questions. Thank you for being a great resource. I find that many lawyers resist implementing the modern approaches you discuss. Typically, I feel … Read More

On Saying a Draft Is Subject to Client Comments

Today I received the following inquiry from reader Ryan: I’m curious if you have a view on a practice that continues to baffle me. In the process of negotiating tri-party or multi-party agreements and exchanging drafts or mark-ups via e-mail to a large distribution of the parties and their counsel, some attorneys always include something like the following: “Please note … Read More

Advice on Contracts: 1916 Compared with 2018

A couple of days ago I noticed a post on LinkedIn by Ian Heptinstall. In it, he quoted a bit of contracts advice from 1916 and asked readers what they thought of it. Here’s that advice: Our custom here is to draw up a contract before having seen the lawyer and then to ask him to put it in more … Read More

Being on the Lookout for Unusual Provisions

Go here for my first post on LegalSifter’s blog. It’s about the different perspective that’s required when you’re reviewing rather than drafting, and it focuses on a provision you see sometimes in confidentiality agreements.

Pandering to Traditionalists

I’ve been doing public and in-house “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminars for, oh, 14 years now. That’s because people find them worthwhile and, shockingly enough, somewhat entertaining. Otherwise, I would have gotten the hook long ago. So the feedback is positive, but occasionally participants suggest I adjust my approach. For example, here’s what a participant at my recent New York seminar … Read More

My Updated Preempt-the-Traditionalists Cover Note: Get Your Retaliation in First

MSCD guidelines mostly fly under the radar. Apart from a couple of notorious recommendations—I’m talking about you, this agreement with a small a and states instead of represents and warrants—the guidelines don’t attract attention to themselves. But sometimes traditionalists gonna traditional, so you might get a draft back with all sorts of unhelpful traditionalist comments. As I note in this … Read More

If the Expectation Is That Your Lawyers Understand Your Contracts Better Than the Business People, Something’s Wrong

I routinely encounter the assumption that lawyers understand contracts better than others, and that the challenge is for lawyers to help everyone else by making contracts clearer. For me, that sets alarm bells ringing. Consider this in terms of my usual framework, which divides contract drafting into the tasks of determining what you say and determining how you say it. … Read More

What Kind of Change Should We Seek in Contracts?

I noticed that Tim Cummins, head of the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM), mentioned in this post on his blog my recent post about GE Aviation’s template initiative (here). I’m pleased that Tim thought it worth his time to read it. Three thoughts: Some Stuff Is Complex Tim again lumps me with traditionalists, saying, in referring to … Read More