I’m pleased that this fall I’ll be teaching at Notre Dame Law School. Well, really this summer—the course will be three weeks long and will start August 18, a week before classes normally start. What makes this a particularly good arrangement for me is that it will be an intensive course, with an entire semester’s worth of learning crammed into … Read More
My thoughts are turning back towards teaching. In particular, wearing my Mr. Commoditize hat, I’ve been considering how one of the big problems with teaching contract drafting is the improvised nature of it all. You have practitioners teaching it, some of them perhaps imparting to their charges a grab-bag of conventional wisdom. You have legal-writing people teaching it, some of … Read More
Via this post on the WSJ Blog, I learned about survey results presented by three Harvard Law School professors in an article entitled “What Courses Should Law Students Take? Harvard’s Largest Employers Weigh In.” (Available here on SSRN.) I’m not surprised that “Contract drafting” didn’t feature in the results for the question “What courses should HLS students take?,” given that … Read More
This week I start offering one-on-one coaching to someone from the procurement department of a major company. It will consist of eight one-hour video-chat sessions, one every couple of weeks. And for the next six months I’ll be available to answer that person’s questions, by video chat, phone, or email. I’ll let you know how it goes. Different people learn … Read More
For the first time since 2005, I won’t be teaching in the fall, as a member of the adjunct faculty, a law-school course in contract drafting. In one respect, that’s a relief, as I’ll be able to continue my globetrotting unhindered. Abu Dhabi, here we come! But at some point I’d like to resume teaching. Not because I’m the second … Read More
Here’s the text of an email I just sent someone who attended one of my recent European seminars: I’m pleased that you found the seminar worthwhile. So you’re looking for further training that will allow you to get more comfortable with contracts drafted in English. You also want to understand better the sorts of provisions that are standard in commercial … Read More
Remember this? Well, how about this: https://twitter.com/c_r_evans/statuses/310527249940094977
https://twitter.com/workthebellows/statuses/273608345645105152
I draw your attention to Preston M. Torbert, Contract Drafting: A Socratic Manifesto, 14 Scribes J. Legal Writing 93, 119 (2012) (PDF copy here). Preston is a retired practitioner who teaches and writes about contract drafting; he was kind enough to send me a copy of the article. Apart from the introductory paragraph, the article is written entirely in questions. … Read More
I’ve re-upped at Penn Law: this fall, a scant twenty JD and LLM students will be taking my course in contract drafting. Once again, I plan on closing out the semester with a drafting, or redrafting, project for a not-for-profit organization. The idea is that we’ll work on a contract, or part of a contract, for whichever organization is selected, then … Read More
