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
This week tipster extraordinaire Glenn West mentioned to me an opinion of the England and Wales Court of Appeal, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co v. Yes Bank Limited [2024] EWCA Civ 695. This case involves syntactic ambiguity—confusion over what modifies what. I’ve written at length about syntactic ambiguity, and the lesson for drafters is always basically the same, so I thought … Read More
Next week, on Monday and Tuesday, 11 and 12 June 2024, I’m doing a Drafting Clearer Contracts online presentation, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. ET (US). Go here for more information. The fee is US$495, but if you’re a lawyer at a law firm with up to three lawyers, if you’re a contract manager, if you’re in government, if … Read More
I’ve just scheduled two series of my online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass, which is built around eight live hour-long sessions held once a week and supplemented by reading and quizzes. The first session of one series starts on Thursday, 12 September 2024, at noon ET (US). The first session of the second one starts on Tuesday, 15 October 2024, … Read More
Last week I saw this in a contract: Subcontracting. Acme may engage employees, independent contractors, consultants, or other persons or entities (collectively, “Assistants”) to aid Acme in performing Acme’s obligations under this Agreement, so long as those Assistants abide by the terms of this Agreement, specifically Section 7 (Confidentiality) and, if required under HIPAA, the HITECH Act, or any other … Read More
I’ve just scheduled a new public Drafting Clearer Contracts presentation. It consists of two three-hour sessions on 10 and 11 June 2024 (Monday and Tuesday), starting at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (US and Canada). (Well, it’s actually three hours and ten minutes, if you take into account a ten-minute break!) This presentation serves as an introduction to A Manual of … Read More
On Friday, I went to Manhattan to do my first in-person Drafting Clearer Contracts presentation in four years. (The photo above is from that presentation, during the lunch break.) The previous one was in March 2020, for a law firm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Then the pandemic hit, and I went from constantly being on the road (see this 2019 post … Read More
In this post from last November, I noted that the U.S. Solicitor General had cited A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting in their brief in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving a dispute over an and, Pulsifer v. U.S. Well, two days ago the other shoe dropped: in their opinion in that case (here), the U.S. Supreme … Read More
College American football and I had been total strangers. But just today, we were introduced by longtime reader Chris Lemens, who sent me a link to this Substack post about how the Big 12 Conference (a collection of college sports teams that play competitively against each other) signed deals with the University of Colorado and the University of Utah. Uh, … Read More
In chapter 3 (Categories of Contract Language) of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, table 3 (Language of Discretion: May) showcases 16 ways to say may with more words and less clearly. Friends, it’s time to introduce you to a 17th way. It’s in the extract in the image above: has the option to. It’s from a consulting agreement … Read More
