Uncategorized

A Malpractice Fight Shows the Substantive Implications of Copy-and-Paste

A client of the law firm Proskauer Rose has sued the firm for malpractice, seeking $636 million in damages. Robert Adelman alleges that because of a provision mistakenly included in a contract relating to control of a hedge fund, the hedge fund’s manager was able to seize Adelman’s stake in the fund. Adelman’s lawyers allege that Proskauer negligently copy-and-pasted the … Read More

I Appear on the “Procurement Reimagined” Podcast

Go here for episode 16 of Gatekeeper’s “Procurement Reimagined,” with host Daniel Barnes. The title is Moving Beyond Cut and Paste: The Criticality of Contract Language with Ken Adams, Chief Content Officer at LegalSifter. Yes, it consists of a chat with yours truly. My thanks to Daniel for keeping the conversation moving!

The Nature of L2L Contracts: Thoughts Prompted by a Chris Simkins Blog Post

I noticed the most recent post by Chris Simkins on his Improving Contracts blog. Entitled L2L Contracts: Thinking beyond B2C and B2B, it explores the implications of, well, L2L contracts. What are L2L contracts, you ask? Here’s what Chris says: When I use L2L, I don’t mean a contract between two lawyers, or two law firms. I’m using it to … Read More

New T-Shirt: “The Traditionalist”!

For the sheer heck of it, I’ve added another T-shirt to my collection of snarky contract-drafting gear. It uses a design by Russell Christian that I commissioned years ago. I used to call it “The Scrivener”, but now I’m calling it “The Traditionalist”. On the back is the Adams on Contract Drafting logo. The T-shirt is available here. As always, … Read More

A Testimonial for a Private Series of “Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass”

In addition to public series of my online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass (information here), I also do private series for organizations. The dynamic is different when the only participants are people from your organization. And I customize my PowerPoint presentations with examples drawn from your templates. I’m a little lax about harvesting testimonials, mostly because I don’t want to … Read More

This Week in Training Feedback

As I wait for various shoes to drop, I’m currently devoting much of my attention to the training I offer. Part of the process involves promoting what I do. I’d rather be understated about that, but I assume that understated doesn’t always get you far enough these days. In that spirit, here’s some feedback I received this week: But I’m … Read More

Should We Hyphenate Phrasal Adjectives in Contract Names?

This morning, while I was banging out an email, Grammarly saw fit to offer the following suggestion: Hmm. Interesting. Should we say data-sharing agreement, not data sharing agreement? Some background is in order. This is from Garner’s Modern English Usage 827 (5th ed.): When a phrase functions as an adjective preceding the noun it modifies … the phrase should ordinarily … Read More

3 New Series of Masterclass for Fall 2023

Series of Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass continue to sell out, and the feedback continues to be positive, so why stop now! I’ve just made available three new series of Masterclass: The goal of Masterclass is to help you become a better-informed consumer of contract language. It’s the antidote to the copy-and-paste machine and its doppelganger, generative AI. For more information … Read More