A client recently suggested that I add a mediation provision to a master services agreement that I’ve been preparing for them. While pondering that idea, I happened upon this item in a newsletter by the law firm Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP. (Why no author specified?) It captures why I ultimately recommended that we not include a mediation provision. Here’s the … Read More
Via @BrianStewartOH I learned of this article in the Washington Post about a contract between Alabama State University and its new president. The contract contains the following provision: For so long as Dr. Boyd is President and a single person, she shall not be allowed to cohabitate in the President’s residence with any person with whom she has a romantic relation. … Read More
Here’s an odd little usage: the date notified. I first saw it in section 1.1.3.2 of the FIDIC contract I discussed in this post (emphasis added): “Commencement Date” means the date notified under Sub-Clause 8.1. Here are some other examples from that den of iniquity, the SEC’s EDGAR system: Each Lender shall make available to the applicable Issuing Bank an … Read More
The holidays are over, and I’ll soon be heading out on the road. Here are the public “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminars scheduled for the next few weeks: January 17, Montreal, QC February 17, Melbourne, Australia February 18, Canberra, Australia February 21, Sydney, Australia I’ll be in Kuala Lumpur on February 24–25 for a two-day seminar, and on March 27 I’ll be … Read More
Cousin Joshua Stein pointed out to me this post on Above the Law. It’s by Keith Lee, who has his own site, Associate’s Mind. Keith’s post is about the perils of hasty change: Put simply, don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up. Policies and procedures that are in place are likely … Read More
On Tweetdeck, I have a column for tweets that contain the words “contract” and “drafting.” From the tweets that show up there, every so often I learn about stuff that I might otherwise have missed. For example, today I saw the following: New Alert: First Circuit's lesson on necessity of precision in loan contract drafting http://t.co/OGhw94XOPB — Tim Durken (@TDurken) … Read More
This week Richard Kopf, a senior U.S. district-court judge, announced in this post on his blog, Hercules and the Umpire, that he wouldn’t be writing anything further for the blog, which he began in February 2013. For more about Judge Kopf and his blogging, see this WSJ article and this ABA Journal article. In a comment to his farewell post I said, perhaps rather … Read More
The notion of “design” is all the rage. For example, this article about Stanford’s D.school appeared in the New York Times earlier this week. As regards the legal profession, there’s this ABA Journal article by Paul Lippe on the role of design in legal services. Then there are all the references to “contract design” in academic stuff I’ve been reading. So far, … Read More
I’m both a commentator and a guy who sells stuff. Those two roles sometimes bump up against each other in a way that can look awkward. For one thing, I tell anyone willing to listen that if an organization wants to put its contract process on a rational footing, it should adopt a comprehensive style guide for contract language, but … Read More
I bring you two items of interest regarding recovery of attorneys’ fees. One is this post by Brian Rogers, aka @theContractsGuy. The message? If for purposes of a contract governed by Missouri law you want to recover attorneys’ fees, it’s not enough to say “all costs”—you have to mention attorneys’ fees too, presumably by saying “all costs, including attorneys’ fees.” … Read More
