Last year the head of a government department that handles procurement had a dozen people on his team take my online course Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass. Yesterday I asked him how it had gone. Here’s the most relevant part of what he had to say: “What I heard from most attendees is that they didn’t find your course useful in … Read More
On social media, it’s easy enough to find people discussing basic examples of suboptimal contract usages, such as exuberant use of all capitals. Such venting gets plenty of engagement, but generally I don’t join in. I’m reconciled to saying the same thing over and over again. For example, a search for efforts on my blog pulls up over 200 posts. … Read More
Legal commentary has gone through changes in the past twenty years that are comparable to what has happened to all commentary, in this country and throughout the world. Here are my impressions. Gatekeepers and Scriveners Twenty years ago, if I wanted to publish an article, I had a handful of possible outlets owned by various media companies and bar associations. … Read More
I’ve occasionally mentioned on social media that I was working on an article about how the word material is ambiguous. Well, I finished it. The title is The Word Material Is Ambiguous in Contracts, Why That’s a Problem, and How to Fix It. It will be published next year in Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, but I’ll put a “forthcoming” … Read More
If I had to describe myself as anything, it would be “writer.” Of course, not a fancy-pants kind of writer, if they still exist. Instead, I just write stuff. But in terms of the flair I bring to bear to my humdrum topic, I do think I’m something special. But once you’ve written enough, you know that however great you … Read More
The drafting gods are toying with me! I sent the publisher the final manuscript of the fifth edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. The next day, I saw something I haven’t seen before that deserves to appear in MSCD5: the phrase End of Agreement. After I saw it in one contract, I of course went on EDGAR, … Read More
Last week I tweeted this image: In the tweet, I said this: There’s a disconnect in meaning between the definition (green) and the defined term (red). The way to fix it is by “clarifying the scope” of the definition: adding a phrase-plus-comma at the beginning of the defined-term parenthetical. Any suggestions? In a reply, I offered this fix, while acknowledging … Read More
There’s me, and there’s my writings. If you want to know what I think about something, you might want to start by consulting my writings, rather than asking me. I’ve been writing about this stuff for more than 20 years, and a lot of it is complicated, so I can only keep some of it in my mind at any … Read More
Learning how to review a contract is the same as learning how to draft a contract: you have to know what to say and how to say it clearly and concisely. Of course, when you’re drafting, you’re in control, and you have a copy-and-paste starting point that you got from somewhere, so you can appear that you know what you’re … Read More
Perhaps the most distinctive part of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting is chapter 3, The Categories of Contract Language. It addresses how to use verb structures to establish, clearly and concisely, your intended meaning. To get a sense of what it involves, see the “quick reference” chart that’s part of the chapter; you can get to it through … Read More
