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Crowdsourcing Rears Its Head Again: My Thoughts on George Triantis’s Working Paper on Improving Contract Quality

3 September 20133 September 2013 by Ken Adams

Via this post on Legal Informatics Blog, I learned of an article entitled Modularity and Innovation in Contract Design: A New Path for Transactional Legal Practice, 18 Stan. J.L. Bus. & Fin. 177 (2013). It’s by Associate Dean George Triantis of Stanford Law School. But apparently that article isn’t yet available—the SSRN link (here) in the Legal Informatics Blog post is to a Stanford … Read More

“Assumes That”: Not a Phrase You See in Contracts

28 August 2013 by Ken Adams

A couple weeks ago the following tweet was sent my way by @UtterlyMacabre: Many IT Ks have an “assumptions” section that functions like a disclaimer. What category of contract language would you call this? Shortly thereafter, @UtterlyMacabre disappeared from the Twitterverse. Too bad, because I thought that was a clever question. Before disappearing, @UtterlyMacabre steered me to two statements of … Read More

“Related To, But Not Limited To”

27 August 2013 by Ken Adams

In this comment, reader MLB asks, “What’s your thought on the following phrase: ‘related to, but not limited to’ in a contract?” My response: WTF? A search on EDGAR found only 49 contracts that use the phrase, and perhaps half of them represent multiple instances of contracts based on the same template. So it’s a rarity—thankfully so, as I don’t … Read More

If You’ve Subscribed to My Blog Email Updates and You’re Wondering Why You Haven’t Received Any Yet, Read This

26 August 2013 by Ken Adams

If you’ve subscribed to my blog email updates but haven’t received any—my most recent update was on August 14—you might want to try again. Allow me to explain: Every week, or two, or three, I send to subscribers an email with links to my most recent blog posts. You can subscribe for my email updates by going here. Last week … Read More

Can We Get Rid of the Term of Art “Force Majeure”?

24 August 2013 by Ken Adams

In this post you can see the most recent version of my force majeure language. (Excuse the blood, sweat, and tears!) But one change the current version doesn’t reflect is something that Chris Lemens and A. Wright Burke both requested—that I get rid of the phrase force majeure. Here’s what Chris said in this comment: I’m highly prejudiced against law-French, … Read More

Commenters Inflict Blunt-Force Trauma on This Blogger

24 August 2013 by Ken Adams

The other day, I was walking down the road when I was waylaid by two longtime readers, Chris Lemens and A. Wright Burke. They stuck a hood over my head and hauled me behind the bicycle sheds. They then proceeded to thrash me. I think Chris wielded a shillelagh, whereas A. Wright Burke, despite his higher-education trappings (M. Phil. and … Read More

Dubious Contract Word of the Day: Cognizant

24 August 201321 August 2013 by Ken Adams

Recently I encountered cognizant in a contract. It’s a foppish word meaning “knowledgeable of something, especially through personal experience.” It’s not that common in contracts, but it’s not an utter rarity either—it’s in a few dozen contracts filed on EDGAR in the past year. Below is an example of cognizant used in a contract to convey the established meaning; I’d use … Read More

Revisiting My “Force Majeure” Language (With Yet More Changes)

15 May 202220 August 2013 by Ken Adams

[Updated 15 May 2022 to aadd “in the first sentence of ” to section 12.4(a).] [Updated January 18, 2014, to add to 12.4(b) “or other change in general economic conditions”.] [Updated yet again August 24, 2013, to reflect further comments emailed me by A. Wright Burke.] [Updated August 20, 2013, to reflect changes prompted by A. Wright Burke’s comment.] [Updated … Read More

Can Visualizations Make It Easier to Understand Defined Terms?

19 August 2013 by Ken Adams

Via @bradleybclark and this post on Legal Informatics Blog, I learned of a paper entitled “Software Tools for the Visualization of Definition Networks in Legal Contracts.” It’s by Michael Curtotti and Eric McCreath, both of Australian National University, and Srinivas Sridharan of the University of California, San Diego. Here’s the abstract: This paper describes the development of prototype software-based tools for visualizing definitions within legal … Read More

Yes, Law Firms Do Have a Hard Time Maintaining Template Contracts

16 August 2013 by Ken Adams

Recently, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog invited readers to suggest basic processes that law firms are really bad at. The responses they received are on display in this post, and two caught my eye: Maintaining Practice Group Forms One of the things that firms still struggle with is managing forms. It was something that has been discussed for years … Read More

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