In this recent post, I discussed a case in which the word “termination” was held not to apply to “expiration” of a contract. Thanks to reader, I learned about a case, Olympus Ins. Co. v. Aon Benfield, Inc., No. 11-CV-2607 (D. Minn. March 30, 2012), in which the court came to essentially the opposite conclusion, due to nuances of contract language. … Read More
A little over a year ago I announced publication of my book The Structure of M&A Contracts. Since then, limbo: First, the book was available as a PDF, but only by calling West. Then, it became available exclusively on Thomson Reuters’s new ProView ebook platform, but without volume discounts and with limited marketing support. But now, the stars are in … Read More
So far, ContractExpress—the software that powers Koncision’s confidentiality-agreement template—has been able to handle everything I’ve thrown at it. Last week I learned of yet another feature that I expect I’ll need down the road. If your organization uses a number of different contract templates, it’s likely that those templates share common language—at a minimum, some or all of the “miscellanous” … Read More
I’m fond of saying that the first step in overhauling your contract process is analyzing the costs and risks of your current process. But what should such an analysis consist of? That question came to mind after my Inside Counsel SuperConference session last week. I was standing next to another of the presenters, Rees Morrison (he of the Law Department … Read More
Last week I received the following inquiry from a reader: I have a frustrating drafting challenge (possible blog topic?) that I suspect beleaguers many in-house counsel who are trying to streamline contracting processes—using a service provider’s proposal to define the scope of work without bringing in the “general” terms and conditions that accompany it. I will not deny that this … Read More
I just wrapped up my 2012 series of Geneva seminars. Some impressions: I’d be hard pressed to find a more congenial arrangement. I’m staying in Vieille Ville, the old part of Geneva, with my brother Charles and his family. (To the right is part of the view from Charles’s apartment.) To get to Akin Gump’s offices, where the seminars were … Read More
Contract layout is a function of how you position blocks of text on the page and how you enumerate them. In MSCD I recommend that you use for your contract layout what I call, unimaginatively enough, the MSCD enumeration scheme. It comes in “articles” and “sections” versions, the only difference between the two being whether your contract groups sections into … Read More
My week in Australia was leisurely compared with the week that followed: fly to Kuala Lumpur; a seminar the next two days; fly to Bangkok the next day; a seminar the next two days; fly home (tomorrow). The focus of my time in both cities was obviously the seminars, two-day versions of my “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminar. Henceforth, my one-day … Read More
It’s taken a year, but my book The Structure of M&A Contracts is now available as an ebook. More specifically, it’s available on Thomson Reuters’s new ebook platform, ProView, by going here. The book is just over a hundred pages long and costs $39. For now, there are no volume discounts. Let me know what you think of ProView. By … Read More
The “Notes from the Road” heading means no pointy-headed contracts stuff in this post, just a virtual postcard from Sydney. I arrived here this morning from Melbourne with Andrew Godwin—you’ll remember him from this post. After checking how things were going on the home front, I headed to lunch with Adrian Goss. Adrian is corporate counsel at ACP Magazines and … Read More
