Reader Bradley Clark, proprietor of the Texas Law Blog, let me know about the recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion in Carey v. 24 Hour Fitness, USA. Here’s the gist of it: The district court held that the binding arbitration provision relied upon by 24 Hour Fitness is illusory because 24 Hour Fitness “retain[ed] the unilateral right to modify … Read More
Readers of this blog will be familiar with Glenn West and his articles on extra-contractual liability (click here for a copy) and on consequential damages (click here for a copy). You may recall that Glenn is one of my co-presenters in Koncision’s webcast “Drafting and Reviewing Confidentiality Agreements.” Well, The Business Lawyer has just published another Glenn article (with co-author Natalie … Read More
MSCD 12.349 notes that in contracts not only is such is used to mean “of this/that kind” (its meaning in standard English), it’s also used instead of the “pointing words” this, that, these, and those. The latter use is unhelpful, in that it goes against the basic principle that in drafting you don’t want to use one word to convey … Read More
In this recent blog post I said that usually in contracts the verb guarantee is followed by a noun rather than a that-clause. But I’m not sure I can explain the aversion to guarantees plus that-clause. I think it’s safe to say that “Acme guarantees that Widgetco will comply with its obligations under this agreement” conveys the same meaning as … Read More
“Procurement” is a standard business term. I refers to a company’s acquisition of goods or services, and the department that handles such matters is commonly referred to simply as “Procurement.” But the verb procure is a slightly different matter. It’s a formal word for get. As noted in Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage, it’s even more formal than obtain. I suspect that … Read More
Yes, giving seminars in Australia, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Geneva is exotic and all, but I spend most of my time in the U.S. and Canada. With that in mind, allow me to mention the following seminars: February 23, Vancouver, BC (for more information, go here) March 6, Dallas, TX (for more information, go here) I hope to see some … Read More
Last September I made available in this blog post a hyperlinked list of all my posts, on this blog and the mothballed AdamsDrafting blog, relating to the contract process. Well, I’ve now reorganized, expanded, and updated that list; for a copy, go here.
A hot-off-the-presses opinion of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Tec Rep Servs. v. Dearborn Tool & Mfg., 2012 WL 171372 (W.D.N.C. Jan. 20, 2012), provides a useful opportunity to consider nuances in how you refer to termination. Dearborn , the defendant, is in the machined-parts business. Tec Rep, the plaintiff, is an agency that … Read More
Reader D.C. Toedt let me know about the recent opinion of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Camelot LLC v. AMC ShowPalace Theatres, Inc., and he wrote about it himself here. But I take away from it a slightly different lesson than does D.C., in that I think it provides a useful reminder to practitioners that what matters is … Read More
I’m pleased to announce that West LegalEdcenter is now offering a new Koncision webcast, “Drafting and Reviewing Confidentiality Agreements.” It weighs in at 1 hour and 13 minutes and comes with CLE credit. Go here for more information. Joining me as co-presenters on the webcast are two of my favorite people, Chris Lemens and Glenn West. Both will be familiar … Read More
