I’m a big believer in the notion that until you name a phenomenon, you likely don’t understand it thoroughly. So I’ve given names to plenty of features of contract topography; I’ll be happy if half of them stick! In that spirit, my recently published book The Structure of M&A Contracts offers some new terminology. Now that the usual post-publishing dread … Read More
Much of the recent blogosphere discussion of stratification in the legal market has alluded to the “bet the farm” and “law factory” law-firm models. (Mad props to Ron Friedmann and Toby Brown for offering those terms in this post.) But the two models perhaps don’t represent as clear a dichotomy as you might think. For one thing, “bet the farm” suggests a … Read More
Unless you give something a name, it doesn’t really exist. So allow me to introduce to you Koncision Customized, a service offered by Koncision and Business Integrity. It works like this: If you like Koncision’s confidentiality-agreement template but you’re looking for greater control and you want template language that’s customized to fit your needs, you should consider Koncision … Read More
To make it easier for you to see the advantages that Koncision offers, I’ve added the following features: Go here [link no longer available] to see how you can test drive the confidentiality-agreement template without charge. Go here [link no longer available] to see a sample contract created using the confidentiality-agreement template. I hope these resources will make it even … Read More
In my recent post on moral turpitude, I noted that I found odd the phrase “its reasonable but good faith opinion,” and a couple of commenters weighed in on that. So I thought I should take a more general look at the relationship between those two concepts. But I’ll start by considering in this post how the notion of reasonableness … Read More
Two people with a lot of contracts experience have told me that they think that Koncision’s confidentiality-agreement template contains too many questions. They suggested that I whittle down the questions and incorporate in the template a middle-ground position with respect to the topics addressed in those questions. I’m grateful for the input I’ve received, but that’s a suggestion I won’t … Read More
It’s relatively commonplace for contracts to point the reader to terms contained on a website. It follows that electronic versions of such contracts often hyperlink those URLs. But recently someone asked me about using hyperlinks for a different purpose, namely to speed cross-referencing within a Word document. You can hyperlink the entries in a table of contents, as well as … Read More
I recently learned of a Wisconsin appellate case, Appleton Papers, Inc. v. Andritz, Inc., 2011 WL 867754 (Wis. Ct. App.) It provides an interesting example of the confusion that can follow if you misdiagnose the sources of uncertainty in contract language. The defendant, Andritz, had granted the plaintiff an option to purchase equipment, then had refused to sell at the … Read More
Mark Anderson is an English solicitor specializing in IP law. He’s founder of Anderson & Company (go here for his bio on his firm’s website). He’s also a prolific writer on contract drafting—he makes me look like a piker! I have a stack of four of his books that I’ll be perusing in the coming weeks; you can expect something … Read More
I’m pleased to announce that West LegalEdcenter has now made available the webcast “The Structure of M&A Contracts.” Click here to go to the page for the webcast at West LegalEdcenter’s website. The webcast constitutes an introduction to, and overview of the subjects discussed in, my book entitled—wait for it—The Structure of M&A Contracts. (Click here for more information about … Read More
