The other day, Alex Hamilton dropped this on Twitter: Using "shall" in contracts, as suggested by @AdamsDrafting, has become a shibboleth. There are those who want to be modern, and those who've done their homework and are actually being modern. — Alex Hamilton (@AlexHamiltonRad) March 10, 2021 It’s been years since I’ve written anything about use of shall in contracts. … Read More
A participant at a recent “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminar sent me an email saying how much they had enjoyed the seminar. They went on to say that “incorporating the concepts into our templates and drafting will require a slow, steady cultural change.” Regardless of whether cultural change has to be slow and steady, I suggest that it doesn’t reflect reality … Read More
In this 2015 post I suggested that “instead of addressing each deal point in a separate sentence, you can often consolidate them.” When you do that, instead of using two main verbs to cover two deal points, you need only one main verb. But the example I used to illustrate this point ended up being hijacked by a substantive issue. … Read More
In May, LegalZoom, the provider of online legal services, declared that it intends to raise $120 million in an initial public offering. LegalZoom allows consumers to create wills and trusts, real-estate documents, the paperwork for divorces, and such. And it allows users to create a broad range of contracts and other documents required to start and operate a business. For … Read More
My lightning visit to Australia of course makes me an expert on Australian contract drafting. So here are some general impressions: “Plain Language” A significant portion of the Australian legal profession has shifted to what they call “plain language” drafting. I was told, for example, that a while ago Mallesons—now King & Wood Mallesons—invested heavily in training personnel and overhauling … Read More
