A few readers let me know about a Minnesota bankruptcy court judge who issued a set of guidelines for lawyers submitting proposed orders to him. Included was a request that lawyers limit their use of capitalization. For more information, see this post on Lawyerist.com. My first instinct was to assign this to the wrong side of the litigation-transactional divide. But … Read More
Recently I’ve been having more discussions with companies regarding redrafting their templates. In particular, I recently responded to an RFP (“request for proposal”) from an international company that wanted to redraft its commercial-contract templates. I lost on price, which is frustrating, but this exercise provided a useful introduction to the realities of the no-discussion, and-the-winner-is nature of the closed RFP … Read More
I learned from this post on Language Log that use of commas in a provision of the Bankruptcy Code has become an issue in the bankcruptcy case of the Philadelphia News. Being a veteran of comma-related strife myself, I have a soft spot for such matters. But prevailing in any comma dispute comes a distant second-best to avoiding such fights. … Read More
I’m prone to suggesting that the dysfunction in mainstream contract language can largely be attributed to the precedent-driven nature of transactional work. But perhaps another factor plays a supporting role. (Caveat: what follows is semi-informed speculation.) I suspect that a large majority of analytical materials relating to transactional work are prepared by practitioners. And of those materials, I suspect that … Read More
Two items I posted today considered the format of page numbers and use of logos in headers and footers. And comments to this October 2009 post alluded to putting file names in the footer. So I got to thinking about other things that can go in headers and footers. I’ve sometimes seen the notation “Confidential” in a footer, the aim … Read More
I’ve occasionally seen, or heard of, contracts with a company or law-firm logo in the header or footer. And contracts can be printed on letterhead. Do you include a logo in your contracts? If you do, I invite you to post a comment explaining how and why.
While leafing through a company’s template contracts today, I noticed that they use the page-number format Page X of Y. This page-numbering format offers two benefits. First, it lets the reader know how long the document is. And second, it precludes anyone from surreptitiously tacking on additional pages post-signing. But I don’t find those advantages particularly compelling. If readers want … Read More
This blog has been included in the ABA Journal’s “Blawg 100“—their listing of “the best legal blogs as selected by the Journal’s editors.” It’s always gratifying to have one’s efforts recognized. And although I haven’t read all other 99 blogs, I visit a good number of them regularly and have heard good things of many of the rest. So it … Read More
Last week’s class in my Penn Law course on contract drafting was devoted to a conference call on the topic of contract drafting at law firms. Longtime readers of this blog will recognize two of the participants: Michael Fleming, partner at Larkin & Hoffman in Minneapolis and well-known cyberspace guy, and Mike Wokasch, a savvy fourth-year associate at Quarles & Brady’s … Read More
Yesterday I revisited the question of the relationship between a license and the contract that grants the license. This issue arose in connection with a trademark license agreement I’ve been redrafting. The original version says that the license is “nonassignable,” and I’ve been contemplating deleting that adjective on the grounds that the question of assignment of the license would be … Read More
