Today’s issue of the New York Law Journal contains my article Revisiting Materiality. Click here for a pdf reprint; it’s also available on the GC New York website (free registration required). This article discusses how the word material—that favorite of deal lawyers—is ambiguous, and it suggests ways of addressing this problem. This is a topic that I’ve previously danced around, … Read More
I had originally had in mind some sort of journalistic report on my “How to Write Better Business Documents” panel discussion and other goings-on at the ABA’s 2007 annual meeting in San Francisco. But I’ve recovered my sanity and concluded that any such account would be infernally dull and indiscreet—an unpromising combination. So I’ll limit myself to the following: I … Read More
A reader alerted me to this post on Above the Law. It’s about a letter that a Big Law corporate associate sent to his firm explaining exactly why he was pleased to be leaving the profession. Here’s the pertinent bit: I do not enjoy the practice of law. At all. I find it extremely tedious and stressful. I particularly do … Read More
In this December 2006 post I discussed ways of retrieving contracts that have been filed on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system. In a comment I mentioned an additional source, RealDealDocs, but noted that I hadn’t kicked their tires. Well, I still haven’t, because I’m happy doing my own searches (for free) on Lexis. But if you’re interested … Read More
Are you a lawyer? Do you draft contracts? Do you have other people draft contracts for you? Yes? Then I have a pop quiz for you. Consider the following questions: Does the phrase representations and warranties determine the remedies available to a contract party? When you draft contracts, do you include a traditional recital of consideration in the lead-in to … Read More
As I mentioned in this post, this coming Friday, August 10th, from 2:30PM to 4:30PM, Dick Wydick, Bryan Garner, and I will be speaking at the ABA annual meeting in San Francisco. The topic is “How to Write Better Business Documents.” Some promotional materials gave as the title of this session “The Art of Persuasive Brief Writing in Commercial Litigation.” … Read More
[Revised August 8, 2007] I’ve previously blogged about how drafters often refer to a given set, then refer to subsets that compose all or part of that set, even though there’s no question as to the boundaries of that set. I’ve decided to call this phenomenon “needless elaboration.” It’s like saying “I don’t eat fish, whether fresh-water or salt-water.” Simply … Read More
I just read “The Billable Hour Must Die,” an article by Scott Turow in the August 2007 issue of the ABA Journal. The following paragraph caught my eye: The people writing contracts were, in my youthful view, not much different from consultants. Although I have learned to love and appreciate hundreds of transactional lawyers in the years since, I notice, … Read More
I bring glad tidings: This fall I’ll be doing my “Contract Drafting—Language and Layout” seminar in the following cities: September 26, Washington, D.C. October 17, Minneapolis November 15, San Francisco December 5, Miami Click here to see the brochure. West Legalworks and I are pleased with how the seminars are going, so you can expect them to become a fixture … Read More
I’m reconciled to the fact that every so often I’ll change my mind on some issue and thereby render obsolete some portion of my writings. In this article and in MSCD 7.34, I propose a definition of reasonable efforts that you might want to use in sensitive contexts. Well, in the course of reviewing for the umpteenth time my manuscript … Read More
