Friends, today’s word is abrogate. If you use it in contracts, you need to get over yourself. Here’s how Black’s Law Dictionary defines it: abrogate (ab-rə-gayt) vb. (16c) To abolish (a law or custom) by formal or authoritative action; to annul or repeal. I rummaged around on Edgar to see what use people have had for abrogate, and I quickly noticed that once … Read More
Business contracts are different from consumer contracts. For one thing, business contracts exhibit greater variety than do consumer contracts. But in another respect, business contracts are broadly comparable, regardless of that variety. Allow me to explain. Consumer contracts are geared to the mundane transactions you and I engage in when opening bank accounts, taking out insurance, signing up for online … Read More
You know the em-dash—it’s what divides the two parts of this sentence. According to Garner’s Modern English Usage (GMEU), “The em-dash is perhaps the most underused punctuation mark in American writing.” But in my experience, once people start using the em-dash, they quickly start using it promiscuously. That’s the case with me, with one exception: I don’t use it in … Read More
Readers tell me that businesspeople keep asking them to cut from contracts that which is unduly risk-averse or plain old unnecessary. Lawyers might be inclined to attribute that to businesspeople doing what they gotta do. In this view of things, lawyers are a bulwark against rank expediency. But there’s is a lot of fat in contracts, and in the coming … Read More
As a follow-up to their 2009 article naming me one of their original batch of Legal Rebels, I’m featured in a new ABA Journal Legal Rebels podcast that focuses on my work with LegalSifter. And there’s also an article. You can find both of them here. The 2009 article about me is apparently no longer online *sob* but for yucks, … Read More
I haven’t been a fan of LinkedIn groups; see for example this 2013 blog post. So I was taken aback when one of my LinkedIn connections, Marty Carrara, suggested that I start my own LinkedIn group. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a sensible idea. I then did this LinkedIn post about it, and it garnered … Read More
On 5 November I’ll be doing a day-long “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminar in London for UCL Faculty of Laws. (For more information, go here.) I can think of eight reasons why you might want to attend: English contract drafting is dysfunctional. Generally, the prose of contracts leaves a lot to be desired, and no amount of Savile Row swagger can … Read More
A couple of recent articles make the sensible point that it’s meaningless just to clamor for innovation in legal. There’s this article by Mark A. Cohen (@legalmosaic, but this post is about this article on Above the Law by Ivy Grey (@IvyBGrey). The title is Innovation Is A Red Herring Without Cultural Change, and in it she asks, “So how do … Read More
“What!,” I hear you say. “More on efforts! You cannot be serious! Yes, more on efforts, because I’m determined to explore every nook and cranny of the f*cked-up world that is efforts provisions in traditional contract drafting. And today’s topic is the phrase on a best-efforts basis. A best-efforts offering is a kind of securities offering. Here’s how Practical Law … Read More
In this recent post I introduced the idea of putting job notices on this blog, with the aim of perhaps helping anyone who has hopes of finding a new employee from among readers of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. Now let’s look at this from the perspective of someone looking for a job. Below is an email I … Read More
