Ken Adams’s Articles

Here’s a list of articles written by Ken Adams:

• The Word Material Is Ambiguous in Contracts, Why That’s a Problem, and How to Fix It, 21 The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing 83 (2023–24)
• On Better Terms: What Should We Do with “Nonlawyer”?, ABA Journal (29 Aug. 2023)
• Reviewing Business Contracts: What to Look For and How to Look for It, ACC Docket (20 Dec. 2021) (with Michael F. Fleming)
• How Contract Managers Can Gain More Control Over Contracts, Contracting Excellence Journal (29 Mar. 2021)
• Common-Law Drafting in Civil-Law Jurisdictions, Business Law Today (20 Dec. 2019) (with Jan Asmus Bischoff)
• Interpreting and Drafting Efforts Provisions: From Unreason to Reason, 74 Business Lawyer 677 (2019)
• Putting an End to Endeavours Nonsense, The Lawyer (11 Oct. 2017)
• When Contracts Seek to Preempt Judicial Discretion, Judicature (Fall 2017) (with Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery)
• Know Your Enemy: Sources of Uncertain Meaning in Contracts, Michigan Bar Journal (Oct. 2016)
• Litigating the Meaning of Contract Language? Consider Retaining an Expert (Parts I and II), Legal Solutions Blog (31 May and 6 June 2016)
• The Problem with Contract Drafting and What Young Lawyers Can Do About It, The Lawyer (8 Mar. 2016)
• Granting Language in Patent License Agreements: An Analysis of Usages, Landslide (ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law) (Jan./Feb. 2016)
• Reconsidering the Recital of Consideration, New York Law Journal (9 Dec. 2015)
• Adams v Anderson on Contract Drafting, Law Society Gazette (30 Nov. 2015) (with Mark Anderson)
• The Phrase Represents and Warrants Is Pointless and Confusing, Business Law Today (Oct. 2015)
• Fixing Your Contracts: What Training in Contract Drafting Can and Can’t Do, ACC Docket (22 Sep. 2015) (with Chris Lemens)
• Inures to the Benefit and Trademark Licensing, 105 Trademark Reporter 944 (2015)
• Bamboozled by a Comma: The Second Circuit’s Misdiagnosis of Ambiguity in American International Group, Inc. v. Bank of America Corp., 16 The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing 45 (2014–15)
• Eliminating the Phrase Represents and Warrants from Contracts, 16 Tennessee Journal of Business Law 203 (2015)
• Top Ten Tips in Drafting and Negotiating International Contracts, Association of Corporate Counsel “Top Ten” Legal Resources (21 Apr. 2015) (with René Mario Scherr)
• English-Language Contracts: Reducing the Clutter and Confusion, Part Two (in Korean), Korean Legal Times (12 Oct. 2014)
• English-Language Contracts: Reducing the Clutter and Confusion, Part One (in Korean), Korean Legal Times (3 Oct. 2014)
• Beyond Words, Solicitors Journal (30 Sept. 2014) (about best endeavours and its variants under English law)
• Banishing Shall from Business Contracts: Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater, The Australian Corporate Lawyer (Sep. 2014)
• Termination-on-Bankruptcy Provisions: Some Proposed Language, Business Law Today (June 2014)
• With “Efforts“ Provisions, Reasonable Is Better Than Best, The Lawyers Weekly (16 May 2014)
• Dysfunction in Contract Drafting: The Causes and a Cure, 15 Tennessee Journal of Business Law 317 (2014)
• It’s Time to Get Rid of the “Successors and Assigns” Provision, The Advocate (June/July 2013)
• Asia: Different Contracts, Different Cultures, Asian Legal Business (Jan. 2013)
• The Illusion of Quality in Contract Drafting, New York Law Journal (17 July 2012) (with Tim Allen)
• Making a Mess of Ambiguity: Lessons from the Third Circuit’s Opinion in Meyer v. CUNA Mutual Insurance Society, Business Law Today (20 Nov. 2011)
• Whittling Away at Duty of Good Faith, The Recorder (28 June 2011)
• The New Associate and the Future of Contract Drafting, New York Law Journal (1 Apr. 2011)
• The AAA Standard Arbitration Clause: Room for Improvement, New York Law Journal (9 Mar. 2010)
• Retooling Your Contract Process for the Downturn, New York Law Journal (19 Feb. 2009)
• Dysfunctional Drafting, National Law Journal (8 Sep. 2008)
• Merger Pacts: Contract Drafting, Cerberus Litigation, New York Law Journal (19 Feb. 2008)
• Transitioning Your Contract Process from the Artistic to the Industrial, ACC Docket (Dec. 2007) (with Brian Quinn)
• Making Sense of “Shall,” New York Law Journal (18 Oct. 2007)
• What Does “Material” Mean?, Deal Lawyers (Sep.–Oct. 2007) (third article in the issue)
• Behind the Scenes of the Comma Dispute, Globe and Mail (28 Aug. 2007)
• Revisiting Materiality, New York Law Journal (16 Aug. 2007)
• “Wordsmithing,” New York Law Journal (21 June 2007)
• Sending Contracts Offshore, New York Law Journal (19 Apr. 2007)
• Wiki, Anyone?, New York Law Journal (15 Feb. 2007) (on using wikis in the contract-drafting process)
• Revisiting the Ambiguity of “And” and “Or” in Legal Drafting, 80 St. John’s Law Review 1167 (2006) (with Alan S. Kaye) (superseded by what’s in A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting)
• How to Avoid Contractual Train Wrecks, National Law Journal (6. Nov. 2006) (on addressing pre-closing knowledge of inaccurate representations)
• Copyright and the Contract Drafter, New York Law Journal (23 Aug. 2006)
• Understanding “Material Adverse Change” Provisions, M&A Lawyer (June 2006) (see also this blog post)
• Teaching Contract Drafting: The Two Elephants in the Room, 14 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 92 (2006).
• Can Lawyers Be Trained in Contract Drafting?, The Lawyers Weekly (17 Mar. 2006)
• Debunking Urban Legends, New York Law Journal (2 Dec. 2005)
• A Lesson in Contract Drafting: What’s Up with “Representations and Warranties”?, Business Law Today (Nov.–Dec. 2005) (see also this blog post)
• A Legal-Usage Analysis of “Material Adverse Change” Provisions, 10 Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law 9 (2004) (see also this blog post)
• Translating English Language Contracts, Bulletin of the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (Sep.–Oct. 2004)
• Understanding “Best Efforts” and Its Variants, Practical Lawyer (Aug. 2004)
• Drafting a New Day: Who Needs that Recital of Consideration?, Business Law Today (Mar.–Apr. 2003)
• Drafting a Contract, New York Law Journal (27 Sep. 2002)
• Legal Usage in Drafting Corporate Resolutions, Practical Lawyer (Sep. 2002)
• The New New Rules of Drafting (Part One), Michigan Bar Journal (July 2002)
• The New New Rules of Drafting (Part Two), Michigan Bar Journal (Aug. 2002)
• Drafting Matters, New York Law Journal (5 July 2002)