Years ago a wrote briefly about contract-lifecycle-management (CLM) software, which is software that allows an organization to keep track of its contracts and key contract information, such as deadlines. See for example this 2007 post. Apttus and Emptoris are just two examples of CLM software. But I’ve never had any direct experience with CLM software, and I’ve had only brief conversations … Read More
I recently came across this blog post on Clio’s website. Clio is software that handles time and billing, calendaring, and collaboration, but this blog post is about something else—how law firms can use “commercial legal forms.” It suggests three possible uses: You can copy them. You can resell them. Or you can create and sell your own. Here’s my take … Read More
Via this post by Tim Cummins, I learned of this article in the National Law Journal by Mark Harris, chief executive officer of Axiom, “a provider of technology-enabled legal services” (to quote the author note). In the article, Mark describes the costs and risks of an improvised approach to managing the contract process. He then proposes an alternative, offering as an example steps taken by … Read More
I noted with interest this article in the New Yorker by James Surowiecki. It’s about how a focus on incremental gains, in sports and elsewhere, has led to a “performance revolution.” It begins by describing how a “technological and analytical arms race is producing the best athletes in history,” but it goes on to describe similarly dramatic improvements in performance … Read More
This from a reader who is director of legal services at a global company: The problem with a full commitment to adopting MSCD is that it takes a lot of work to get good at it. I’ve spent a lot of time with it—I even outlined, law-school style, the chapter on categories of contract language, to use as a cheat … Read More
I suspect that I don’t read contracts like other folks. When I’m in let’s-analyze-contract-usages mode, I trawl through contracts looking at how drafters express a given meaning. When I’m working on templates, I mine the client’s current templates looking for what to adjust and what to replace. That’s different from reading a draft prepared by someone on your side of the transaction, … Read More
I wrote here about Shake, the app that allows you to “Create, sign and send legally binding agreements in seconds.” But this post isn’t about Shake. Instead, it’s about the following extract from this post about Shake for Android: Obviously, more templates would help. You could probably find quite a few recent law grads who are desperate for work who … Read More
This summer I had the following exchange on Twitter with @DevonMSmiley: Having a spot of contract drafting writer's block…anyone have tips for how to break through it? — Devon Smiley (@DevonMSmiley) July 10, 2014 @KonciseD For me, it's having concepts and key words, but nothing is gelling into real language. But I do love the challenge! — Devon Smiley (@DevonMSmiley) … Read More
In previous years, I’ve occasionally moaned on this blog about how I wasn’t getting as many drafting projects as I thought I should. Well, I’m doing more of everything these days, and that includes drafting projects. In case anyone’s interested, let me tell you about a representative project that I worked on this month. I was contacted by the general counsel … Read More
This week I received the following message from lawyer Tim Gilmore: I’ve been following you several years. You’re on the right track. But I’m frustrated. Ten years ago I was happier, in denial, comfortable with the conventional wisdom that legalese is court-tested and plain language is dangerous. Then largely thanks to you and a few others, I opened Pandora’s Box. Now I’m stuck … Read More
