Generally, when I disagree with someone, it’s not over some discrete usage issue. Instead, it’s because they’ve bought into one of the three great misconceptions of contract drafting. You’re already familiar with them, but since I encounter them alarmingly often, I thought I’d take this opportunity to air them again: 1. “Everyone Has Their Own Drafting Style” Just yesterday I … Read More
I’d like to revisit and/or. For the most part, there’s nothing to say about and/or other than (1) A and/or B means A or B or both, (2) and/or can create confusion and be misused, and (3) it’s clearer to use instead the structure A or B or both. Beyond that, I don’t get worked up about and/or, as many … Read More
In case it’s of interest to any readers, this blog was included in the ABA Journal’s 2012 Blawg 100. It’s nice to be noticed; thank you to those readers who saw fit to nominate this blog. Any such “best of” compilation is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, but I think the ABA Journal does a good job. But I won’t be asking … Read More
https://twitter.com/workthebellows/statuses/273608345645105152
Taking up a challenge posed by Brian Rogers, last week I posted a response to this question on Quora. (For more about that, see this post.) That was my first time on Quora; to get a better sense of what it was about, over the next few days I answered some more questions. (To see my answers, go to my … Read More
In this post a year ago I offered a brief review of the second edition of A–Z Guide to Boilerplate and Commercial Clauses, by Mark Anderson and Victor Warner. (Mark is a regular and valued presence in the comments to this blog.) Well, a third edition is now available, and the publisher, Bloomsbury Professional, was kind enough to send me … Read More
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be returning to Asia in spring 2013. With Thomson Reuters, I’ll be doing a one-day seminar in Singapore on 21 February 2013 (go here for the brochure) and in Hong Kong on 5 March 2013 (go here for the brochure). This seminar is entitled “The Essentials of Drafting Clear, Concise & Modern Contracts,” but … Read More
Today’s post on boilerplate reminded me that recently a publisher asked me whether I’d be interested in writing a book on contract boilerplate. I said I would not. For one thing, I have no room in my life for preparing anything on the scale of Tina Stark’s Negotiating and Drafting Contract Boilerplate. But more to the point, the vast majority … Read More
In this post, Brian Rogers explains how, as an experiment in crowdsourcing contract language, he has posted on Quora (here) his candidate for “the best anti-assignment provision in a contract ever.” He says that it’s “probably lifted” from Negotiating and Drafting Contract Boilerplate (Tina Stark ed. 2003) (NDCB). Here’s Brian’s provision: Neither party may assign any of its rights under … Read More
This article by Monica Bay in Law Technology News caught my eye. It describes how D. Casey Flaherty, corporate counsel at Kia Motors, uses an audit program to assess how cost-effective its outside counsel are in handling basic, frequently recurring billable tasks: The firm’s sacrificial lamb associate is asked to perform four mock tasks, that are evaluated by the outside counsel. Examples … Read More
