The image below is from my repost of a LinkedIn post by Chris Lemens, who has been reading my stuff for as long as I have written stuff. What prompted my repost was two comments Chris added to this LinkedIn post by Nada Alnajafi: So Chris makes it explicit—the simplest way to demonstrate your value to Chris would be to ... Read More| Adams on Contract Drafting
The next Drafting Clearer Contracts presentation is on 23 and 24 July 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. Eastern Time (US). Go here for more information Why should you consider registering? Because as I explain in this 2024 blog post, you cannot be an informed consumer of contract language without consulting my book A Manual of Style for Contract ... Read More The post The Next “Drafting Clearer Contracts” Presentation Is on 23 and 24 July 2025 appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting.| Adams on Contract Drafting
In a previous blog post (here), I offer thoughts on a law review article, Tara Chowdhury, Faith Chudkowski & Mitu Gulati, The Form Knows Best, 79 U. of Miami L. Rev. 607 (2025). The same issue of that law review contains Glenn West’s response to that article—The Form Doesn’t Know Anything: A Response to Chowdhury, Chudkowski & Gulati, 79 U. ... Read More The post Lawyers Pay Attention to Caselaw, Unless They Don’t: A Thought Prompted by Glenn West’s Response to Chowdhury, Chudkowski...| Adams on Contract Drafting
One of my corporate partners, Thomson Reuters Asia, is contemplating something old-fashioned—having me do Drafting Clearer Contracts presentations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, and Mumbai (details below). Yes—really. I offer Drafting Clearer Contracts training online, but in-person presentations can be more fun. But my contact at TR tells me that some potential participants have suggested there’s no point. ... Read More| Adams on Contract Drafting
In a LinkedIn post, I challenged readers to find for me a contract that used shall be or will be in creating an autonomous definition. I wasn’t surprised that I was the only entrant in that thrilling competition. I submitted the following example: Using shall be in this context is as unhelpful as using is. That’s something I discuss in ... Read More The post It’s Never Good to Use “Shall Be” in an Autonomous Definition appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting.| Adams on Contract Drafting
My notion of offering an on-demand module of my Drafting Clearer Contracts training is slowly shifting from a gleam in my eye to reality. Videos and Quizzes This module will consist of 200+ short videos, some proportion of them accompanied by automated quizzes. The foundation of Drafting Clearer Contracts training is my book A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. ... Read More The post On-Demand “Drafting Clearer Contracts” Training: Sign Up for News! appeared first on Adams on Contract...| Adams on Contract Drafting
Recently I encountered this law review article: Tara Chowdhury, Faith Chudkowski & Mitu Gulati, The Form Knows Best, 79 U. of Miami L. Rev. 607 (2025). In this post, I explain two quibbles. I also suggest that the reality the authors describe is better explained by copy-and-pasting, as opposed to being driven by forms. The Article In their article, Chowdhury, ... Read More The post The Form Is Copy-and-Pasted, and So Is Everything Else: Thoughts Prompted by Chowdhury, Chudkowski & Gulati appe...| Adams on Contract Drafting
The image below contains the text of an email message I received from a law student yesterday. In case it’s of interest, here’s how I responded: Hi [Name]. Fortunate is the author who gets this sort of message from a reader! Now that you’re on the road to being an informed consumer of contract language, I offer the following suggestions: ... Read More| Adams on Contract Drafting
Glenn West has been pumping out articles so fast that I haven’t kept up. I’ve started looking at the backlog; if I have anything to add, I’ll do so. That’s what I’m doing now, because this post was inspired by Glenn’s article Transactional Lawyering as an Art: When Saying Less Is More Than Enough, Business Law Today (11 Feb. 2025). ... Read More| Adams on Contract Drafting
If a contract usage has been around long enough and appears in enough contracts, you’ll find people to defend it, no matter how archaic or otherwise nonsensical it is. A case in point: yesterday Ryan McCarl did this LinkedIn post about the word witnesseth, calling it a “meaningless incantation.” That prompted one reader to say this (in two comments I’ve ... Read More The post The Legalistic Mind Can Rationalize Anything appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting.| Adams on Contract Drafting
Today, thanks to a tweet by @360venturelaw, I stumbled upon a blog post entitled “Famous Last Words: ‘The Shorter the Better.'” It’s by Mike Stanczyk, a corporate attorney based in Syracuse, New York. It’s a sensible post, but Mike wraps it up with the following point: In closing I will say that when possible I prefer and do use “plain English” agreements. However, its ... Read More| Adams on Contract Drafting