Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
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Focuses on contractual law, legal provisions, drafting and litigation. Ken Adams is a chief content officer of LegalSifter, Inc a company that combines artificial intelligence and expertise to assist with review of contracts.
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
1M ago
In this post from last November, I noted that the U.S. Solicitor General had cited A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting in their brief in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving a dispute over an and, Pulsifer v. U.S. Well, two days ago the other shoe dropped: in their opinion in that case (here), the U.S. Supreme ... Read More
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Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
1M ago
College American football and I had been total strangers. But just today, we were introduced by longtime reader Chris Lemens, who sent me a link to this Substack post about how the Big 12 Conference (a collection of college sports teams that play competitively against each other) signed deals with the University of Colorado and the University of Utah. Uh, ... Read More
The post The Big 12, Colorado, Utah, and Why You Should Steer Clear of “Agrees That” appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
1M ago
In chapter 3 (Categories of Contract Language) of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, table 3 (Language of Discretion: May) showcases 16 ways to say may with more words and less clearly. Friends, it’s time to introduce you to a 17th way. It’s in the extract in the image above: has the option to. It’s from a consulting agreement ... Read More
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Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
1M ago
[Updated 23 February 2024] Some people feel strongly that one shouldn’t use the article the with party-name defined terms that consist of a common noun. In other words, say Company, not the Company. Here’s what I say about that in A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting: If the defined term for a party name is a common noun, use ... Read More
The post The Case for Using “The” with Party-Name Defined Terms That Consist of a Common Noun appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
2M ago
With my wife, Joanne, traveling, I was left to my own devices for a couple of days. The only mischief I got up to was experimenting briefly with low-calorie pizza (not to be repeated) and watching a new limited series on Prime Video, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. I found Mr. & Mrs. Smith diverting, mostly because I find Donald Glover ... Read More
The post “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” Gets into Ambiguity of the Part Versus the Whole appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
2M ago
Yesterday, Lyft issued an outlook mistakenly projecting that its margins would increase by 500 basis points. That was quickly corrected to 50 basis points. (Go here for a Bloomberg item about that.) That mistake prompted lawyer Pat Wallen to do this LinkedIn post about it. I’ve written plenty on this topic, but given the interest generated by Pat’s post, I’ll ... Read More
The post Using Words and Digits to State Numbers: Once More Unto the Breach appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
2M ago
Yesterday, during session 3 of a private series of Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass, we spent almost an hour considering, and coming up with alternatives to, suboptimal verb structures in a set of big-company standard terms. A participant then suggested it wouldn’t be feasible to engage in that sort of surgery when reviewing the endless stream of counterparty draft contracts sent ... Read More
The post The “Categories of Contract Language” Issues to Focus on When You’re Reviewing Contracts appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
3M ago
I learned more than a year ago that Microsoft would be changing the default font in Microsoft 365, and Microsoft announced the change in July 2023 (here), but the change made its way to me only yesterday: the new default font is … Aptos. Here’s what I say in the fifth edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting: ... Read More
The post Aptos Is the New Default in Microsoft 365: Will That Change the Font You Use for Contracts? appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
3M ago
I’ve written previously about conceptual shortcomings in relying on generative artificial intelligence to mark changes in the other side’s draft, commonly known as “redlining” (see this blog post and this blog post). Now, let’s look at a more basic problem: erratic drafting choices. One problem with AI redlining is that it might reflect suboptimal drafting. I snagged from a LegalTech ... Read More
The post Questionable Drafting in a Generative-AI Redline appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
Adams on Contract Drafting Blog
3M ago
I’ve been saying this for a while, as an aside in various writings, but I might as well shout it from the rooftops: You cannot be an informed consumer (or producer) of contract language without consulting A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. That’s because MSCD is the only work that offers a comprehensive set of guidelines for the building ... Read More
The post You Cannot Be an Informed Consumer of Contract Language Without Consulting “A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting” appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more