The U.S. Supreme Court Cites MSCD
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
1w 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 The post The U.S. Supreme Court Cites MSCD appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
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The Big 12, Colorado, Utah, and Why You Should Steer Clear of “Agrees That”
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
1w 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
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The Big 12, Colorado, Utah, and the Why You Should Steer Clear of “Agrees That”
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
3w 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 the Why You Should Steer Clear of “Agrees That” appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
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A 17th Way to Say “May” With More Words and Less Clearly
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
3w 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 The post A 17th Way to Say “May” With More Words and Less Clearly appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
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The Case for Using “The” with Party-Name Defined Terms That Consist of a Common Noun
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
1M ago
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 the definite article—the Purchaser ... 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
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“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” Gets into Ambiguity of the Part Versus the Whole
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
1M 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
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Using Words and Digits to State Numbers: Once More Unto the Breach
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
1M 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
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The “Categories of Contract Language” Issues to Focus on When You’re Reviewing Contracts
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
1M 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
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Aptos Is the New Default in Microsoft 365: Will That Change the Font You Use for Contracts?
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
2M 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
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Questionable Drafting in a Generative-AI Redline
Adams on Contract Drafting
by Ken Adams
2M 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. This post is about one example of that. Recently the contract-lifecycle-management vendor Agiloft released (to quote this ... Read More The post Questionable Drafting in a Generative-AI Redline appeared first on Adams on Contract Drafting ..read more
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