Last week, I gave a contract drafting course to the in-house counsel of a Dutch multinational. The topics of the session included (“without limitation”):
- The vacuous use of and/or
- The rare circumstances in which for the avoidance of doubt serves a proper purpose
- How to refer to numbers in sentences like “One (1) Shareholder will receive 12,000 euro, seven Shareholders will receive one U.S. dollar, and 14 Shareholders will receive 13 million euro” ?
- Archaic legalese such as legal and valid, made and entered into, and in witness whereof
Our discussions were heated and spirited. Legal professionals appear to have their own thoughts about what is supportive or necessary when drafting a clear contract, without ambiguities. Sometimes, this goes against rules of grammar or even aligns with common parlance within an organisation. I doubt whether this is the right approach for contracts.
You will appreciate that I started a LinkedIn group “Drafting contracts“. As a legal professional, you’re welcome to join the group:
Click here to be amongst the first to join!
The group focuses on Contract Drafting only. Share, discuss or observe any aspect related to drafting contracts:
- Model contract clauses
- Best practices of drafting clear and unambiguous contract clauses
- The use of ‘legalese’ or archaic contract language
- Why or when to use certain contract language?
- Legal or practical impact of certain contract clauses
- Comparative (contract) law enquiries
- Cross-border contracting or negotiating
- Checklists for contracts
- (How to) cooperate on model contracts
- The look & feel of a contract
Targeted members are legal professionals (attorneys-at-law, in-house legal counsel). The group drafting contracts is not intended for job inquiries, commercial advertisement or mere hyperlinks to your weblog. This is why we will moderate the group, at least in the beginning.
Tell your colleagues and other legal professionals
Obviously, we like to share and discuss aspects of contract drafting with our colleagues. If you know people who are in to contract drafting, or who like to join, link them into the group! Again:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4036673
