Quick Corporate Lawyer Tip for Contract Drafting

I've practiced corporate law for over 20 years and I still work on perfecting my craft.

One area of my practice I spend a significant amount of time working on is contract drafting. Language is inherently ambiguous and meaning is always changing. As lawyers, being able to wield language and write better contracts make our lives easier and allows us to deliver a higher quality, more air-tight product to clients.

Non-lawyers refer to lawyer speak as legalese for a reason. Often, contracts and terms are so technically dense that they are difficult to understand. And, sometimes that ambiguity serves a purpose.

However, I challenge you to examine the verbose language in your contracts. I think you'll find, as I have, that contracts are unnecessarily wordy because that's just the way things have always been phrased.

Here's where you can find the book I constantly refer to in my own practice:
A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting by Kenneth Adams

Be sure to leave me your comments, questions or video suggestions!

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Have questions? Book a call, and talk to Brett today:

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Brett A. Cenkus has 20+ years of experience in business law, finance, and entrepreneurship. Through Cenkus Law, PC, he provides advice and services for mergers & acquisitions (M&A), securities offerings, founders’ agreements, and other general business law issues.

Through Braaten Woods, LLC, Brett helps business owners in the lower middle market ($2MM - $25MM) position themselves for sale, find buyers, negotiate, and close M&A deals.

Brett regularly consults with entrepreneurs and invests his own capital as an angel investor.

From 2010-2013, Brett served as Chief Legal Counsel of a publicly-traded international oilfield services company. From 2001 to 2006, he and a partner founded and built Paragon Residential Mortgage. Bridge Investments acquired Paragon in 2006.

Brett holds a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.

Brett lives in Austin with his wife, Cathryn, and two children. He enjoys reading, squash, classic movies, great food and wine, and the New England Patriots.

#corporatelaw #mergersandaquisitions #businesslaw #corporatelawyer

[ajtoce]

I like this tip. Its tempting to hide behind "lawyer speak" when you aren't confident in your writing skills (like me).

[letlotlomache]

Truly don't understand why lawyers still write the way they do. It's hard for clients and even lawyers themselves to make sense of ideas that are being communicated through the thick language used.

[allthingsbee]

Awesome tip! I always look for this too!

[migo]

What about the consumer is there any hope for us?

[migo]

. Who do I go to to help me against Pg&e and a home security system

[RISHIRAJ-xctu]

Pl advise, whether total liability of contract is different than indemnity. If total liability is limited say 10 % of consulting agreement, can we get away from indemnity clause. Can we fix indemnity . It is related to engg consulting and not site construction.