ABA Home

AdamsDrafting

RSS Feed

This blawg offers tips on contract drafting as well as updates on the blawgger's speaking engagements.

Author: Ken Adams is a consultant to companies seeking to improve their contract drafting, teaches a contract drafting class at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and is the author of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, published by the ABA.

Blawg Related Categories: ContractsUniversity of PennsylvaniaConsultantLaw Professor


Recent Posts from AdamsDrafting

  • Response to a Young Traditionalist

    Hot on the heels of Venkat Balasubramani’s Twitter update reminding me of all those I have yet to convince came a message from one of the unconvinced. The individual in question had watched my first…

  • Contract Drafting as a “Niche” Subject

    Twitter has become a low-key part of my public profile (my Twitter ID is @AdamsDrafting). Links to my new blog posts go out automatically on Twitter; I indulge in the occasional bit of flagrant self-promotion,…

  • “Because” and Causation Issues in Contracts

    Thanks to reader Steven Sholk, I learned that the U.S. Supreme Court recently considered the “ordinary meaning” of the words because of. Here’s how the CCH Workday blog described the issue: Construing this critical preposition…

  • Training Your “Apprentices” in Contract Drafting

    You can find plenty of discussion online, at Above the Law and elsewhere, of the new “apprenticeship” model of first-year-associatedom at a handful of law firms. I suggest that such firms have a choice: either…

  • “Forthwith”—A Quaint Archaism

    Methinks forthwith has as a fusty, moldy air about it. I wasn’t surprised to see it included, along with the likes of hither and mayhap, in this list of quaintly archaic words. But lo and…

  • Questionable Defense of the Month: “I Signed the Contract in the Wrong Place”

    Today the Law Shucks blog posted this item about a former IBM executive, David L. Johnson, who is claiming that his noncompetition agreement with IBM is unenforceable. One element of his defense is that he signed…

  • “Obligate” v. “Oblige”

    In this comment to a previous post, reader Mark Anderson expressed a preference for saying that parties are obliged to do something, rather than obligated. He suggested that use of the verb obligate is the…

  • A Contract-Language French-English “False Friend”

    In the course of considering, for purposes of today’s post on time is of the essence, how contracts are drafted in Quebec, I came across an oddity of the sort that I wouldn’t have expected…

  • Enforceability of “Time Is of the Essence” Provisions in Civil-Law Jurisdictions

    At the 2008 ABA annual meeting I appeared on a panel with Kevin Kyte, partner at the Montreal office of Stikeman Elliott. Kevin’s topic was things to bear in mind when drafting contracts governed by…

  • “Represents, Warrants, Covenants and Agrees”

    I received the following cry of despair from a Canadian reader: I’m preparing a partnership agreement and have been given precedent to work with. Using MSCD, I have spent some time trying to rework the…


Most Read



Latest Featured Blawgs


How to Submit a Blawg

It's really quite easy actually. Just give us the name, URL and RSS feed to the new blawg and we'll add it to the site if it's not already there.

Submit Now!


Return to top