Resource recommendation for contract drafting Forum

[Anonymous User]

Biglaw stub (corp group) here consistently losing confidence in drafting...I have been mostly using the firm's resources to find good samples, but they are sometimes very helpful and other times not. Are there any recommendable books, blogs, or articles to generally improve my drafting skills? Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take any contract drafting class while I was in law school.

[AMTAnLSAT]

I just took contract drafting this semester. The book we used was great. It's "Drafting Contracts: How and Why Lawyers Do What They Do" by Tina L. Stark. Parts I and II of the book were particularly helpful. I learned much more from the book than from the Professor or class, so I don't think you missed out on much!

[LawrenceGazebo]

Biglaw stub (corp group) here consistently losing confidence in drafting...I have been mostly using the firm's resources to find good samples, but they are sometimes very helpful and other times not. Are there any recommendable books, blogs, or articles to generally improve my drafting skills? Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take any contract drafting class while I was in law school.

I don't think a class would be too helpful. I think (1) looking at precedent on your document servers and (2) doing this a bunch are pretty much the only ways you can learn.

[thenewguy]

In addition to the above, it also helps to just pay attention to the comments you get from partners and associates above you instead of just accepting them and moving on to the next thing. Easier said than done when busy.

[pedmidlevel]

I don’t mean to be insulting, but what contact drafting are you doing as a stub? You really should be getting super clear precedent that requires obvious changes at this point.

At least in my practice (and suspect most others) if a stub or first year is freehand drafting, something has gone horribly wrong in how that person understood the assignment and not a lack of drafting skill.

That said, practical law is helpful for understanding what the purpose of various docs are/comments the various parties might want to make.

[PrinterInk]

The Ken Adams blog is good, but it’s probably better if you already know what you’re doing. For example, he thinks people shouldn’t say “represents and warrants” in contracts, which is probably right, but if you actually do it you’ll end up pissing people off and not gaining anything.

Really, though, the best thing is to just try to understand every sentence you read when you’re reviewing a document.

[1styearlateral]

I was intrigued about this Ken Adams blog so I looked it up and read the most recent post on “no-objection-to-jurisdiction” provisions (jurisdiction provisions part 2). I don’t recommend using this blog as a resource for client work product.

[Violet239]

I would recommend Ken Adam’s book, A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, which shows you different ways to draft clauses and the implications of each way - I like the book better than the blog. There is also a website called Law Insider that aggregates provisions from various public contracts if you ever need inspiration on how to structure a provision. Hope that helps.

[wwwcol]

I was intrigued about this Ken Adams blog so I looked it up and read the most recent post on “no-objection-to-jurisdiction” provisions (jurisdiction provisions part 2). I don’t recommend using this blog as a resource for client work product.

Yes, Adams is very thoughtful and probably correct in an academic sense but a lot of his recommendations are more normative about how contracts would be written in an ideal world instead of best practices for the world we actually live in