A contract should read like instructions for building furniture – or an aircraft carrier

This week’s musings on tech contracts … Here’s a proposition: we should NOT seek shorter or simpler contracts where those goals contradict our higher priority: CLARITY. Brevity, simplicity, and clarity overlap, but they’re not the same. Clarity does often lead to shorter and simpler contracts. In fact, good writing itself leads to shorter and simpler […]

Educational videos partnership with Briefly

Tech Contracts Academy and David Tollen have partnered with Adam Stofsky and Briefly Inc. to create a series of short, concise videos, covering contract basics. The videos are a part of Briefly’s contract education video library, a resource that helps educate businesses about contracts. See an example below in this blog post. You can access a selection of […]

Add “Epidemics” to Force Majeure

Some courts won’t enforce a force majeure clause without specifics. They want to see “hurricane” specifically listed as force majeure if you claim a hurricane excuses performance. So heed the coronavirus’ warning and check your standard contracts (and any you’re currently negotiating). Do they list “epidemics”? If not, add it. And while you’re at it, […]

Don’t be a philosopher: Seek the “best option” not what’s “fair”

Some businesspeople and lawyers debate whether proposed contract terms would be fair. I think that’s an unhelpful view of contracts, for two reasons. First, it’s hard or even impossible to define “fair” in contract negotiations. Second, a focus on what’s fair may lead you to reject deals that make economic sense, or to accept deals […]

Interview at ColinSLevy.com

Colin Levy just posted an interview with our founder, David Tollen. Colin is corporate counsel at Salary.com, and he runs a great blog about legal innovation and legal technology, at ColinSLevy.com. Please click here to read the interview!

Don’t Send Write-Protected Contracts

A lot of companies send their partners contract drafts with write-protection: with word processing protections that force the user to track changes through redlining. This tells your partners that you don’t trust them to point out all their contract revisions. Why do that when no one needs write protection to avoid under-cover edits? If your […]