How many times does the legal process suck the life out of your deal? Legals are meant to support and work with sales, marketing and procurement. Too often, we hear that legals are more of a barrier to doing business – they sabotage sales. Back in 2011 the Office for
Trying to change embedded behaviours is difficult – it’s hard enough in children, never mind adults! When discussing contracts, do you consider how the terms and processes will affect the users? Do contracts change behaviours? Of course, the contract could just represent what the parties already do. But surely that
At a Constructing Excellence event, I was one of a panel debating the issue of trust in construction. We discussed these themes and challenges: trust from the public: the Grenfell tragedy and inquiry have eroded public trust; there are sector initiatives which may start to rebuild that trust but we
In the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, parties have been burrowing into the depths of their small print like never before. I am not convinced this is the answer. For once, I am NOT alone! The UK government has issued guidance for parties to public sector contracts (PPN 02/2020) and
I have read dozens of academic papers, I am often struck by how they morph into technical jargon and long words. I was told by one lecturer that they have to be impenetrable “it’s what’s expected”! Heck, I even wrote one myself on limits and incentives in letters of intent
Early in 2018 on twitter, plain language expert Dominique Joseph (@clearerworld), Tim Cummins (@tcummins from the IACCM), Ken Adams (@KonciseD) watched closely by Stefania Passera (@StewieKee), asked who was doing a good job of making contracts more user-friendly? Initially, we got side-tracked because Dom had framed her question to ask
I have a thing about creating lovable contracts. After all, contracts help you run your business, which helps you make money, which helps you live the life you love. Hence, contracts should be lovable. In Stefania Passera’s thesis, she says that a standard, ‘design-free’ reactively drafted contract conveys the impression
5 years ago I wrote a post about whether you could trust an employer with your retention. In the light of Carillion’s pending/actual insolvency* (delete according to when you read this), I wanted to clarify the legal position on retention. For simplicity the employer refers to the paying party –
In my column for Construction Manager Magazine, I have provided a series of tips for anyone reading, writing or reviewing construction contracts. What should you do? Use your contracts as tools to help you complete the project, not as an expensive paper-weight [never shove your contracts in a drawer, October
The organisation Clarity is brimming with lovely lawyers and legal consultants fascinated by how we can simplify legal documents and overcome the barriers to changing traditional drafting. After a recent meeting, Cathy Wilcox introduced me to the Pathclearer project, and its developer – Steve Weatherley then Head of Legal at
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