Take aways

This one-day seminar is meant to help Scandinavian lawyers draft better contracts in English. By the end of the seminar, the participants should be able to recognise clumsily drafted terms and confidently rewrite them into clear, simple English.

Content

According to the Anglo Saxon bar associations and judiciary, modern English languaged contracts should be as plain, as clear and as concise as possible – Kevin Harris, the owner of Acon English Consultants, will help you master this.
The seminar is inspired by Kenneth Adams’ definitive contract drafting guide (A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting). Taking this course requires that you are already comfortable with high-level English.
 

Topics are

• Modal verbs in contracts – choosing the right modal verb to achieve the aim of the clause - and avoiding the wrong one 
• Vagueness and ambiguity – how to use vagueness, and how to avoid ambiguity 
• Avoiding wordiness – saying what you want to say as quickly as possible, and not unnecessarily repeating synonyms 
• Avoiding archaic words and phrases, and replacing them with modern legal/business English, so the users of the contract can actually understand it 
• Typical mistakes made by Scandinavian contract drafters 

 

Target group 

The material is challenging, and participants should already be comfortable with high-level English as used in English contracts. This is a seminar on contract drafting, not contract law: The emphasis is entirely on the language of the contract – not the law.

Material

The course material will include the general principles and best practices of Legal Project Management as well as some checklists and templates. It will be provided online via JUC´s portal.