Real World Document Drafting®: Starting Out Right
Why Attend?
In today's economy, well-drafted contracts that protect your clients' interests AND lay the groundwork for stable working relationships are more important than ever.
What You Will Learn
Document drafting is as important to the long-term success of a deal as the negotiation of the deal itself. Legal documents not only articulate the terms of the deal, but also can foster business relationships and reduce the risk of future litigation.
Real World Document Drafting: Starting Out Right is a must for attorneys who regularly draft and review contracts. This insightful webcast offers practical advice on the initial considerations and basics of negotiating and drafting any contract, such as:
What questions should be asked at the outset to identify client goals and expectations and the objectives of the deal?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of preparing the first draft?
How can you maintain control of the drafting process?
What precautions should you take when identifying the parties to the deal?
What are the roles of recitals and representations in a contract and how do they differ?
When should you use recitals and when should you limit their use?
In case of ambiguity, how relevant is negotiation history?
What precautions should you take when drafting and using definitions?
How can you draft statements of consideration and contractual performance requirements that limit the risk of future litigation?
This interactive seminar gives you the opportunity to submit questions in advance and/or during the program for discussion by the faculty.
Need CLE credit? This seminar qualifies for 1.5 to 2.0 credit hours, depending on state requirements, in MCLE jurisdictions that accredit live webcasts.
Planning Chair
Marvin Garfinkel is counsel to the Real Estate and Intellectual Property and Information Technology Practice Groups of the Philadelphia office of WolfBlock LLP. An experienced transactional lawyer, Mr. Garfinkel has lectured and chaired courses for ALI-ABA and numerous other organizations. His areas of expertise include real estate law, including financing, defaults and workouts, common interest properties (condominiums, home owner associations, etc.), shopping center and other commercial development and commercial leasing, and business transactions. His intellectual property subspecialties include distribution and licensing relationships and trademarks.
Mr. Garfinkel's extensive writings have been published in legal journals and trade publications. He has advised and served on the editorial boards of a number of legal publications, statutory drafting commissions, and projects, as well as on several Uniform Law drafting and study committees, including those involved in drafting various articles of the UCC. He was an Adviser on several American Law Institute Property Law Restatements. Mr. Garfinkel is the author of the recently published book, Real World Document Drafting: A Dispute-Avoidance Approach(ALI-ABA 2008). For more information about Mr. Garfinkel, visit his website at www.realworlddocs.com.
Also in this series: Real World Document Drafting: Default, Remedies, and Liability Limitation Provisions (November 12, 2008). Click on the "Live Video Webcast" registration link at the top of this page and save 20% when you sign up for both webcasts! Group webcasts are also available at a discount through the registration link above.
Program Schedule
12:00 noon Preliminary Considerations - Understanding the deal and your client's goals and perspective; related documents; preparation of first draft and control of the drafting process; first draft advantages; reasons not to prepare the first draft; sources of forms; use of checklists.
12:15 p.m. Format and Organization of Document - Formal requirements; internal consistency; use of headings; "legalese"; cross-references; document appearance; use of counterparts; hierarchy of handwritten, typed, and printed provisions.
12:25 p.m. Date of Document - Approaches to and dangers of using "as of" or "effective date."
12:30 p.m. Identification of Parties - Cautions.
12:35 p.m. Recitals - How and why to use recitals; legal significance of recitals; recitals distinguished from representations; relation to parol evidence rule and "four corners" rule; reasons to limit the use of recitals.
12:45 p.m. Significance of Negotiation History - Relevance to ambiguities; "forthright negotiatior" principle; United Rentals case; legal significance of deleting provisions during negotiation; use of protective contract provisions.
12:50 p.m. Definitions- Advantages of definitions; disadvantages and use of freestanding v. buried definitions; cautions in use of definitions; choice of word, symbol, or label; boilerplate definitions.
1:10 p.m. Statement of Consideration - Illusory contracts; substantial v. strict performance; subjective v. objective performance standards; doctrine of necessary implication.
1:15 p.m. Questions and Answers
1:15 p.m. Conclusion
Total 60-minute hours of instruction: 1.5; total 50-minute hours: 1.8.
Here's what registrants have said about this course:
"Excellent course! Mr. Garfinkel is extremely knowledgeable. He made a dry subject interesting."
"I have been drafting contracts for over 15 years without the benefit of a course like yours. A course like yours would have saved me a lot of pain along the way."
"Practical and interesting. It should be a required course for all novice commercial lawyers (and for many experienced lawyers, too)."
Times
Eastern 12 noon – 1:30 pm
Central 11 am – 12:30 pm
Mountain 10 am – 11:30 am
Pacific 9 am – 10:30 am
Alaska 8 am - 9:30 am
Hawaii 7 am – 8:30 am
