Drafting Contracts - A Practical Guide to Transactional Practice, authored by Ben L. Fernandez is a brief but comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about drafting contracts from scratch and revising complex form agreements. Ben L. Fernandez currently teaches Legal Drafting to students at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Before he went into teaching, he gained extensive experience practicing in this area. He has densely packed this concise text with valuable practice information, insights and tips.
This latest book on contract drafting contracts covers more topics and has much more practical information than other texts on this subject. Issues discussed include:
- Getting up to Speed (familiarizing yourself with the client's business and interviewing the client to flush out all the terms of the deal)
- Drafting Covenants, Rights, Prohibitions and Descriptions (using "will" or "shall" and "may")
- Avoiding Potentially Ambiguous Words and Phrases (time periods, numbers, misplaced modifiers, indefinite pronoun references)
- Organizing a Contract's Beginning Sections (title, exordium, background, definitions, reps and warranties)
- Organizing Core Covenants and Other Deal Provisions (core covenant, duration, additional provisions)
- Organizing a Contract's Ending Sections (termination, cancellation, boilerplate, testimonium, signature blocks)
- Brainstorming (additional provisions to better protect the client, indemnity, insurance, waivers, liability limits)
- Drafting with Precedent Language and Documents (putting a document together from sample provisions)
- Tailoring Form Documents (revising a complex form document)
- Revising the Other Side's Completed Documents (qualifying language, limiting scope, inserting conditions)
- Negotiating Contract Provisions (preparation, advancing the client's interests without killing the deal)
- Closing the Deal (closing agendas, verifying signature authority)
- Dealing with Ethical Issues in Contract Drafting (revisions to signed documents, unenforceable provisions, notarization after the fact)
- Drafting a Contract Amendment (sample form for amendments)
- Using Computers to Draft Contracts (document assembly programs, on line execution, artificial intelligence)
Drafting Contracts also contains numerous sample contract provisions, as well as helpful charts and checklists, and exercises and sample answers on drafting a contract from scratch and tailoring and revising a complex form agreement.
Drafting Contracts - An Introduction to Transactional Practice by Ben L. Fernandez is an essential guide for any law student or novice attorney interested in contract drafting and transactional practice.