12 Rookie Blunders Good Lawyers Make in Drafting Contracts
Date: Jun 26, 2024 9:00 a.m. – 12:35 p.m.
Location: Online
Member Price: $177
Non-Member Price: $209
Areas of Law: For All Attorneys
Earn up to 4 credits! (More Information)
Keynote
Moderator
Presenters
- Lenné Eidson Espenschied
- Lenne Espenschied Continuing Legal Education, Atlantais a national speaker from Atlanta, Georgia, who has trained thousands of lawyers in the U.S. and Canada in the art of contract drafting through continuing legal education seminars for bar associations, law firms and corporate legal departments. Her passion is helping new lawyers acquire the skills they need to be successful in transactional practice.
Ms. Espenschied practiced law in Atlanta, Georgia for 25 years, and focused on technology and intellectual property matters. She began her legal practice with the firm now known as Eversheds Sutherland and eventually worked as senior counsel in the legal department of Bank of America. Prior to attending law school she was a Certified Public Accountant at Ernst & Young, where she audited Fortune 500 companies and assisted in preparing financial statements and reports for shareholders.
Ms. Espenschied is the author of two books published by the American Bar Association: Contract Drafting: Powerful Prose in Transactional Practice (ABA Fundamentals, 3rd Ed., 2019) and The Grammar and Writing Handbook for Lawyers (ABA Fundamentals, 2011). She was a Professor at Charlotte School of Law and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, and taught commercial law, contracts and contract drafting. She is also a contributing faculty member at Thomson/Reuter’s West Legal Ed Center.
Ms. Espenschied received her B.B.A., with high honors, from the University of Georgia and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law, where she served on the Editorial Board of Georgia Law Review and was a member of Order of the Coif. She also won a prestigious award as a teaching assistant in the UGA Terry College of Business.
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Who taught you the best practices for drafting a contract, how to analyze a complicated provision, and how to protect your client? When you review a contract, are you confident that you know what to look for? Have you missed anything?
The truth is that, when it comes to reviewing and drafting contracts, most of us are "winging it," so, predictably, many contracts are plagued with embarrassing rookie blunders. This Rookie Blunders program is packed with brand new content you should know about:
- organizing contracts to prevent contextual ambiguity;
- analyzing a complex provision;
- correcting flawed definitions
- describing mathematical calculations;
- creating specific legal consequences;
- spotting and fixing ambiguous sentences; and
- avoiding phrasing traps, and much more.
Using examples drawn from recent high-profile transactions, you’ll learn to identify 12 specific blunders that unfortunately, are common in drafting today, and how to prevent them. You’ll be able to apply these practical techniques to all kinds of contracts, including mergers and acquisitions, sales of goods and services, licenses, real estate, settlement agreements, employment and consulting agreements, partnership agreements, and more. Whatever your current level of experience in drafting contracts, you'll learn to enhance your drafting skills, to avoid embarrassing blunders, to improve the overall quality of your work, and to draft more confidently.
Lenné Eidson Espenschied has earned her status as one of the top two contract drafting speakers in the country by continually striving for excellence and providing innovative, practical skills-based training for transactional lawyers. She practiced law in Atlanta, Georgia for 25 years, focusing on corporate and transactional representation of technology-based businesses. She is the author of two books published by the American Bar Association: Contract Drafting: Powerful Prose in Transactional Practice (ABA Fundamentals, 3rd Ed. 2019) and The Grammar and Writing Handbook for Lawyers (ABA Fundamentals, 2011). After graduating from the University of Georgia School of Law magna cum laude, Ms. Espenschied began her legal practice at a large international law firm; she also served as Senior Counsel in the legal department of Bank of America before eventually opening her own law office. As a law professor, Ms. Espenschied taught commercial law, contracts, and contract drafting. Her passion is helping lawyers acquire the skills they need to be successful in transactional practice.
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