Clarifying Contract Language for Effective Advocacy
Date: May 28, 2025 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Online
Member Price: $159.00
Non-Member Price: $199.00
Section Price: $0.00
Areas of Law: For All Attorneys
Earn up to 3.3 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.
(8/23)
There are many important reasons for putting a contract in writing. One is to memorialize what the parties have agreed upon to prevent future disputes. When drafting contracts, the goal should be to craft every sentence with precision such that only one possible interpretation follows – the interpretation the drafter intends. However, many commonly used phrases may have different meanings to different people.
This program will review that lingo – phrases like “shotgun,” “no shop,” “stand still,” “hot cargo,” and “most favored nation” to delve into the true meaning of these phrases and suggest alternative language that can help attorneys negotiate and draft these contracts with more specificity. Pointed language strengthens contracts and avoids future disputes and with it, expense.
You will leave with concrete tips that you can implement immediately to draft contracts with confidence.
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