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Contract Templates: Making a Fresh Start (Feb. 21)

Contract Templates: Making a Fresh Start (Feb. 21)

Contracts have long been drafted by copying, on faith, from precedent contracts and templates of questionable quality and relevance. As a result, mainstream contracts are dysfunctional, in terms of what they say and how they say it.

That dysfunction extends to contract templates maintained by companies. The traditional processes used by companies to create and revise contract templates are inefficient and don’t address the dysfunction. The alternative is making a fresh start—obtaining your contract templates from specialized vendors. This session considers the costs and benefits of making a fresh start, and what your options are.

The speaker for this program, Ken Adams, has made a career out of studying contract dysfunction and how to fix it. He’s joined by Lorne O’Reilly, ACC Global board member, acting as facilitator.

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02/21/2024 at 12:00 PM (EST)  |  Recorded On: 02/21/2024
02/21/2024 at 12:00 PM (EST)  |  Recorded On: 02/21/2024

Kenneth A. Adams

Ken Adams is head of Adams Contracts, which develops automated contract templates. It’s a division of LegalSifter, a company that combines artificial intelligence and expertise to help with the contract process.

Ken occupies a unique position in the field of contracts, in that he’s the only commentator to focus on how to say clearly and concisely in a contract whatever you want to say. Ken’s book A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting has been a best-seller for the American Bar Association since it was published 2004; the fifth edition was published in 2023.

Ken has conducted hundreds of online and in-person Drafting Clearer Contracts presentations internationally, both public and in-house for companies, law firms, and government agencies. He also offers Drafting Clearer Contracts: Masterclass, which is built around eight hour-long weekly sessions.


 
www.adamscontracts.com
www.adamsdrafting.com
www.linkedin.com/in/kaadams/

Lorne O'Reilly (Moderator)

Lead Counsel

Dow Chemical Canada

Lorne is responsible for legal for Dow Chemical in Canada, as well as its announced net-zero megaproject in Canada, and is part of Dow Canada’s leadership team. Prior to Dow, Lorne was a general counsel and business leader for two other Canadian public energy companies. Lorne is a member of the ACC’s global Board of Directors; he is also co-founder and past-President and director of the Association of Corporate Counsel - Alberta Chapter and a member of the ACC Leadership Excellence Counsel. Residing in Calgary, Alberta, Lorne is Chair of the Heritage Park Society Board of Trustees, is a Canadian Advisory Counsel member of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution and a director of the Alberta General Counsel Association. In April 2022 Lorne was honoured with a “Queen’s Counsel” designation in the Province of Alberta. Lorne is recognized on the Legal 500’s GC Powerlist, was a 2016 "Top Ten 30-Something" by the ACC in June 2016 and a finalist "Rising Star" for the 2016 Global Counsel Awards; he is also a judge for the Canadian Law Awards, Lexpert Rising Star Awards, and ACC "Top Ten 30-Something" awards.