87: Contract Drafting Tips with Natasha Costello (Interview)

🗒️ About this episode:

• Do you draft contracts in English?
• Do you know the common mistakes?
• Want some tips to improve?

Get some contract drafting tips in this week's episode where I interview Natasha Costello.  Natasha has over 16 years of experience teaching legal English, she is a qualified solicitor and works as an independent legal English teacher in Paris. She teaches practising lawyers in law firms and law students in universities. You can connect with Natasha on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ or via ⁠email⁠.

*Correction: I mention that Stephen Horowitz had a student who said his professor or boss would be insulted if he wrote in a specific way. Correction - it was not about short sentences. It was about a very explicit writing style. A writer-responsible style rather than a reader-responsible style that leaves more for the reader to infer.

What do you find difficult about contract drafting? Send me an email to ⁠[email protected]⁠ or join in the conversation on social media!

🙏This podcast is free to help people around the world. Please help support me and the podcast with a donation⁠.

📙Episode links

• Website page

📓 Books mentioned

• Mark Adler, Daphne Perry, ⁠⁠Clarity for Lawyers: Effective Legal Language⁠⁠
• Bryan Garner, ⁠⁠Legal Writing in Plain English⁠⁠
• Ken Adams, ⁠⁠A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting⁠⁠
• Tina Stark, ⁠⁠Drafting Contracts: How and Why Lawyers Do What They Do⁠⁠
• Cynthia Adams & Peter Cramer, ⁠⁠Drafting Contracts in Legal English⁠⁠* affiliate links.

📝 Further Resources mentioned

• ⁠⁠Adobe Legal Department Style Guide⁠⁠
• Model Commercial Leases⁠⁠
• Practical Completion case: B Building Solutions Limited (GB) v SFS Fire Services Limited (t/a Central Fire Protection) (SFS) [2017]⁠⁠
• Natasha Costello, ⁠⁠Teaching non-native English speakers to draft contracts with clarity⁠⁠

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