Managing legal complexity

Managing legal complexity

Postby LoveGolf » Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:46 pm

My company is in the middle of creating a bunch of new legal documents for my business -- including stock option plans. I am concerned that our lawyer is creating a doc set too complex for the typical employee to be able to understand without significant legal review (and costs). I want to create the right balance between being legally sound but also be able to manage my business without having employees worry about not understanding what they are signing. What's the best approach for this overall?
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Re: Managing legal complexity

Postby jaber » Sun May 09, 2010 9:29 am

You raise an excellent point. There is a new trend in drafting contracts to be much simpler and clearer (i.e. plain english), don't say things twice, don't use legal jargon, etc etc. While this is a trend, and an evolving form of drafting, only a small percentage of attorney's subscribe to this theory of drafting (some argue that outside attorney's have no financial incentive to do this, and other say that they don't trust this form of drafting)...I think this is the future of contracts (espeically in the IT world) and these contracts should be more trustworthy as a judge/jury will be able to understand them. These agreements should be as sound as the other form of agreement, just written better. So to answer your question, I suggest you find an attorney that can draft the contracts so they can be read and understood by your employees. It is sometimes more expensive, as it takes more work/time, but I find that it is worth it. I do this for my software and IT based clients, as software and IT agreements are often too complex. You can read more about this on my blog http://www.aberlawfirm.com/category/blog/. Some other leaders of this new way of drafting are http://www.adamsdrafting.com

Remember, 'Your contracts are too important to leave only to your lawyers!'

Jeremy Aber
PS: this is not legal advice, but instead general information.
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