Effective contract drafting

Why choose this skills course

Clear and precise drafting is essential for achieving the client’s purpose, making documents easy to read and avoiding future dispute
This course will also help you meet SRA competence standard B4 (drafting). 
Please note, while we’ll necessarily touch on some legal points, the course focuses on skills and not the law.

What you’ll achieve by attending

You will be able to

• • spot and avoid both common and your own drafting issues
  • assess and use precedent clauses more appropriately
  • draft more clearly and precisely

What we will cover

We vary content and exercises to suit career levels and needs . We also sometimes include pre-course work and homework between sessions.

• • Drafting for the reader and for your purpose
  • Clause structuring
  • Keeping drafting short and simple, including tenses, active and passive voice, syntax and word choice
  • Provisos and exceptions
  • Avoiding over-cross referencing with subject to and notwithstanding
  • Ambiguity and how to avoid it
  • Language of obligation and discretion: shall, will, must and may

Exercises throughout, including deconstructing, analysing and redrafting poorly drafted precedent clauses  as well as practising drafting from scratch. Exercise focus and content varied according to level and needs.