Why choose this skills course?

Clear and precise drafting is essential, to achieve clients’ objectives, to make documents easy to understand, and to avoid future disputes between the parties and claims against your firm. 
This course will help you to meet the SRA competence standard on drafting, both when dealing with precedents and when drafting from scratch. 

What will you 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

 To further develop your skills, we will give you a set of best-practice guidelines with a checklist for use in the office.

What will we cover?

• • Drafting for the reader and for your purpose
  • Structuring clauses
  • Ensuring completeness of content and language
  • Keeping drafting short and simple, including tenses, active and passive voice, syntax, and word choice
  • Dealing with provisos and exceptions
  • Minimising cross-referencing with subject to and notwithstanding
  • Recognising and avoiding ambiguity 
  • Choosing language of obligation and discretion: shall, will, must and may

What exercises will you do? 

You will complete exercises throughout, to draw out best-practice guidelines and to practise drafting with the benefit of trainer monitoring and group feedback.
Exercises will include deconstructing, analysing and redrafting poorly drafted precedent clauses; and drafting from scratch.