Bryan A. Garner - Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Contracts

More than a style guide, this book gets at core issues in contract drafting, helping you say what you meanclearly, directly, and helpfully. Garners principles strip away the clutter and help the key points shine through. This is essential reading for any lawyer who writes.

Kent Walker

Chief Legal Officer, Google

If the definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple, Garner is the Einstein of legal writing. His plain-English approach to contract drafting is a reminder that too often our profession has it backwardputting archaic jargon and tortured syntax over comprehension and readability. Even the most experienced attorney can learn something from the simple, yet never simplistic, principles of this illuminating new guide.

Bradley J. Butwin

Chair, OMelveny & Myers LLP

New York

Bryan Garner is on a mission: Garners Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Contracts seeks to effect a revolution in transactional drafting. He urges a move away from rote replication of past models, to a considered, practical approach guided by a desire to communicate effectively and avoid costly litigation. Like Garners previous work, the book is an engaging read, full of helpful examples, and an essential resource for anyone who values clarity of written expression.

Philip M. Genty

Everett B. Birch Innovative Teaching Clinical Professor in Professional Responsibility, Columbia Law School New York

I attended Bryan Garners daylong course on advanced legal drafting in the spring of 2002. Its no exaggeration to say that that course changed my entire practice. Not a day goes by that I dont apply the principles I learned then. And Ive read the course manual to tatters. Now comes Garners Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Contracts . Its the book Ive wanted for years. Its the book the legal professional has needed for decades.

William M. Klimon

Member, Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered

Washington, D.C.

At last, a book from Garner on writing contracts. From all evidence, drafting is a subject neglected in law schools and a craft never learned by most lawyers. Here, Garner offers the course and instruction the profession sorely needs. He does for the drafter what he did for the advocate in The Winning Brief : with a multitude of compelling illustrations, he offers lawyers comprehensive, start-to-finish advice on producing better work product for clients. Every lawyerincluding litigators and trial lawyerscan learn a lot from these pages.

Randall Tietjen

Partner, Robins Kaplan LLP

Minneapolis

This is the only book on contract drafting you will ever need. A world-class expert in the language of the law himself, Bryan Garner has read everything anyone else has ever written on contract drafting, assembled all the good ideas in one place, and presented them in an organized fashion. Garner provides numerous examples showing how actual contract provisions can be made clearer and more concise and has enriched the book with scores of quotations from leading experts.

Garner persuasively redirects drafters from the dusty cowpaths seldom encountered outside of contracts on to a fresh, crisp, and direct road easy for lawyer and layperson alike to follow and understand.

George Davidson

Senior Counsel, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP

New York

Bryan Garner, more than anyone else, has taught me that just because youre writing a legal instrument you dont have to talk funny. Here his very first section shows a compelling combination of this lesson with the myriad practical concerns that guide the lawyer toward sound substance as well as clear expression. Know the business. Understand trade practices. Strive for a deal that works for both parties. This is must reading.

Edward H. Cooper

Thomas M. Cooley Professor of Law Emeritus

The University of Michigan Law School

Ann Arbor

Bryan Garner knows his stuff. And he shares it in this book. His advice runs the gamut: from plain-English directives to drafting techniques, usage, and formatting, Garners Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Contracts delivers the goods. If you follow his advice, youll write better contracts, negotiate better deals, and maybejust maybethe world will be a better place.

David Pendarvis

Global General Counsel, ResMed Inc.

San Diego

Kudos to Bryan Garner for this book. It is thoughtful, practical, witty, and highly accessible. The many Not This/But This comparisons are a treasure. Garners Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Contracts will occupy a central place on my credenza, next to Garners other excellent guides.

Henry Morris Jr.

Partner, Arent Fox LLP

Washington, D.C.

Bryan Garner reminds us once again that good grammar is not simply an aesthetic but a legal virtue that every lawyer should practiceand every client should treasure. Ludwig Wittgenstein famously wrote that philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday. So too do legal problems.

Roger Pilon

B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies

Cato Institute

Washington, D.C.

Drafting contracts is an art that is difficult to master and even more challenging to teach. Garners Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Contracts is the best guide I have seen. The blackletter approach and the before-and-after examples provide a gateway to mastering this exacting skill. It is a must read!

Robert C. Berring

Walter Perry Johnson Professor of Law Emeritus

University of California at Berkeley School of Law

Much as he has so skillfully done for courtroom advocacy, Bryan Garner invokes his formidable expertise in language and writingdispensed with wit, humor, logic, and helpful illustrationto bring clarity and common sense to contract drafting. As a trial lawyer, I find this call to my transactional peers particularly compelling: Garners blueprints promise more effective and efficient contract enforcement.

Luke L. Dauchot

Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Chicago

Private contracts can invite sloppy drafting. Unlike statutes, which are public, and legal briefs, which are publicly available, contracts are the exclusive province of parties and their lawyers, who often recycle ancient legal forms. But if a disagreement arises, they must argue before a judge over what they meantand at least one side ends up losing. Garner explains how to draft a clear, meaningful agreement that will capture the parties intent, anticipate potential disagreements up front, and avoid the need for after-the-fact interpretation.

Brian Melendez

Partner, Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Minneapolis

Multiple coats of paint on a door, as Bryan Garner reminds us in his new book on contract drafting, make the door harder to open. And with this new book, he does what he has done for thousands of brief-writing lawyersteach them how to peel the unnecessary from their writing, leaving it shorter and simpler, and with the door to understanding much easier to open.

E. King Poor

Partner, Quarles & Brady LLP

Chicago

As someone who litigates contracts, I have a request: Dont buy this book. Half the cases Ive handled in the last 15 years would not have existed had the parties used the lessons that Bryan Garner lays out. When lawyers apply rigorous techniqueand stop relying on cluttered forms and half-baked historycontracts work as designed. For transaction lawyers, this book is the best business-development investment you will make this year.

Paul J. Kiernan

Partner, Holland & Knight LLP

Washington, D.C.

All successful negotiations end in agreements, which require precision. In this seminal text, Bryan Garner demonstrates how agreements should be written and read. Its an indispensable toolkit for drafting effectively. A practitioner who absorbs the knowledge contained in this book will help clients achieve confidence about their future dealings. The book is essential not just for transactional lawyersbut for all lawyers.