The BUSKLAW Newsletter

  Children's literature can provide unique insights into best practices and procedures related to my legal specialty: business and technology contracts. Consider Bilbo Baggins's frustration when faced with a contract rife with legal jargon in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, a subject that my colleague Michael Braem and I wrote about here . Or how about using Lewis Carroll's  Alice in Wonderland  to discuss - and refute - curious excuses for legal jargon in this Michigan Bar Journal article . And in J.M. Barrie's  Peter Pan , we hear Peter accuse the ineffectual Captain Hook of being a codfish, causing the old pirate Smee to consider if the brigands have been captained by a codfish, adding "it's lowerin' to our pride." Let's talk about leadership in the context of organizational contract management. In my experience, many companies - large and small - don't grasp the importance of the careful and continuous tending of their contracts. They are ...

I've been practicing corporate law for 40 years. And I've been privileged to work with many talented business people. One of the most talented was the late Fred Meijer , who always wanted his legal team to not only be good lawyers but also to protect the company by searching out business gaps - and filling them.  So, partnering with my Meijer business clients, that's what I did, and that's what I'm still doing for other companies.  But some companies suffer from dysfunctional contracting. In my experience, the following failed business practices are common in the business world:  1.      Poor Contract Management and Retention. Does your company have a single point of contact for your contracts? In smaller firms, this could be your CFO. This person should double as your records retention officer who should be charged with the maintenance and enforcement of a corporate records retention manual. Why do you need a records retention manual? Because without ...