Easy-To-Read Contracts in the New Economy

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Today’s economy is described as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous - and many of the supporting commercial contracts can be similarly described.  However, there is progress being made in making contracts easy to read.  Instead of contracts being written for attorneys, in ways which only attorneys can comprehend, the shift is towards contracts that users can understand.  Clear contracts create value and reduce the risk of disputes.   Learn how to create this new type of contract – the easy-to-read contract.

Your Benefits of Attending:

  • Explore the flaws and shortcomings with traditional contracts
  • Learn why many contract templates are outdated
  • Identify what is an easy-to-read contract
  • Learn the many benefits of using plain English rather than “Legalese”
  • Learn how to create an easy-to-read contract
  • Understand the contract development team and each member’s role
  • Establish a checklist on how to implement the easy-to-read contract
  • Anticipate the barriers and hurdles in the transition
  • Assess the cost and benefit of making the transition
  • See examples of how poorly drafted contracts resulted in unnecessary litigation
  • See examples of leading practices
  • Receive easy to understand sample boilerplate clauses

Join Jim Bergman and Mark Cohen as they walk you through creating an easy-to-read contract.

  1. Introduction
  2. Summary 00:
  3. Summary - Commercial Contracts 00:02:33
  4. Summary - Writing Contracts 00:03:36
  5. Summary - Understanding Contracts 00:04:10
  6. Summary - Clear Contracts 00:05:47
  7. Summary - New Type Of Contract 00:06:34
  8. Today’s Learning Points - Outdated Contracts 00:17:43
  9. Today’s Learning Points - Easy To Read Contracts 00:20:07
  10. Today’s Learning Points - Benefits of Using Plain English 00:21:35
  11. Today’s Learning Points - Creating A Contract 00:21:52
  12. Today’s Learning Points - Contract Development Team 00:23:05
  13. Review of Contract Law Basics 00:25:18
  14. The Big Picture 00:29:23
  15. Meeting Of The Minds 00:30:01
  16. The Big Picture - Poorly Drafted Documents  00:32:36
  17. Flaws/Shortcomings With Traditional Contracts 00:33:47
  18. Benefits of Easy-to-Read Contracts 00:35:28
  19. Identifying an Easy-to-Read Contract 00:39:14
  20. Readability Statistics 00:41:33
  21. Poorly Drafted Contracts Result in Litigation 00:43:00
  22. Best Practices 00:48:54
  23. Address Dispute Resolution 00:52:38
  24. Ways to Draft a Bad Contract 00:53:27
  25. Common Mistakes 00:55:54
  26. Use Plain English and Avoid 00:57:40
  27. Sample Boilerplate Clauses in Plain English 00:58:44
  28. Sample Boilerplate Clauses in Plain English Cont’d 01:01:20
  29. Sample Boilerplate Clauses in Plain English Cont’d 01:02:38
  30. Sample Boilerplate Clauses in Plain English Cont’d 01:03:35
  31. Sample Boilerplate Clauses in Plain English Cont’d 01:04:05
  32. Action Items - Establish A Checklist On How To Implement The Easy-To-Read Contract 01:05:20
  33. Action Items - Anticipate The Barriers And Hurdles In The Transition 01:13:07
  34. Action Items - Assess The Cost And Benefit Of Making The Transition 01:19:07
  35. Action Items - Look For Examples Of Poorly Drafted Contracts 01:24:15
  36. Action Items - Continue To Search For Examples Of Leading Practices 01:27:22
  37. Action Items - Develop Easy-To-Understand Sample Boilerplate Clauses 01:32:27
  38. Summary 01:36:18
  39. Speaker Contact Information 01:40:52
  40. Presentation Closing 01:41:32
  • Jim Bergman

    Jim Bergman

    Jim is an experienced contracts attorney and procurement professional with international management consulting experience in the procurement field in the USA, UK, Europe, China, India, SE Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia. He has experience working in both the public and private sector on [...]

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  • Mark Cohen

    Mark Cohen

    Mark Cohen has 40 years of experience as a lawyer. He earned a B.A.in Economics at Whitman College and earned his law degree at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He earned an LL.M. Agricultural and Food Law from the University of Arkansas, where he also taught advanced legal writing. His dive [...]

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  • Ambiguity 00:33:14, 00:33:23, 00:44:16, 01:02:55
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) 00:06:04
  • Boilerplate Clause 00:58:44, 01:01:33, 01:32:28
  • Contract 00:03:13, 00:07:00, 00:11:43, 00:17:52, 01:23:16, 01:24:25, 01:28:31
  • Contra Proferentem 00:07:34, 00:11:26
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis 01:21:04, 01:36:48
  • Indemnity 00:46:42, 00:47:06, 00:47:29
  • Legalese 00:22:30, 00:22:39, 00:22:55, 00:49:26
  • Litigation 00:32:41, 00:51:58, 00:53:22, 01:26:23
  • Negotiation 00:20:38
  • Stakeholder Map 01:18:29
  • Stakeholders 01:20:06, 01:20:52
  • Supplier 00:11:49, 01:28:52
  • Value Leakage 00:18:13

Ambiguity: The quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Artificial intelligence is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by humans or animals.

Boilerplate Clause: A boilerplate clause typically follows a standard format and they contain carefully drafted language to ensure the provision will be upheld by the court. It is common for parties to skip over and not read boilerplate clauses which results in them not understanding what they have agreed to.

Contra Proferentem: Contra proferentem, also known as "interpretation against the draftsman", is a doctrine of contractual interpretation providing that, where a promise, agreement or term is ambiguous, the preferred meaning should be the one that works against the interests of the party who provided the wording.

Contract: A written or spoken agreement, especially one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law.

Cost-Benefit Analysis: A cost-benefit analysis is a systematic process that businesses use to analyze which decisions to make and which to forgo. The cost-benefit analyst sums the potential rewards expected from a situation or action and then subtracts the total costs associated with taking that action.

Indemnity: Security or protection against a loss or other financial burden.

Legalese: Legalese informally refers to specialized terminology and phrasing used by those in the legal field and within legal documents. Legalese is notoriously difficult for the public to understand.

Litigation : The process of resolving rights-based disputes through the court system, from filing a law suit through arguments on legal motions, a discovery phase involving formal exchange of information, courtroom trial, and appeal.

Negotiation: The trading deliberations which generally lead to the lowering of prices by the vendors.

Stakeholder Map: Stakeholder mapping is the process of identifying key stakeholders (i.e. individuals or groups with a vested interest in your product or project) and understanding their relationships with each other. This helps you to develop an informed strategy for managing stakeholders throughout the product development process.

Stakeholders: A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors, employees, customers and suppliers.

Supplier: A supplier is an entity that supplies goods and services to another organization. A supplier is usually a manufacturer or a distributor. A distributor buys goods from multiple manufacturers and sells them to its customers. Similar Terms. A supplier is also known as a vendor.

Value Leakage: The difference between the value expected from a contract and the value realized in its implementation during its lifetime.

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This webinar received a total of 2 survey responses. Attendees have given an average rating of 4.1 stars out of a possible 5, reflecting the quality and value of the content presented.

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Reviews From Webinar Survey

Our webinars are crafted to deliver exceptional value and insight to business professionals. Below, you'll find genuine feedback from attendees.

Disa W.
April 11, 2024
3.2 / 5
Webinar Rating:
3.0 Stars
Speaker Rating:
3.5 Stars
Do you have any other comments, questions or concerns?
IMO, the first speaker didn't not start talking about technical information until 25 minutes into the presentation. I was hoping for more specifics I could put into practice, but it was more of a general overview.
Gina J.
April 10, 2024
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I'm a Juris Doctor who speaks legalese. The presenter did a great job of interpreting us lawyers!

Frequently Asked Questions

An easy-to-read contract—also called a plain language contract—is a commercial agreement written to be understood by the business professionals who use it, rather than exclusively by lawyers who draft it. Traditional commercial contracts have evolved over decades of legal practice into dense, jargon-heavy documents filled with archaic Latin phrases, complex sentence structures, and boilerplate provisions that most signatories never fully comprehend. This inaccessibility creates real business risks: parties who do not understand their agreements cannot perform them correctly, and ambiguous language generates costly disputes. Easy-to-read contracts replace legalese with plain English, use clear headings and logical organization, present obligations in straightforward terms, and define key terms at the point of use rather than burying them in a glossary. Leading organizations worldwide are adopting plain language contract standards, recognizing that contracts written for users—not attorneys—create more value through better compliance, faster execution, fewer disputes, and reduced legal costs. The shift requires investment in redesigning templates and training contract development teams, but the cost-benefit analysis consistently favors the transition.
Poorly drafted contracts create compounding risks that can significantly exceed the cost of better contract development. Ambiguity is the most dangerous flaw: when contract language is open to more than one reasonable interpretation, disputes become inevitable, and the doctrine of contra proferentem means courts will interpret ambiguous terms against the party that drafted them. Vague performance obligations allow parties to claim compliance while delivering substandard results, undermining the commercial purpose of the agreement. Outdated boilerplate clauses—copied from templates without review—may include provisions from superseded legal frameworks, contradictory terms, or obligations that were never the intent of either party. Value leakage occurs when parties fail to understand and enforce their contractual rights: a right to audit, a price adjustment mechanism, or a performance penalty that is never exercised because the provision was incomprehensible to the people managing the relationship. Excessive complexity also delays contract execution, as lengthy review cycles slow deal velocity in time-sensitive business environments. Real-world case studies consistently demonstrate that the litigation costs arising from poorly drafted contracts far outweigh the investment that better drafting would have required.
Plain English contracts deliver concrete, measurable benefits at every stage of the contract lifecycle. During negotiation, accessible language accelerates agreement because business stakeholders can evaluate terms directly rather than depending entirely on legal intermediaries—reducing review cycles and time-to-signature. During performance, parties who understand their obligations fulfill them more accurately, reducing the unintentional non-compliance that generates most contract disputes. In supplier relationships, clear performance expectations enable more effective supplier management: when both parties understand exactly what constitutes acceptable performance, feedback conversations are more productive and accountability is easier to maintain. Dispute resolution is faster and less expensive when contract language is clear, because the range of plausible interpretations is narrower and litigation over meaning is less likely. Risk management improves when professionals managing contracts can identify and act on their rights—termination triggers, price escalation provisions, audit rights—rather than missing them in dense legal text. From a relationship standpoint, plain language contracts signal mutual respect and good faith between contracting parties, setting a more collaborative tone for the working relationship that follows execution.
Creating effective plain language contracts requires a cross-functional development team because contracts serve multiple organizational functions simultaneously—legal compliance, commercial operationalization, risk management, and relationship governance. The core team typically includes legal counsel, who ensures the contract is legally sound and enforceable; procurement or contract management professionals, who ensure the commercial terms reflect actual business requirements; subject matter experts from operations, finance, or IT, who verify that technical obligations are accurately described and achievable; and a plain language or communication specialist, who reviews drafts for readability and clarity. For template development projects, input from the relationship managers and account teams who will actually use the contracts is invaluable—they identify the provisions that create the most friction and misunderstanding in practice. Involving a stakeholder map to identify all parties who will interact with a contract—from the executive who signs it to the procurement officer who manages it day-to-day—ensures the document serves the needs of its actual users rather than existing solely as a legal protection artifact. Successful easy-to-read contract programs also require organizational change management: overcoming resistance from legal professionals accustomed to traditional contract formats and training contract users on how to interpret and apply the new documents.
Transitioning to plain language contracts is a significant change management initiative that requires a phased, structured approach to manage risk effectively. The process begins with a gap analysis: reviewing current contract templates to identify the provisions that are most ambiguous, most misunderstood, or most frequently the source of disputes. Priority redesign efforts should focus on these high-impact areas. A readability analysis—using standard metrics to assess reading level and sentence complexity—provides an objective baseline and improvement targets. Pilot testing new templates on lower-stakes transactions before full rollout allows organizations to identify unintended consequences and refine language before enterprise-wide deployment. Anticipating barriers is critical: legal teams may resist changes to established language out of concern that novel formulations are legally untested, while counterparties accustomed to traditional contract formats may view plain language templates with suspicion. Building an internal library of precedent—documenting how plain language provisions have been interpreted and enforced—addresses the untested language concern over time. A cost-benefit analysis that quantifies current dispute costs, legal review hours, and execution delays against the investment required for redesign makes the business case for transition concrete and compelling to organizational decision-makers.