A working method for statutory reading: start with the extent and commencement provisions, map definitions, find the operative core, then the teeth. With UCTA 1977 as the worked example.
How to read a statute (without drowning)
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INSIGHTS · LEASES · CONTRACTS · LEGAL AI
Contract and lease insights
Practical, jurisdiction-specific writing on the documents people actually sign — commercial leases, NDAs, employment and services contracts — and on where AI genuinely helps, and where it has to be checked.
The NDA you’re about to sign: seven problems worth ten minutes
Perpetual confidentiality, missing carve-outs, one-way obligations and residuals clauses: what a good NDA looks like, and the four defects that appear in most of the ones that cross our desk.
Commercial Lease Review: What to Check Before You Sign (and Who Should Check It)
What a commercial lease review covers, the clauses that vary by jurisdiction, and when you need a solicitor vs. an AI review. Ten-point checklist inside.
In Delaware, what you sign is what binds you
Delaware courts enforce unambiguous contracts as written — and anti-reliance clauses mean the email promises that never made it into the document may not save you. Osborn v Kemp, Abry Partners, and what they mean for your next signature.
Five clauses that quietly ruin freelance and agency contracts
IP clauses that take your pre-existing tools, uncapped indemnities against a token liability cap, 90-day payment terms, one-sided termination and over-broad non-competes: the five recurring traps in MSAs and services agreements.
Canada’s good-faith revolution: why ‘we can terminate for any reason’ isn’t the whole story
Bhasin, Callow and Wastech changed Canadian contract law: every contract carries a duty of honest performance, and even unfettered discretion must be exercised reasonably. Plus the Interest Act trap hiding in your late-payment clause.
Five clauses to check before you sign a commercial lease in England
Repair covenants, service charges, break clauses, alienation and security of tenure: the five places where English commercial leases quietly transfer risk to tenants — and what to ask for instead.
Is your Victorian retail lease partly void? The clauses the Act strikes out
In Victoria, the Retail Leases Act 2003 overrides your lease: ratchet clauses are void, land tax can’t be passed to you, and short terms trigger a statutory minimum. Here’s how to check yours.
A Scottish lease is not an English lease: five traps for the unwary
Irritancy instead of forfeiture, automatic renewal by tacit relocation, real rights from 1449, and no LTA 1954: why English assumptions fail in Scotland — and how to spot English boilerplate in a Scottish lease.
The case that didn’t exist: why citation integrity is everything in legal AI
Lawyers have been sanctioned for filing AI-invented cases. Here’s why chatbots fabricate citations, why it matters more in law than anywhere else, and the engineering approach we take instead.
How to write a case brief (and where AI genuinely helps)
A practical case-brief method — facts, issues, holding, ratio, reasoning — with a worked structure, common mistakes, and an honest take on what AI should and shouldn’t do in your study workflow.