E87 – Contract Drafting Tips with Natasha Costello (Interview)
🗒️ About this episode:
- Do you draft contracts in English?
- Do you know the common mistakes?
- Want some tips to improve?
Get some contract drafting tips in this week’s episode where I interview Natasha Costello. Natasha has over 16 years of experience teaching legal English, she is a qualified solicitor and works as an independent legal English teacher in Paris. She teaches practising lawyers in law firms and law students in universities. You can connect with Natasha on LinkedIn or via email.
*Correction: I mention that Stephen Horowitz had a student who said his professor or boss would be insulted if he wrote in a specific way. Correction – it was not about short sentences. It was about a very explicit writing style. A writer-responsible style rather than a reader-responsible style that leaves more for the reader to infer.
What do you find difficult about contract drafting? Send me an email to Louise@studylegalenglish.com or join in the conversation on social media!
🙏This podcast is free to help people around the world. Please help support me and the podcast with a donation.
📙Episode links
📓 Books mentioned
- Mark Adler, Daphne Perry, Clarity for Lawyers: Effective Legal Language
- Bryan Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English
- Ken Adams, A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting
- Tina Stark, Drafting Contracts: How and Why Lawyers Do What They Do
- Cynthia Adams & Peter Cramer, Drafting Contracts in Legal English* affiliate links.
📝 Further Resources mentioned
- Adobe Legal Department Style Guide
- Model Commercial Leases
- Practical Completion case: B Building Solutions Limited (GB) v SFS Fire Services Limited (t/a Central Fire Protection) (SFS) [2017]
- Natasha Costello, Teaching non-native English speakers to draft contracts with clarity
🥇Learn legal English
- Take a legal English class or course
- Sign up for my site membership
- Buy my book: Practical English Language Skills for Lawyers
- Get italki credit for English classes
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