Articles

Contracts and Cupcakes

What do contracts have to do with cupcakes? Well, nothing really. But CUPCAKE defines the elements of a well-written contract. It should be: Clear, Understandable, Precise, Comprehensive, Authoritative, Keepable, and Enforceable. To be more specific: Clear means that, for each sentence and each section of the contract, what you think it means, what the other…

Articles

WIN-LOSE, WIN-WIN, AND ALTERNATIVES

It’s often pointed out that it’s unproductive to deal with conflict as a win-or-lose matter, as happens in litigation. Win-lose approaches often (maybe usually) lead to lose-lose results. There are some true zero-sum situations where my winning necessarily requires your losing (i.e., where “I win” and “you lose” mean exactly the same thing), but they…