Contract Drafting That Turns New Lawyers Into Trusted Advisors

Steven Weise | Proskauer Rose LLP

Steve Weise is a partner in Proskauer Rose LLP’s corporate department, practicing in its Los Angeles office. He practices a wide range of commercial law. He spends much of his time on matters arising under the Uniform Commercial Code, especially under Article 9 – Secured Transactions. He is a nationally recognized expert in these matters. Steve is also authoritative on third-party opinion letters and contract law matters, especially online contracting, plain English drafting, contract drafting, and boilerplate. Steve is a member of the Permanent Editorial Board for the Uniform Commercial Code and of the Council of the American Law Institute. For thirty years, Steve has been on many Uniform Commercial Code drafting committees, including the comprehensive revision of UCC Article 9 in 1999 and the 2022 UCC Amendments addressing digital assets as collateral. Steve has been a Lecturer in Law at UCLA Law School, where he taught Uniform Commercial Code – Secured Transactions.

Edwin Smith | Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Ed advises creditors and counter-parties on commercial and insolvency risks in sales, leasing, financing, investment securities, and derivatives and repo-style transactions and has represented parties in major insolvencies. He has been a guest speaker for bar and trade organizations including ALI-CLE, the American Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Insolvency Institute, the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys, the Boston Hedge Fund Group, the Commercial Finance Association, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the Equipment Leasing Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the Risk Management Association, and various local bar associations. Having actively participated as a Uniform Law Commissioner in the drafting of a number of the recent revisions to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), Chambers USA noted he “probably knows as much about UCC as anybody in the country.”

I. How to make the contact terms clear for the intended audience | 1:00pm – 1:30pm

II. How to avoid making common drafting mistakes | 1:30pm – 2:00pm

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

III. How to protect the client through choice-of-law, choice-of-forum, and risk allocation clauses | 2:10pm – 3:10pm