In February of this year, my colleague, Michael Zitelli, and I published a Reed Smith white paper entitled A Guide to Contract Interpretation. The guide includes a brief introduction on our philosophy regarding contract interpretation, a flow chart that illustrates the typical contract-interpretation process, and an outline of excerpts from recent opinions rendered by New York and Delaware courts (which form the basis for the contract-interpretation principles that we set forth in the guide).
The guide was well received, and I'm happy to announce that we've now published an updated version. You can obtain a copy by clicking on the following link:
A Guide to Contract Interpretation
The updated features of the guide include the following:
- our analysis takes into account New York and Delaware court opinions from July 2012 to July 2013, as well as some additional case law;
- added depth to certain sections to provide a more nuanced treatment of how courts approach interpretive issues;
- new sections discussing both interpretive issues and certain types of contracts and contractual provisions that merit special attention; and
- an updated flow chart, which organizes the interpretive concepts in the guide in a linear fashion.
This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.