3. • Big
• Commercial
• International
• Convinced plain language is good for our clients.
Denton Wilde Sapte
4. Client feedback
“Ambiguity costs my company
money. Counterparties will exploit
it. We only want the minimum
ambiguity that lets you move on in
negotiations.”
5. Clients whose customers
demand plain language
“Plain language is very important
to our organisation. All our
policies have the Plain English
stamp and that is what we try to
achieve in our bespoke
contracts.”
6. International business
“We deal with clients all over the world.
For some, English is very much a second
language – it can be quite challenging.”
“I try and write things plainly, knowing that
at some point on the circulation list there
will be a reader whose first language isn’t
English.”
7. In-house lawyers
“A big part of our job is
summarising. Presenting
something to us that takes the
minimum amount of work to
present to the business people -
that gets our vote.”
8. More client feedback
“I like Denton Wilde Sapte
because there must be someone
beating you up to make your
advice understandable.”
13. Legal issues
(from another law firm in the UK top 100)
Without prejudice to any other right or remedy we may have,
we reserve the right to set off any amount owing at any time
by you to us, whether under this Agreement or any other
agreement which may exist from time to time between us,
against any amount payable by you to us under this Agreement.
(56 words)
14. Legal issues
Without prejudice to any other right or remedy we may have,
we reserve the right to set off any amount owing at any time
by you to us, whether under this Agreement or any other
agreement which may exist from time to time between us,
against any amount payable by you to us under this
Agreement.
16. Setting standards
• Average sentence length
maximum 20 words
• Passive verbs
maximum 30% - but 10% would have been more helpful
• Total style points measured by StyleWriter software
maximum 40 in every 100 sentences.
19. Measuring success
Before
Time shall be of the essence as regards the times and
dates referred to in Clause ** and as regards any times
and dates which may be substituted for them by
agreement between the parties.
34 words, Style index 88 (Poor)
20. Measuring success
After
The times and dates referred to in Clause **, and any
agreed substitutes, are of the essence of this Agreement.
19 words, Style index 0 (Excellent)
