Molesworth self-adjusting thank-you letter: Difference between revisions

And here, in the new world, we find wondrous new applications. We even have a [[law firm]], those collective sparrows of finance, [[Simmons + Simmons]], who stumbled upon the idea but [[Simmons TOBS offensive|executed it so badly]] that, far from solving the problem of negotiating [[tedious]] [[Contract|contracts]], they made it worse.<ref>See the [[Simmons TOBs offensive]]</ref> Let the [[legal starling]]s for ever be [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] to the JC’s [[Charles Darwin|Charlie Darwin]].

Let us say you are about to embark on a “[[project]]” with one of your clients. The project is simple, workaday, its [[purpose]] easily articulated, and it carries an appreciable, but containable, risk of harm — mainly embarrassment, if we are honest<ref>The notion that much of what passes between the legal departments of modern financial institutions is clever, much less [[proprietary]] or sensitive, is one of the great [[canard|canards]] of our age.</ref> — should information passing between the participants in pursuit of it be treated without care.  

Your client’s [[legal department]] sends you a [[confidentiality agreement]]. The [[evolution]] of [[legal technology]] being what it is, you would expect this to be a standardised short form, addressing the four of five points a confi must, you can nod it through so you and your counterpart’s legal departments can be on your respective ways to get on with the far more pressing matters of legal risk which face us in these modern times.

This will oblige you to engage in close combat. You will have to sift through the text looking for buried innuendoes. You will mark it up and send it back, and settle in for a 2 two week pitched battle where you and your client’s legal shell each other with  increasingly improbable hypotheticals justifying the stances you want, respectively, to sustain or resist, in the document.

We know we cannot stop legal eagles in our clients’ employ sending outrageous legal terms. That is their prerogative. You would sooner [[King Cnut|stop the tide washing over your throne]], or nail jelly to the ceiling. What we can instead do is ''accept'' it, as it is, without amendment (barring adding your name and address).  

====What we ''can'' change====

*We agree to keep confidential the non-public information you give us relating to the project. The agreement does not apply to any other information and does not create any other legal obligations between us.

*We accept [[Contractual damages|legal]] and [[equitable remedies]] for ordinary [[breach of contract]]. We will not be otherwise liable to you under this agreement.

*We will only share [[confidential information]] you give us within our organisation on a need to know basis, but may share it with our professional advisers, on whom we will impose an equivalent duty of confidentiality.

*We may disclose information to regulators to the extent it is reasonable to do so. We will not disclose any more than we consider necessary, but will not notify you where we do make such a disclosure.}}

{{sa}}