Sitting in my car after a mediation in Austin last fall, I realized I'd missed a material clause in a settlement draft that cost my client $12,000 in fees.

I caught it right before the final signature because the opposing counsel's paralegal flagged it, and we had to renegotiate for two extra hours while the mediator watched us scramble, has anyone else had a hidden clause nearly slip through?

3 comments

3 Comments

morganhill1mo ago

My legal assistant started color-coding every clause in red before I review now, saves me every time.

oliviagrant1mo ago

Oh, I actually have to jump in on that "saves me every time" part real quick. It's a great system, don't get me wrong, but color-coding clauses in red only works if you've also got a consistent key. Like, what about the other colors? If everything's red, your brain starts tuning it out after a while, same as if nothing was marked at all. You'd be surprised how fast that happens, especially in a long contract. I'd say make sure your assistant is using at least three or four colors for different types of risk, like green for standard stuff, yellow for risky, red for the real traps. Otherwise you might get complacent and miss something that's actually hidden in the red pile.

felix_lane9921h ago

Yeah but @oliviagrant makes a solid point about too much red just becoming noise. If your assistant is flagging everything red, how do you know which clauses actually need your full attention versus the ones that are just going to be standard boilerplate? I've seen teams where every single clause gets highlighted and then nothing stands out anymore. What would you say is the one thing that made your assistant start flagging everything red in the first place?