Document Type

Article

Abstract

This Article explores the contract drafting and review process of attorneys from a cognitive and social science perspective. Based on an understanding of the behavioral tendencies of individual attorneys as impacted by cognitive bias, moral hazard, and situational pressure, the drafting attorney may be able to secure particular transactional advantages for her client. For example, the anchoring effect, which suggests that individuals are affected by the presence by an initial value position, may explain why drafters should and do include extreme positions in their initial draft. Similarly, time pressure may affect an attorney's review of a contract, which a drafting attorney can anticipate and exploit to her advantage by increasing contract length and complexity. The drafting attorney can also seek to take advantage of particular moral hazards that the reviewing attorney faces when representing clients, such as when the reviewing attorney is compensated on a per-transaction basis or would like to appease the client and avoid disrupting a transaction. Understanding the cognitive processes and situational influences helps explain or predict particular patterns of contracting behavior. These factors suggest significant limitations in the attorney as an effective tool in checking oppor unistic behavior, both prior to and after contract formation, and undermine a positive model of the transactional attorney as a value-adding transaction cost engineer.

Disciplines

Contracts

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Contracts Commons

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