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Effective Drafting for Employment Settlement Agreements

July 1, 2017

In a litigation era where only a small percentage of civil cases proceed to trial and the vast majority are settled, the ability to efficiently negotiate and draft settlement agreements that work for both parties is an important skill for employment practitioners. Many experienced litigators spend disproportionate amounts of time on clauses to settlement agreements that add little or no value for their clients. The result is lengthy, convoluted, and unnecessarily complex agreements that many clients without a legal background struggle to understand, which can create roadblocks to resolution. In many cases, a concise agreement that contains only the terms and conditions essential to any settlement will suffice to allow the parties to resolve the dispute and move on with their lives.