International Construction Law Review
BOOK NOTICES
Amongst the books that we have received the following may be noted. Pressure on space precludes a fuller review at present.
Architect’s Essentials of Contract Negotiation.
By Ava J Abramowitz. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York. 2002. 280pp. plus index. ISBN 0–471–44365–4. Paperback, $30.
This is one of the titles in a series of Architect’s Essentials of Professional Practice. The author is a former deputy general counsel for the American Institute of Architects and is now in private practice, including being active as a mediator and in partnering. The book is remarkable in many respects. Its compact format belies the breadth and depth of its contents. It is very readable. The author covers every topic by a direct approach that will appeal to a non-lawyer. It is peppered with telling stories and apposite practical advice. Take, for example, “Ava’s Rules of Contract Interpretation”. Rule 1 is “Read all Contracts Out Loud”. The author says that she does, all the time. (By this point we are about three-quarters of the way through so by now we believe her.)
“The reason I do it is, for me, contracts are intrinsically boring, and, if you don’t read them out loud, they can become mere words. Then you are in danger of skipping over details and agreeing to something that you shouldn’t do because it read okay, it’s spelled correctly, and it seems to make intuitive sense. But if you read contract language out loud with meaning and emphasis
, it comes alive. … Now it is easier to become aware that what the contract says
and what it may mean
are two different things. Which brings us to Rule 2.”
And Rule 2 is “If the Contract Doesn’t Make Sense or Has Two Senses, Get a Second Opinion”. How true and wise both these rules are. Many a dispute would have been avoided had they been observed.
The book is intended to guide an architect—but it could be an engineer, project manager or anybody else who has to negotiate—so as to arrive at a contract whose contents have been properly thought through, discussed and settled. It does so in many ways: knowing your client; knowing what a contract can and cannot do—the author correctly emphasises the role of a good contract as a claims preventer—and how best to negotiate its contents—such as by using “Ava’s Preparation Cheat Sheet”. She also devotes a chapter to the skills of expert negotiators. There is also a chapter on disputes and claims, before the final chapter about “Pulling It All Together”.
Although the author writes for the situation in the United States, what she has to say is fundamentally of universal application. The American references are rarely distracting or out of place. It can truly be said that this work can be read “for pleasure and for profit”.
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Book Notices
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