Why I Still Read Every Warranty Clause Myself

Robert and Freya both have far more time than I do, and either of them could read a disputed warranty clause perfectly well without me. I still insist on reading it myself, on every matter I lead, and I've never quite been able to justify why in a way that sounds efficient.

The honest answer is that warranty clauses are where deals reveal what the parties actually intended, as opposed to what the recitals say they intended — and I've caught things in the actual language, more than once, that changed the whole shape of our advice. That kind of pattern recognition doesn't delegate cleanly, even to people I trust completely.

I know this doesn't scale. I've made peace with that. Some things in this job are worth doing slowly.