Business lawyers — even tech lawyers — lead unexciting lives. Reading and writing contracts keeps them stuck in front of a computer or a BlackBerry. Even when they work from such “exotic” locations as a coffee shop or an airport lounge, they can’t get away from words on a screen.
But sometimes, contract review requires that lawyers have the detective skills of a Sherlock Holmes, when they have to read the parts of a contract that aren’t even there. In Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Silver Blaze,” the legendary detective solved a crime from the fact that a dog did not bark. The dog’s silence was the key clue that it knew the intruder:
