Some Lawyers Are Paid To Get Deals Done; Others (at Nbc) Are Paid To Get Them Undone

The Conan OBrien-Jay Leno contretemps seems to have settled somewhat: Lenos off the air until after the Olympics; Conans off the air untilwell

. at least until his non-competition agreement expires in September. So, what better time to look back at one of the many factual issues that the new media got wrong during this whole mess: namely, what if anything that Conans contract said about when The Tonight Shows timeslot.

It was generally reported last month that NBC was able to push Conan out of TTSs traditional 11:35 airing and past midnight because his contract didnt specify that he was entitled to any particular timeslot. This tidbit was reported over and over again and was basically accepted as gospel truth by all media outlets. While it might initially seem peripheral, this was actually a critical inflection point for the outcome of this entire debacle: if NBC was free to move Conans show, then Conan would have been in breach of his contract by failing to accede to any such move. But if Conan had a contractual right to 11:35, then NBC would have been in breach if they forced one.

So, when NBC basically had to pay out the entire value of the contract and only got a meaningless seven-month noncompete in return (meaningless in that it would take more than seven months to get a new show together, so the non-compete wouldnt actually slow anything down at all), it probably should have served as a pretty strong signal to the press that Conan indeed had a contractual right to keep his timeslot. Instead, the press all whiffed on this

Until this article came out the other day. Written by Matthew Belloni, legal correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter, it contains the first public screening of the actual contents of Conans contract (at least in so far as they pertain to the timeslow issue

So, basically, NBC was arguing that that when a contractual amendment is silent on an issue, it somehow by that silence invalidates all previous definitions in that contract or any if that contracts earlier earlier amendments. Also, the silence invalidates 16 years of custom-and-usage dealings between the parties and 54 years of widely-held general cultural understanding about when the Tonight Show aired.

Legal drafting experts everywhere still havent stopped throwing up. Course of dealing? Gone. Ambiguity construed against the drafter? Gone? Plain meaning? Youre outta here. Consensus ad item? See ya later.

NBCs logical position translates to this: the law of the land is that amendments to any base contract must restate all the defined terms within that contract and all defined terms within any earlier amendments or those defined terms will be invalid.

As it turned out, their near-total capitulation during separation negotiations shows that this position was basically a (pretty lame) bluff.

Wonder what happens next???

by: Achal Madhavan

POST COMMENT

Obtain Credible Dwi Advice From The Best Austin Dwi Lawyer. You Have The Finest Austin Criminal Lawyer In Carl Ceder. Should you Hire a Social Security Disability Lawyer? Investing In Stocks Are You Currently Enthusiastic about On The Web Investing How IP Lawyers Can Help You Defend Your Patent Choose Expert And Experienced Lawyers In Athens Ga With Ease Chicago Retirement Communities Are Worth Places For Spending Retired Life Things You Must Know Before Investing In Penny Stocks The Must-have Qualities Of A Missouri Accident Lawyer Marine Lawyers Things To Consider When Relocating For Retirement How A Good White Collar Lawyer In Arizona Can Leverage "puffery"