Tarter Krinsky & Drogin Partner Edward Farrell and Associate Jason D. Evans co-authored the article "Defining Contractual ‘Best Efforts" in the March 17 issue of the New York Law Journal.

The article tackles the issue of how far the parties to a contract must go to meet their obligations and reviews New York cases relating to the standards of performance demanded by contractual terms such as “best efforts,” “reasonable efforts” and “commercially reasonable efforts.” 

Because the case law remains unsettled, the article emphasizes the importance of careful drafting. To ensure that a client will get to enjoy the benefits of a bargain, a lawyer should draft the contract to include detailed guidelines and criteria specifying what types of conduct or efforts will qualify as “best efforts.”