Contracting for Social Change

Abstract

Throughout history, social change has often been shaped by high-profile legislation and through high-stakes litigation. But social change can also be spurred on through private contract, including through the agreements businesses and individuals make with each other every day. Transactional attorneys can promote social change through drafting techniques and choices, including narrative and storytelling techniques, and can use such drafting techniques in order to 1) write better and more complete agreements that are more consistent with business-led social activism already taking place, and 2) influence society by forcing counterparties to evolve on social issues, change industry practice, or foster a narrative for social change in society in general.

This article begins with establishing a background overview on business-led social activism, describing recent efforts by large businesses to influence social policy, and provides a scholarship overview regarding how transactional drafters can use narrative theory and storytelling techniques in transactional documents. Combining these two elements, this article analyzes how transactional attorneys can employ narrative and storytelling techniques to promote social change in transactional documents. The article argues that by integrating narrative and storytelling techniques into transactional documents, transactional attorneys can increase the persuasiveness of transactional documents, align corporate statements with existing business-led social activism, and positively influence social change.