I love contracts. Even as a young summer associate, in the last century, I was bored by cases, but I loved reading and writing contracts.
Contracts keep peace. They make people promise to go forward on future exchanges of obligations and good faith, rather than knives and guns. Contracts depend on people acting decently and honestly and most of the time they come through.
Contracts are also just cool. Writing a contract is like building a cabinet. Both have external structures and compartments; good ones require symmetry. But, with a contract, I’m less likely to slice off a limb on the lathe. A good contract ought to be clear in layout and language and, as Einstein said, “as simple as possible but not simpler.”
Someday, I’ll bet some contracts are done almost entirely with pictographs and icons. I can’t wait.
See also: Why You Need a Contract and Why You Need a Corporate Lawyer.