made and entered into by and among

There absolutely is, but it doesn't go beyond the meaning of the words, as would be the case in the meaning of an idiom.

In baseball, it's called "covering all the bases."  You know how lawyers are!  I expect a certain amount of trial and error (pun intended) has gone into the formulation of these standard expressions.

I can imagine a young new lawyer like yourself writing a contract like the one you propose, only to have it overturned by a wise old experienced lawyer who knows the English language well.  If there are loopholes, they need to be closed.

Regards,  - A.

Edit.  Hey, I just noticed!  WELCOME TO THE FORUMS ! !     

Sorry if I came across as facetious.  Do you truly believe than in all cases and circumstances "made by A and B" means the same as "entered into by A and B"?  Or that "This agreement made by A and B" means the same as "This agreement made among A and B"?  Etc. Etc.   Or that any one of these is the same as "is between A and B"?

Hi Stephen,  I think you said what I meant better than I did.

If we're speaking of the U.S., I've had experience as a litigant in NH, VT, MA, and CA, and the difference in language is striking, Vermont using what sound like antique phrases and California favoring more modern constructions.  Not much of it would be used as dinner conversation.

Best wishes,  - A.

Edit.  I don't wish to put down Vermont courts.  They seem the most determined to see that everyone gets a fair shake.

So what's being said with this phrase is that the contract was written by ("drafted") and executed ("concluded"?..  any blanks filled in?) by the parties who are named. Is that right?

I can see that "made among" could mean "drafted by" and "entered into by" could mean "we filled in the blanks and signed it". But more usually the parties signing didn't actually draft much if any of the damn thing: their lawyers did. And if "completed" just means "filled in and signed" couldn't this be achieved more clearly and definitively by using a signature block including a printed name and address and other identifiers such as for example social security number?

I think probably I still don't really understand "made and entered into by and among" even though I've signed several contracts which use these words and sometimes have asked other people to sign as well.

My goal here is to have a Non-Disclosure Agreement which a typical engineer can understand. And not argue about :-)

Stephen

Thanks for the warning. We use an NDA for routine confidentiality matters, and a Proprietary Information Agreement when it seems possible that a relationship might result in patentable or copyrightable work. Both were drafted by well-respected Intellectual Property attorneys about 10 to 15 years ago, and have been reviewed a couple of times since. And I get to see other similar agreements drafted by other people quite often, so I believe ours are well drafted and up-to-date. But I'd be even happier if I was sure I understood exactly what the words all mean.

Often I must sit across the table from an engineer and ask them to sign an NDA or PIA; and I fear that mostly they have less of an understanding of the wording than I do. To some extent they trust that I wouldn't ask them to sign something unreasonable. I can fairly and honestly explain what it all means, except for that very first sentence.

Stephen

BTW, my father was a lawyer (what the English call a Parliamentary Draftsman I think) and my mother was a biologist, so I grew up listening to, and respecting, both legal and scientific language...and arguments.