In a contract, “hereafter referred to as” is a drafting phrase that assigns a short name to a party, entity, or thing right after its full legal name is stated, so that every later clause in the document can use the shorter label instead of repeating the full name. The phrase itself carries no independent legal weight, and a contract is valid whether it uses this wording, the near-identical “hereinafter referred to as,” or nothing at all beyond a parenthetical label.
Hereafter vs. Hereinafter
Both phrases appear in contracts, and many people treat them as interchangeable. Technically they aren’t. “Hereafter” means “from this point forward in time” and shows up in general formal writing, religious texts, and everyday prose. “Hereinafter” means “from this point forward in this document,” with the “herein” anchoring the reference to the agreement itself rather than to the future generally. Courts aren’t going to void a contract because someone wrote “hereafter” instead of “hereinafter,” but if precision matters to you, “hereinafter” is the more accurate word for contract language.
Modern drafting guidance increasingly treats both words as unnecessary. The parenthetical format alone does the same job with less clutter.
Where the Phrase Belongs in a Contract
The phrase belongs in the opening section of the contract, variously called the preamble or the parties clause. That section states the full legal name of each party, their role, and sometimes their state of organization or principal address. The short name is assigned right there, before any substantive terms like payment obligations or performance deadlines appear.
A preamble typically reads: “This Creative Services Agreement is entered into by and between XYZ Creative, Inc., an Arizona corporation (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Service Provider’), and Jane Doe (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Client’).”
Front-loading the definitions means every reader encounters the labels before seeing them used. If a defined term first appeared halfway through a 40-page agreement, a reader who skipped ahead would have no idea what “the Provider” meant.
How It Is Formatted and Punctuated
The standard format places the short name inside parentheses immediately after the full legal name, with the label in quotation marks: ABC Logistics Inc. (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”). The quotation marks signal that the word is a defined term rather than a general description. Some drafters also bold the term at first use so it stands out.
One detail trips people up: whether “the” goes inside or outside the quotation marks. If you plan to write “the Company” throughout the document, placing “the” inside the parenthetical makes that intention clear: (the “Company”). If the defined term is a proper-noun-style label such as a project name, “the” typically stays outside.
After the definition, the short name should be capitalized every time it appears. “The Company” signals the specific entity defined in the preamble. “The company” in lowercase suggests companies in general. Attorneys and arbitrators read contract language with extreme literalism, and a lowercase “c” where a capital “C” was expected can become the centerpiece of a dispute about what a clause was meant to cover.
Choosing a Good Short Name
The best labels are role-based nouns that tell the reader what the party does in the agreement: Seller, Buyer, Landlord, Tenant, Licensor, Borrower. A reader who encounters “the Landlord” ten pages into a lease immediately knows which side of the transaction is being discussed, without flipping back to the preamble.
When multiple parties share the same role, generic labels break down. If two banks are co-lending, calling both “Lender” defeats the purpose. Options include using each company’s actual short name (First National and Pacific Bank) or adding a distinguishing modifier (Senior Lender and Junior Lender) that reflects each party’s position in the deal.
Avoid Alphabet Soup
A common mistake is creating too many acronym-based labels. A contract that defines “GIHC,” “NWDF,” “PRSC,” and “TLFG” in the first paragraph forces the reader to keep flipping back to decode what those letters mean. Judges and arbitrators find this just as frustrating as anyone else. Wherever possible, use a recognizable word rather than an initialism. “Holdings” is easier to follow than “GIHC” even if slightly less precise.
Don’t Define What You Won’t Reuse
If a term or entity name appears only once in the entire document, creating a formal defined term for it adds clutter without adding clarity. A defined term earns its keep by replacing multiple later references. One of the final steps before circulating a draft is checking that every defined term actually appears at least twice.
Common Mistakes
Beyond the capitalization and acronym problems above, a few other errors show up repeatedly in contracts drafted by non-specialists:
- Switching between the label and the full name. Once you define “the Contractor,” use that label everywhere. Alternating between “the Contractor,” “ABC Services,” and “the service provider” for the sake of variety invites the argument that these refer to different entities.
- Defining a term but never using it. A stray definition can suggest that a clause was deleted from an earlier draft, which may raise questions about what obligations were intentionally removed. Clean up unused definitions before signing.
- Using a label that contradicts the party’s actual role. Labeling a party “Consultant” when the contract’s terms describe an employment relationship can create problems in tax and labor disputes, regardless of what the preamble says.
The Shorter Modern Form
“Hereafter referred to as” and “hereinafter referred to as” are increasingly seen as old-fashioned. Modern contract drafting reaches the same result with a simple parenthetical and no introductory phrase: ABC Logistics Inc. (the “Company”). The parentheses and quotation marks do all the definitional work on their own. Adding “hereinafter referred to as” before the label doesn’t make the definition more enforceable; it just adds seven words.
This streamlined approach has been standard in corporate transactional work for years and is steadily replacing the traditional phrasing in other practice areas. If you’re drafting your own contract, the shorter format works. If you’re reading a document that uses the longer version, it means exactly the same thing. The legal effect is identical either way.