Rate constants for the reaction of methyl chloroformate with substituted anilines, and for the halogen exchanges in phenyl chloroformate have been determined in acetone. Although the rate data can be interpreted equally well with the addition-elimination mechanism($S_AN$) involving an intermediate, results of MO and isotope effect studies strongly favor the synchronous ($S_N2$) mechanism for the reactions studied. It was concluded that for the fast reacting nucleophiles the transition state is of "late" type while for the slow reacting nucleophiles it is of "early" type