To avoid turning your masterfully negotiated contract into a time-consuming scavenger hunt, be sure your organization has a clear and efficient signatory process and accompanying signature authority chart. Providing your team with efficient tools that are readily available and accurate will increase your team’s productivity and enable you to deliver signed contracts even faster.
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Contract experts need to be mindful of implicit biases that can arise in contracts, contract negotiations, and contracting technologies. Eliminating implicit bias in your contracts will help you negotiate better contracts, forge deeper relationships, and promote the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. This Rule #9 on Eliminating Bias will address how to identify and eliminate implicit biases – such as language, gender, and resource bias – from our contracts.
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Signing a commercial lease is a big deal for most business owners. Not only is the business assuming considerable financial obligations as the tenant, but it is extremely probable that the business owner will have to personally guarantee some (if not all) of these obligations. If the business owner is unable to, the implications may be disastrous. In this article, real estate attorney, Neil Greenbaum, provides a list of critical clauses in commercial lease agreements that tenants should take into consideration.
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While the contract redlining process can be fun, alas, it must come to an end at some point. But before you send the contract off for signatures and scratch this one off your To-Do list, there are a few steps you should take to ensure that the final version of the contract is truly the final version. This Rule #8 outlines three main stages of preparation that you are responsible for before you send a final contract out for signature: 1) Control, 2) Verify, and 3) Clean.
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Acquisitions are complex and, at times, frustrating. However, it is possible for everyone to win as long as the parties and professional advisors work in good faith toward the same end goal of closing the transaction. This article provides a roadmap for the key terms of an Asset Purchase Agreement from both the Buyer and the Seller side.
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Using third-party paper can be a bit like playing a football game on the road – if you don’t have a smart game plan, you’re going to be in trouble. That’s why it is important to have a strategy when reviewing and negotiation your counterparty’s contract template. Especially when you’re dealing with a complex contract, like a SaaS agreement. Last week’s article introduced the first two plays to consider when you’re stuck using someone else’s template. Check out this week’s article for the remaining plays.
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Using your own contract template while negotiating a commercial agreement has been compared to playing a football game in your own stadium. When you’re playing at home, you are familiar with the layout and there are rarely any surprises. On the other hand, when you’re playing away, there are variables that you should take into consideration. Using third-party paper can be a bit like playing a football game on the road – if you don’t have a smart game plan to review the template and identify the differentiators, you’re going to be in trouble.
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Paul Swegle – law professor, book author, and General Counsel – shares his top 7 contract peeves and tips on how to deal with them. For those who are newer to commercial negotiations, it may be useful to realize that these annoying issues are out there and headed your way. As with most endeavors, knowing in advance there may be ups and downs and having tools to address them can help us maintain perspective and good judgment.
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This Rule #7 of Contract Redlining Etiquette is about the act of tracking changes throughout the course of a contract negotiation. It applies universally to your professional obligation of transparency from initial drafts through the final version, and with any tool you decide to use (not just MS Word).
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Last-minute contract reviews are frustrating for all contract reviewers. But this issue should be equally frustrating to the entire organization because it is bad for business, too. A rushed contract review negatively impacts the entire deal, including commercial terms, and can cost the business thousands, if not millions, of dollars in contract leakage and other missed opportunities.
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DO THIS
Hire a full-time contracting operations manager after launching your Contract Lifecycle Management System.
NOT THAT
Do not assign it to the lawyer, the paralegal, or the IT professional.
WHY?
