Course Description

Contracts are used in commercial situations for two primary purposes, the first is to create a record of the terms of the agreement between the parties, and the second is to protect the legitimate interests of those parties. This course is designed to help those involved in all stages of the contracting process to understand, anticipate and manage the consequences of the contracting process. Moreover, it will address the tension between commercial and legal interests and suggest methods of rationalizing, if not satisfying, the objectives of both perspectives. Throughout the course, the participant will be given opportunities to exercise his contractual interpretation and drafting skills via hands-on exercises

Course Goal

To enhance the participant’s knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to understand, anticipate and manage the consequences of the contracting process.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, the participant will understand:

1. Why he should understand contract law before he creates the contract
2. The principles of contract law that must be incorporated into all of your agreements
3. Why prevention should be his overall objective in creating a contract
4. How to protect his company’s interests without killing the deal
5. How to effectively and efficiently make use of forms and existing contracts
6. The meanings and usage of legal terms that impact your contracts
7. Why the commercial contract will differ from the service contract
8. How to create a contract that is clear and well accepted in commercial settings

Course Outline:

1. History of contracts
2. Essential elements of a contract
3. Writing a contract in language that will be more readily enforceable in the event of litigation
4. The definition of “deliverables”
5. The benefits of contracting-out work
6. Early completion incentives and late completion penalties
7. Acts of God and exclusionary clauses
8. Considerations when outsourcing work to a foreign country
9. Cancellation, concealed conditions and contingency clauses
10. The differences between litigation, arbitration and mediation
11. Conflicts of interest

Who Can Benefit

Anyone who is involved in negotiating, developing, writing or managing contractual relationships, whether for goods or services