Business law encompasses many different areas, but one area deserves special mention: Contracts. It is surprising how often businesses of all sizes enter into ill-advised, poorly-drafted contracts and end up suffering as a result. In our experience, in a business context there is no more cost-effective legal service than good contract advice and drafting. A dollar spent on a well-drafted contract can easily be worth a thousand dollars in litigation avoided.
A good contract should have at least the following properties:
- It should be drafted for success, not failure – that is, it should be realistic
and maximize the likelihood that the parties will be able to fulfill it. - It should be thorough and precise, to eliminate guesswork or speculation about which party is responsible for doing what under what circumstances.
- In a sales context, it should be a marketing document: It should make a good impression so that the customer will sign it without reservation.
- It should be bullet-proof – that is, it should cover contingencies the parties haven’t thought of, and it should protect the client’s interests no matter what the outcome.
- It should be fair.
- It should be short, simple, easy to read, and free of unnecessary legalistic terminology.
- It should be fail-safe – that is, in the event of failure or breach by one party, the contract should contain remedial provisions that as much as possible will enable the parties to resolve the matter quickly and fairly, without undue cost and risk.
Our attorneys have decades of experience with contract law. We are equally comfortable drafting contracts ourselves, or reviewing and critiquing the contracts of others.
Contracts, of course, are only one area of business law. Other areas include assisting clients in choosing the most advantageous form of entity if any, advising as to internal structure and administration, advising as to potential liability exposure and how to minimize it, resolving intracompany disputes, assisting with regulatory compliance in a commercial and consumer context, assisting with executive and employee policies, and assisting with many other areas of law such as franchising and intellectual property protection.
