As you may know, I am a bit of a contract nerd and love to learn from those at the cutting edge of new ways of thinking about contracts and contracting. At a Law Insider webinar, Electra Japonas, the co-founder of the crowd-sourced OneNDA, said that contracts are there to facilitate
Trust-enhancing contracts Trust, according to the Speed of Trust by Stephen MR Covey, is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. When I read that book, I was
I love the island of Guernsey… but when I first visited I saw notices everywhere telling you what you can and cannot do – don’t sit on a wall in case you fall off, don’t throw stones on the beach, don’t park here, don’t walk along the seawall when there
How many customers does your organisation lose before you even know it? You have no idea about the business you never heard from because they walked away [David Avrin] When does the customer experience start? It is often well before your first contact with them. The internet has profoundly changed
At the 2023 World Commerce and Contracting Summit, Elizabeth de Stadler from Novcon said: we should not lose sight of what we are actually here to do: which after all is to… help clients to form relationships and to define the rules of those relationships in a way that is
Financial limits in letters of intent are used to protect the client – because they rarely include a fixed price and are relying on ‘reasonable costs’ – and as an incentive for the contractor to sign the full contract. These limits on the client’s liability to pay for works are
The risks on a project, as well as the rewards, need to be shared equitably. Contracts have a significant role to play in what is sometimes referred to as managing with risk ie going ahead with a project while accepting that there will always be a degree of uncertainty… and
How many times does the legal process suck the life out of your deal? Legals are meant to support and work with sales, marketing and procurement. Too often, we hear that legals are more of a barrier to doing business – they sabotage sales. Back in 2011 the Office for
Often in contracts, clauses relating to using and sharing information are split into ‘legal chapter headings’ ie topics that make sense to the contract writer but don’t necessarily reflect the needs of the contract user. When I create contracts I prefer a user-focused heading like ‘using and sharing documents and
Late payment is a perennial issue, and the UK construction sector is no exception. When the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 introduced mandatory reporting on Payment Practices and Performance in 2017, not a single BuildUK main contractor member paid invoices within 30 days. A payment period of 30