You’re drafting a contract. How can you make sure you don’t miss anything important?

Imagine you're drafting an IT services contract. Missing something important could mean delays or costly disputes later. So I'd ensure the contract covers: Specific deliverables: Exactly what software features or systems will be provided. Timeline: Clear deadlines for each project phase and overall completion. Support: Details on response times for issues, who handles training, and how updates are managed.

Successful contract drafting begin with a clear understanding of objectives. These objectives serve as the guiding light, helping you navigate your efforts towards achieving specific outcomes. However, each objective comes with its unique set of expectations and results. Examples for setting obligations and it's output: sharing risks between parties and the knowing of its impact, including the mutual accepted payment terms between parties according to truly understanding of the impact on cash flow, Milestones and it's impact on time schedule, and the relation of deliverables themselves with Quality.

It's important to fully understand the type of services and/or deliverables that are to be outlined in the contract. Each type of service introduces a different type of risk into the business relationship and must be addressed appropriately into the contract itself in order to provide protections to each party. At a minimum, the goal of a contract is to balance risk with reward, so the contract manager must understand the "why" and the "what" is forming the basis for the contract document.

Using a template for drafting contracts offers multiple benefits: it acts as a checklist covering all essential sections and clauses, ensuring nothing important is missed. Templates are created from best practices, reflecting collective expertise and industry standards. They are designed for customization to suit specific agreement nuances, ensuring relevance and precision. Additionally, templates promote consistency in contract format and language, facilitating easier management and understanding of agreements. Finally, they serve as educational tools, offering insights into contractual elements and their interconnections, enhancing the drafting skills of legal professionals.

For a clear and concise contract drafting, I suggest the following: 1. Use short sentences to avoid ambiguities. 2. Draft in the active voice, example: “Tenant must pay utilities on the first day of each month” is clearer than “Utilities must be paid on the first day of each month.” In the second sentence, the tenant isn’t even obligated to pay! 3. Avoid nominalizations to improve your contracts by using action verbs instead of nouns masquerading, example: “Obtain verification of” = “verify”. 4. Don’t repeat the agreement. 5. Watch out for “doublets", mean the same thing for no good reason. 6. Strike unnecessary words. 8. Remember your reader. Whenever you are writing, think about your reader.

- Contract Management Technology: Leverage contract management software to optimize the contract lifecycle. Utilize these tools to streamline the drafting, approval, and execution processes, particularly for complex or frequently used contracts, enhancing efficiency and reducing errors. - Plain Language Advocacy: Advocate for the "plain language movement" in legal contracts. This approach encourages the utilization of clear, concise, and unambiguous language comprehensible by a layperson. This promotes transparency, minimizes misunderstandings, and fosters a collaborative contracting environment.