Première journée
Les points fondamentaux du raisonnement juridique
- Apprenez à inverser votre raisonnement en partant du particulier pour aller au général
- Quelles conséquences pour le rédacteur du contrat ?
- Savoir exploiter les contrats standards
Vocabulary development and boiler-plates clauses
- Legal terminologie
- The language of contracts
- Les « whereas » et leur importance
- Definitions
- Best efforts
- Reasonable care
- Due diligence
- Usages of trade
- Confidentiality
Case study
- The presenters will describe to you the context of a simple acquisition deal and provide you with a profile of the parties and the basic legal misunderstanding between common law and civil law to be addressed in order to make negotiations simple and avoid misunderstanding after having agreed the deal
The negotiations
- Applicable law
- Language of the contract
- Competent jurisdiction
- Boiler plate
What is there to negotiate?
- What is acceptable?
- List of dangerous clauses for a civil lawyer?
- What will be the key issues?
Preliminary stages of a transaction
- Handling initial contacts : writing NDA that works for you
- Answering RFPs, calls for tenders, calls for bids
- Drafting tips to compete while maintaining room for negotiation
- Negotiation with anglo-saxon partners
- know the cultural differences to build a constructive approach
- Corporate policies
- Individuals authority
- Financial and accounting impacts of usual terms and conditions
- Drafting preliminary documents : MOU, LOI, HOA,TOA … and staying on the “safe” non-binding side of a transaction
- Binding covenants and preliminary performance
- Keeping the project timeline and limiting liability while discussing the legal aspects
- Go-no go phasing …
Exercise : Drafting and negotiation sessions from one contract
- Main vocabulary
- Applicable legal rules
- How to read a contract? Methodology to get the point
Seconde journée
Drafting sensitive clauses : performance of the contract
- Which wording for your obligations?
- How to deal with change of circumstances and force majeure events?
- Renegotiation
- Representations and warranties
The Term of the Contract
- Determining the Term of the Contract
- Early Termination of the Contract
- Post Termination Obligations
Contractual Risk Management and Limitations of Liability
- Contractual risks commonly encoutered
- Delay
- Failure to Attain other Contract Performance Requirements
- Liquidated damages
- Defects Liability
- Products Liability
- Contractual limitations of liability
- Global Limitations of Liability
- Liquidated Damages ceilings
- Exclusion of Consequential Damages
- Disclaimers
- Legal and Public Policy constraints
Practice in the « Real World » - Acheiving the balance between Commercial considerations and proper risk management