Contracts

[Tam Denholm]

Does anyone have any recommendations for who you get to look over
contracts? It doesnt have to be a lawyer, just someone that has some
experience with contracts. I've got a new project and the contract
given to me by the company, while i have no major objection to, is
very one sided. So i was just wondering if anyone knew someone i can
talk this through with? Happy to pay consultation fees, just to cover
my ass.

Also any general advice for clauses to make sure i have to protect
myself etc would be awesome.

Thanks
Tam

[Sam Collins]

As an aside, I don't think you can pay for the advice or else the person becomes liable, in which case they should be a qualified lawyer. Solicitors will sometimes give you a free advice session on something like this in the hope you'll pay for business later.

Sam

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[Dan Frydman]

Hi Tam

I'd recommend Craig McKenna - a sales consultant who used to work on contracts and SLAs with Oracle. Great guy to have a chat with and has been helpful with our sales audit / marketing strategy.

However the contract is most useful to secure the deal - a read through of it by the client that assures them that you have both their and your best interests in balance.

Once it comes to going through the contract with a fine tooth comb after the project has started it's a sign that things are going badly and it's a time to call it a day. That's based on project experience - I wouldn't know so much about contract work agreements which are more HR than company law.

Dan

[Tam Denholm]

Thanks Dan, much appreciated.

Yeah i've not started the job yet, i just want to make sure i'm not
signing over something i dont want to etc.

[Dan Frydman]

Every client wants to think that they own the copyright and to a certain extent you - part of agreeing to difficult contracts is to make sure that they get what they want and you appear to be owned by them. Making sure that if they are ever in breach you can walk away. In most technical projects the client is always in breach of contract somewhere - payment, content, 3rd party breach of copyright - but having to exploit that on your part is a bad sign.

Sam's point about getting advice for possible work later is a great one - if someone will take it on.

All the best!

[Rachel]

One piece of advice I got once was to make sure that payment by X days
past invoice date was of "the essence of the contract"; without this
being stated explicitly, apparently just not getting paid wasn't
sufficient for you to be able to legally walk away without potentially
being in breach of contract yourself.

Rachel