Morning: Drafting Commercial Contracts with the End in Mind

When it comes to preparing commercial contracts, it pays to keep the end in mind. The morning sessions examine the key challenges that can arise in commercial contracts and how you can best future-proof your client’s position.

• Tears Before Bedtime: Drafting Effective Early Termination Clauses
  • All contracts come to an end eventually, often by completion but also by early termination. This session will explore options for drafting effective early termination clauses in contracts.
• Safeguarding Against Insolvency in Commercial Relationships
  • Business relationships are always fraught with risk, and now even more so during times of economic downturn. What protections are available to a supplier of goods or services against the risk of insolvency by a contracting party? This session will examine supply chain risks and how practitioners can assist their clients to minimise their risks of exposure to a contractor’s insolvency and voidable preference claims.
• The Unfair Contract Regime: Unpacking the New Landscape
  • The unfair contracts regime is set for a significant shakeup, with further protections to be provided to small businesses entering into standard form contracts. With strong civil penalties on the horizon, it has never been more important for commercial lawyers and their clients to be across the new landscape.

Afternoon: Managing Commercial Disputes

Despite the best of intentions, all commercial relationships run the risk of turning sour. When the gloves come off, are you equipped to put your client’s best foot forward? The afternoon sessions examine the key issues, including damages for breach of commercial agreements, drafting a defence in commercial litigation, and maximising the impact of alternative dispute resolution.

• Counting the Costs of Damages for Breach of Commercial Agreements
  • Breach of commercial agreements present many potential economic claims against the defaulting part. This session focuses on what is and is not claimable, including recent case law developments.
• Drafting a Defence in Commercial Litigation: Strategy and Procedure
  • There is a mistaken belief amongst some practitioners that drafting a defence is a simple process. However, practitioners overlook the defence at their peril. A well-drafted defence has the client’s outcome in mind and a clear understanding of the facts and elements required to prove your client’s position. This session looks at how to draft effective defences
• Alternative Dispute Resolution: Maximising the Impact
  • Use of ADR has become almost mainstream now in managing commercial disputes. However, understanding the strategies that go with it may not be so well understood. This session focuses on these strategies and how they are applied.