Terms of Business and Contracts

The importance of terms of business is often underestimated by clients. Often they are seen as simply “standard form” documents. But every business is different; and ill-suited terms of business do not wear well and may prove a false economy in the long run.

Terms of business serve a multitude of functions. The primary purpose is to establish the boundaries of your liability in your everyday trading -- to protect you and your business. They may also be necessary to comply with various ebusiness and consumer protection laws or be required by your bankers or insurers. But they should not be so one-sided as to put off customers or risk being unenforceable because they contain unfair terms.

All this means that preparing terms of business is not always straightforward. We take time to understand your business before helping you formulate your terms of business to ensure that they are tailored to your needs. We also advise on what you and your staff must do to ensure that your new terms of business are fully incorporated into your sales process and bind your customers in every transaction.

During the course of running your business, you may enter into a number of other types of contracts outside your standard trading terms, such as content licences, sponsorship and advertising agreements, joint ventures or alliances and purchases of assets, both major and minor. We have wide-ranging experience in corporate and commercial business transactions and are able to assist whatever the nature of the agreement.

We are also happy to be flexible as to our involvement to help you manage your legal costs. A high-value or strategically important transaction will likely warrant full-scale involvement of a legal team -- we can advise on heads of terms; draft the contract; project-manage the due diligence process; negotiate with the other side or their lawyers; and drive the deal to completion. In some cases you may simply want support in relation to a single aspect. We can work on whichever basis best suits your needs and requirements.

Legal guidance links: