Practice · 01
Contracts
Every business runs on a handful of documents. Get those right and most legal problems never arrive.
Drafting, review and negotiation of the agreements that decide how a business earns, pays, and protects itself. This is the centre of the practice.
The work
A contract is a set of decisions about what happens when things go wrong. Who pays when a delivery is late. Whether you can walk away, and on how much notice. Whose fault a data breach is. Most businesses sign these decisions without reading them, because the document arrived at the end of a negotiation that felt finished.
The practice reads them. Contracts from the other side get a mark-up and a plain note on what to push back on. Contracts you issue get written for the way your business actually trades, so the terms hold up when a customer disputes an invoice or a supplier fails to deliver. And where the deal is still being shaped, the practice works on the heads of agreement, which is where the leverage is usually set.
Fixed fees for almost all of it. A review is quoted before it starts, a first draft is quoted before it starts, and if the document changes shape the fee is revised with you rather than billed after.
This work includes
- Supply agreements
- Service contracts
- Distribution agreements
- Terms of trade
- NDAs
- Heads of agreement
- Shareholders agreements
- Personal guarantees
- Licensing and IP terms
- Website terms and privacy
- Consulting and contractor agreements
- Joint venture and collaboration terms
- Loan and security documents
- Settlement deeds and releases
How it usually runs
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Send the document, or the deal
A draft from the other side, your own template that has drifted, or a page of notes on what has been agreed in principle. Any of the three is a starting point.
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A fixed fee, in writing, before work starts
Most contract reviews and most first drafts are quoted as a fixed amount once the document and the purpose are known. If it needs a second round with the other side, that is quoted too.
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A marked-up document and a short note
Tracked changes on the contract itself, and a covering note that says which points matter, which are worth conceding, and what to say to the other side. Not a memo you have to decode.
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Negotiation, if you want it
Some clients take the mark-up and run the conversation themselves. Others want the practice on the call or on the email chain. Both work, and the fee covers whichever you choose.
Where the line is
- Leases are contracts too, but they run through The Leasing Lawyer, the practice's dedicated leasing site.
- If a contract dispute has to be decided by a court, the file goes to a litigator on the practice's panel, with the groundwork done. Negotiation, mediation and tribunal work stay here.
Nobody pays anybody for a referral here, in either direction. How the practice hands work on →
Common questions
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How long does a contract review take?
Usually a few business days from receiving the document, and sooner when a deal is waiting on it. Say so when you send it. A long or unusual agreement, or one with several schedules, takes longer, and you will be told the timing before the fee is agreed rather than after.
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Is it cheaper to use a template from the internet?
Cheaper on the day. The templates that circulate are mostly written for another country, another industry, or a party on the other side of your deal. The expensive part is discovering that twelve months in, when a clause you never read decides who pays. A short review of the template you already use is often the better spend.
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Can you draft standard terms my business can reuse?
Yes, and this is some of the most useful contract work there is. One set of terms of trade or service terms, written for how your business actually operates, and then reused on every quote and invoice. The unfair contract terms rules in the Australian Consumer Law now apply to many small business contracts, so standard terms are also checked against those.
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The other side says their contract is non-negotiable. Is it?
Sometimes. Franchise agreements and bank documents rarely move much. Supplier terms, service contracts and most commercial agreements move more than people expect, particularly on liability caps, termination rights and payment terms. The point of a review is to tell you which is which before you spend goodwill on a clause that will not shift.
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Make an enquiry
Send a short note about what is happening. You will hear back within one business day, and there is no charge for finding out whether the matter is a fit.