Commercial and civil contracts

A contract is only read carefully twice: when it is signed and when the problem arises. The difference between those two readings is what separates a manageable incident from years of litigation.

We draft and negotiate the contracts that underpin a company’s day-to-day activity, with one constant test: the document has to be usable. An exhaustive contract that nobody on the sales team understands or applies protects less than a shorter, clearer one that matches how the company actually works.

What we always review

Beyond subject matter and price, we focus on the clauses that decide the outcome in a dispute: the liability regime and its limits, termination grounds and notice periods, penalties, ownership of deliverables and intellectual property, confidentiality, data protection, and governing law and jurisdiction. These are the clauses almost nobody negotiates and almost everybody ends up invoking.

Contracting with the stronger party

When the counterparty imposes its own template — large customers, platforms, technology suppliers — the job is not to rewrite the contract but to identify the three or four points that are genuinely negotiable and that concentrate the risk. Prioritising well is worth more here than marking up the whole document.

Breach

When a breach occurs, the initial reaction shapes everything that follows. Serving notice correctly, documenting the loss and choosing between enforcing performance or terminating the contract are decisions with different consequences and their own deadlines. We guide that decision and, where necessary, defend it in court or in arbitration.