Why all the fuss about Contract Review?

Amit Sharma
July 7, 2021
4 min read

Imagine,  it’s 10 PM on a Thursday of the last week of the quarter and you get a  ping from your CFO, inquiring about the status of multi-million dollar customer contract review pending with you.

Roll forward 3 days.

It’s 10 PM on a Monday and your CEO just called you to get a status on Force Majeure clauses in all your supplier and customer contracts in a major country experiencing political disturbances.

If you are a senior lawyer in a Fortune 1000 company or a Top Law firm,  you have experienced this in some fashion, probably recently

Contracts are the lifeblood of modern businesses. A typical Fortune 1000 company has anywhere between 20k & 40k active contracts at any time. A Mckinsey study estimates that substandard contract management practices erode business value up to 9% of annual revenues?! For the firms that manage the contracting process strategically, this is an untapped opportunity.

Fundamentally, managing contracts is about managing risk.

Whether  it’s initial drafting, reviews, or negotiations with counterparties,  you cannot always have your most experienced and domain expert legal  mind attending to every case. So, when a relatively inexperienced  contract professional, working under time pressure, not trained in  rigorous contract management process starts managing the contract,  typical mistakes creep in.

Example:

  • Missing key terms or clauses:  as the adage goes, ‘out of sight is out of mind’, determining what is  missing from a contract requires a broad exposure to the type of  contract and business that is under consideration. While key clauses are  never left out, there are many relatively ‘minor’ clauses or terms that  are left unaddressed by the contracts and increase the risk for all  parties
  • Incomplete due diligence:  no one would accept this but many resorts to taking shortcuts to manage  timelines. E.g., demonstrating ‘Blind Faith’ i.e. acceptance of another  party’s claims and language without critical evaluation of potential  risks and opportunities.

The best way to alleviate these risks is getting your most experienced set of eyes to draft and review every word. That is, of course, is not a scalable practice.

Force  Majeure: one particular clause which had become the center of attention  of lawyers and lawmakers alike, as Covid19 engulfed the world last year. A flurry of business insurance claim lawsuits & contract  disputes hit the courts as everyone’s interpretation of ‘acts of God’, ‘government actions’, etc. differed. Over the last 18 months, countless hours have been spent debating and revamping contract terms like Force Majeure, causation, mitigation measures,  etc. to ensure business continuity during such unpredictable times. If  there is one lesson for contract management practice from 2020, it’s to  never leave anything to chance.

Beyond  the unique nature of issues brought by the pandemic, there are many examples where individuals and companies ended up with bad and sometimes catastrophic consequences because of lack of rigor during the contracting process.Let us look at two such examples:

  1. How much can a single comma cost? Up to 1 Mn Canadian dollars. The dispute was over the following sentence: “This  agreement shall be effective from the date it is made and shall  continue in force for a period of five (5) years from the date it is  made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms, unless and  until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.” Can you spot what the interpretation issue was? Read the entire story here.
  2. How closely are you reading the limitations of liability clauses? In one famous case of Obsessions in Time, Inc vs Jewelry Exchange Venture, LLLP, everything came down to how Florida state courts analyzed the exculpatory provisions in a lease contract and ruled in a $ 2 Mn burglary claim. The parties’ lease agreement for the storage of Obsessions’ valuables provided: .  . . it is hereby agreed that lessor [Jewelry] . . . shall not be liable  for any loss or damage to the contents of the vault within the premises  caused by burglary, fire, or any cause whatsoever, but that the entire  risk of such loss or damage is assumed by the lessee. The lessor shall  not be liable for any delay caused by failure of the vault doors to  lock, unlock, or otherwise operate, and the sole liability of the lessor  hereunder is limited to the exercise of ordinary care to prevent the  opening of said vault or boxes contained therein by any person other  than lessee [Obsessions] or the authorized agent of the lessee. The  Appellate courts disagreed with the trial court’s observations and  ruled in the lessee’s favor. This is a classic example of how treating  key clause terms and provisions in a ‘standardized’ fashion can lead to  unforeseen outcomes down the line.

In Summary

A  combination of factors like increasing business complexity (supply  chains, stakeholder relationships, customer’s demands), ever-increasing  business expectations from contract managers, and tail events like  Covid19 have demonstrated one thing very clearly — that treating  contract management as a cost center and not a potential driver of  business value is a mistake which no business can afford.

Businesses  should invest in the development of contract analysis and management  practice through a combination of training, process thinking, and the  use of technology (especially Machine Learning technologies like Natural  Language Processing).

In  our next article, we’ll discuss how leading companies have developed  systematic approaches towards the contracting process and where this  world is headed.

Further Readings:


Sources:


More Like This

Day 6 of 20 - Contract Summaries Part II

Most comprehensive write-up on Contract Summaries - what are these, how to create them, how to use AI to generate different types of contract summaries and what are the key benefits and considerations in using contract summaries .

Read More

Day 5 of 20: What is an AI Copilot?

We discuss why Copilot is the right paradigm to infuse AI into knowledge work. We delve deeper into factors driving the development and adoption of Copilots in all knowledge work areas like coding, analytics, contract review and drafting, copywriting, etc.

Read More

Copy Paste Contract Clauses

Explore contract law's impact on partnerships, risks tied to clauses, and real-life cases. Leverage ContractKen's robust clause library for streamlined contract management, risk mitigation, and successful partnerships.

Read More
[Valid RSS]