Without question, San Diego businesses run on contracts and every business needs an experienced corporate lawyer to review and draft its contracts. To non-lawyers, contract drafting might seem a mystery. But in truth, there is a path to well-drafted business contracts.

Choosing the Right Contract

First, your proven and trusted San Diego corporate lawyer must determine what you need. What is the intent? What is the goal? Why is this contract needed here and now? This involves talking with you, reviewing and analyzing any existing documentation, knowing the law and knowing how to put into writing what is needed to achieve the end-result successfully. In terms of a building metaphor, this is equivalent to deciding what is being build; a home, apartment building, office park, shopping center, or warehouse? What is it that is being built, and what will be the best way to get it built.

Drafting the Contractual Framework

Second, your experienced lawyer must draft the framework for the right contract. Drafting the framework not only creates an outline for contract, but also includes the provisions that should be addressed in every contract of that type. For example, identification of the parties, setting forth the consideration for the contract, and deciding how the contract should be interpreted is akin to laying the foundation of a building, framing out the walls, and getting a roof raised.

Customizing the Contract

Third, the framework is customized to the unique circumstances of the moment. This is like choosing the finishes of the building. And, here again, what the client needs is the guide. To continue the metaphor, does the client want carpet, hardwood, tile or marble? The process of customization results in turning a relatively generic framework into an agreement that reflects the nuances of how the client desires the contractual relationship it will enter to work. While the list of possible customizations is enormous, examples might be unique termination provisions, specific consequences for breach of contract, confidentiality requirements, and provisions establishing ownership of intellectual property created during the course of the contractual relationship.

Special attention must be paid to the added customizations in order to protect the client in the event of adversity. Contracts may act as both a sword and a shield. Often, contracts are made between amicable parties, but even when that is true, an experienced lawyer must plan for relationships to sour and disputes to arise. Everyone may be getting along today, but that might not be true a year from now. A trusted lawyer has to anticipate potential risks in the unique circumstances facing his or her client and cover those risks. The right contract, within the building metaphor, is fire resistant, seismically sound, and built above the flood line.

Finally, an experience corporate lawyer will draft your business contracts based on changing landscapes and changes that can be seen on the horizon. This generally falls under the category of contingency planning and requires a constant attention to new law and evolving trends in jurisdictions both near and far. This is one reason that this blog tracks changes in California and federal law but also surveys legal changes occurring in our sister States. Changing economic circumstances are important, too.

Contact San Diego Corporate Law

If you need contract drafting or review, call Michael Leonard, Esq., of San Diego Corporate Law. Mr. Leonard focuses his practice on business law, transactional, and corporate matters, and he proudly provides legal services to business owners in San Diego and the surrounding communities. Mr. Leonard can be reached at (858) 483-9200 or via email.

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