We are looking forward to connecting with you at the 2018 CSIA Executive Conference. We hope you will join us on Thursday, April 26 at 9:45 a.m. for round two of our critically acclaimed Contract negotiation of the year. As you may remember from round one at the 2014 CSIA Executive Conference in San Diego, we were able to come to an agreement, but not without some jokes (and bicycle horn honks) along the way.
We are working on our lines for this exciting negotiation tips-in-action presentation, and we believe there are lines that you should be using every day in your business, too. Here are three that you should always keep in mind during your own contract negotiations:
- “This contract is our entire agreement.” Contract negotiations can span weeks, and even months. When you finally come to an agreement, you want to be sure the other party is not relying on any previous conflicting or inconsistent proposals or representations. Include a knock-out provision in your agreement that expressly rejects all terms not included in the final contract.
- “I am not responsible for events outside my control.” While it would be nice, you have no control over the weather. The same goes for civil disturbances and unavailable materials or shipping delays. Make sure you are not responsible for any delays attributed to circumstances outside your control by including a force majeure provision in your agreement.
- “My liability has limits.” Your company will only make a certain sum from a project and we believe that your liability should be limited to a certain sum too. Include a provision in your contract that caps your financial risk for a project, either by eliminating your responsibility for certain types of damages (such as consequential damages), or by establishing a limitation of liability term set at a certain amount (e.g., the amount of insurance proceeds available), or both.
We are excited to bring this presentation to those attending the CSIA Executive Conference and we will be providing many more lines for you to use in contract negotiations. If you have questions about negotiating a contract in the meantime, read more about the contract negotiation, revision and rewriting benefits that are available to you as a CSIA member from the CSIA Legal Plan at www.faegrebd.com/csialegalplan.
See you in San Francisco!
Mark Voigtmann and Brian Clifford are partners in the industrial construction and automation practice at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, a full service law firm. Faegre Baker Daniels is legal counsel to the CSIA. Mark and Brian can be reached at Mark.Voigtmann@faegrebd.com and Brian.Clifford@faegrebd.com.
#legal