We will organise a new series of contract drafting courses. In collaboration with the Network Ondernemende Juristen (here is their website). The course is meant for experienced legal counsel and entitled:
The training sessions will be on Tuesday evenings, 26 February, 12 & 26 March and 9 & 23 April at the offices of Netwerk OndernemendeJuristen in Amsterdam.
The contract drafting course is targeted at legal counsel with broad experience in drafting contracts. The course is given by Willem Wiggers (Weagree). The emphasis will be on aspects of writing an unambiguous contract (and not so much on recent case law). The language of instruction will be Dutch, clause examples will be from English-language agreements.
The programme is divided into five blocks of two+ hours each. Each block can be followed independently from the others:
1. Drafting techniques – Tuesday 26 February
(tricks for improving readability and avoiding ambiguities). Subject matters:
- Preventing ambiguity
- Where in a text is the most important information? (The “left-right principle” and the “pyramid principle”)
- Drafting ‘conceptually’ (not exhaustively)
- Techniques to keep it short
2. Setting up and drafting an agreement (1/2) – Tuesday 12 March
- Contract structure (do’s and don’ts, schedules and annexes)
- Letter agreements, side letters and LOI’s
- Best practice rules for drafting recitals, definitions, conditions and covenants
3. Setting up and drafting an agreement (2/2) – Tuesday 26 April
- Drafting warranties, limitations of liability and indemnities
- Dispute resolution (arbitration vs. court) and applicable law clauses
- Miscellaneous clauses (about counterparts, severability, ‘entire agreement’ and other boilerplates)
4. Legalese, other misfits and numbers in contracts – Tuesday 9 April
- The misuse of various typical contract phrases (e.g. for the avoidance of doubt, deemed to be, without limitation)
- Archaic doublets & triplets (“acknowledge and agree”, “indemnify and hold harmless”, “made and entered into”, “right, title and interest”, “execute and deliver”)
- Guidelines for using numbers and figures in contracts (e.g. 30 (thirty))
5. Cross-border contracting: the main foreign legal systems – Tuesday 23 April
- Typical common-law-features and their impact on agreements (consideration, remedies, deeds, miscellaneous-clauses, “in witness whereof”)
- Contracting under foreign law (what should be your focal points and where can you be more confident): a tour d’horizon of French and German law vs. ‘the’ common law
- Remaining subjects from previous blocks
The costs are 180 euro per evening. Paying members of the OJ Network pay only 120 euro per evening. The course evenings are from 19:00-21:15 h. (doors open at 18:30 h.) at the offices of OndernemendeJuristen Emmastraat 40, 1075 HL Amsterdam. You will earn 1 credit points for the Dutch Bar per attended course hour, and will receive a certificate afterwards.
