[Hi everyone!
I’m back from vacation and super excited about all the big projects in the works at How to Contract has ahead. Rin Santiago and I have been building out a fantastic webinar series with important topics coming in the months ahead. We’ll be sharing a lot more about ContractsCon in the weeks ahead as we get closer to the end of our early bird pricing period on July 15.
Our biggest development is my launch this past Monday of a new email series. I’ll be sharing training insights from past webinars on a single AI product provision or narrow concept explained by our experts in past webinars. The first issue focused on AI incident reporting obligations. I’ve added the link below in case you missed it. Keep a look out for the next edition on Monday. It’s a great way for you and your team to get in some micro-learning when things are busy.
As always, thank you so much for your support. You make all this possible.
- Laura Frederick, CEO at How to Contract 🥸❤️]
Here’s what’s included in this week’s newsletter:
QUICK TAKE
What Protects Your Client When the Contract Doesn’t
Contracts only protect our clients so much. And that protection is even less when non-negotiable terms are imposed on them. It's an uncomfortable and difficult spot to be in, especially so for clients whose entire business runs on a platform that controls all the rules and can change those anytime.
This topic came up in our webinar yesterday about video game contracts with Adam Starr, General Counsel of Do Big Studios, and Keith Cooper, a partner at Cooper & Iravani. Adam and Keith described a contracting structure for platforms like Roblox and Fortnite that leave content creators completely exposed.
How should we be counseling our clients facing these non-negotiable contract terms?
AI CONTRACT DRAFTING
Learn How to Evaluate Personal Data Definitions in AI Contracts
Our AI contract drafting lesson this week focused on personal data definitions in AI contracts. This lesson includes a 12-minute video and a downloadable PDF to help you understand these essential provisions. Access the lesson below!
FREE TRAINING
Upcoming CLE Webinars
How to Contract is taking a two week hiatus from our webinar programs. Our next webinar will be on July 14. Sign up today to make sure you don’t miss it. Our upcoming training programs all come with CLE (pending) and are sponsored by Spellbook.
OUR SPONSOR
Get 10% Off When You Subscribe to Spellbook!
Our sponsor, Spellbook, is offering the contracts community 10% off your first year's subscription if you attend a Spellbook-sponsored webinar or fill out this form. Spellbook offers an incredible legal AI suite for transactional lawyers and legal teams that lets you draft, review, and redline contracts 10x faster, right in Word.
Gif by HarrisCountyPublic on Giphy
MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
Learn Business Judgment With Our Library of 220+ Hours of Expert Training Videos
How to Contract’s massive library now includes over 220 hours of training videos featuring experts on all the commercial and tech transactions topics we’ve covered in our programs over the past five and a half years. Need to understand how to do a contract amendment? There’s a video training on that. Want to learn about synthetic data in AI contracts? We’ve got one on that too. Head over to our site to learn more about the insights you’ll gain access to as a How to Contract member.
MEME OF THE WEEK
Why are so many oblivious to their contract template's shortcomings?
If you have an outdated, error-ridden, and inapplicable contract that your business leads apologize for, you should welcome changes from counterparties fixing it for you.
CONTRACT TIPS
Letting Your Clients Set the Tone in a Negotiation
Today's contract tip is about letting your clients set the tone in a negotiation.
It is their negotiation, not yours.
Our clients have their own negotiating styles. Some prefer a direct approach and don't worry about offending the other side. Others like to take a friendlier tone and tread carefully on sensitive topics.
On strategic or complex deals, I usually ask my clients how they want me to interact with the other side.
I can be theatrical and demanding, taking the role of the bad cop and setting my client up to play the nice one.
I can be nice and friendly, using kindness and empathy to bring the two sides together.
Many of my sophisticated clients know exactly what role they want me to play. With my longer-term clients, I've learned over the course of many negotiations.
My natural approach is to be nice and build rapport. I believe my clients are best served in most cases with a friendlier and cooperative approach. But I remember that this is their negotiation, not mine.
I'll never be unethical or act in a way that betrays my personal values. But in the end, I'm here to support my clients. They are my priority. They are in charge.
🥸 Here are a few more contract tips I recently posted on LinkedIn:
Let us know if you have any questions or feedback by replying to this email or email us directly at [email protected]. We are so grateful for our amazing contracts community.
All my best,
Laura Frederick, Founder and CEO @ How to Contract
