2 day workshop on Drafting Commercial Contracts is back! Join us on 16th and 17th September (Sat – Sun), iPleaders Delhi Office, INR 4500, Register by 14th September, [20 seats only]

We had an amazing contract drafting workshop last month, and your support for it was incredible. There was so much that everyone learnt, and the energy in the room was riveting. We have decided to hold the workshop again on 16th – 17th September.

If you are interested in knowing what the workshop will be about and what you should expect from it, go on.

What, according to you, stops young lawyers from drafting their best contracts?  

Reading a contract (or a book on contract drafting) and drafting contracts everyday are entirely different ball games. You may have read a book, you may know how to draft, but you may find yourself stuck when it comes to drafting the right clause all by yourself. It can give you a tremendous sense of responsibility and fear.

Even if you have been drafting, reviewing and vetting contracts for years, some external discussion and guidance always helps. While working in isolation, there is always a risk of picking up and developing unhealthy habits (and this applies to drafting contracts as well).

Typical barriers which creep up, irrespective of one’s level of knowledge are:

• Anxiety and fear, which stop us from even typing a contract, or takes up too much time and reduces productivity.
• Focussing on issues which are not important for the client.

There is so little that is taught in law schools about contract drafting that any real life practice you can get is worth having. We met people who worked in companies, who were bold enough to share with us that they have only learnt through trial and error, and despite that they have no access to be sure about the correctness of what they are doing!

Many practices are superfluous, anachronistic or even counter-productive, but out of lack of clarity, there has been a resistance to improve in the corporate sector. Why? If there’s a mistake, who will take responsibility?

In internships you rarely get work beyond proof-reading of a contract. Proofreading skills and contract drafting skills are poles apart. In a law firm, the seniors and partners don’t have time to teach you and you have to figure out things yourself.

However, there is a cost to that – you don’t develop as a professional, and clients can be put off very easily by this work.

What is the downside of not learning and sharpening your contract drafting skills in law school?  

If you don’t have contract drafting skills, it has a very visible impact on your career:

1. You don’t have an opportunity to distinguish yourself in interviews, which simply wipes off many jobs you could have secured.  
2. When you start work, seniors don’t give you any concessions for not knowing contract drafting beforehand, despite knowing that you were not taught this in law school, and despite not having learnt this themselves in law school.
3. You will end up taking too much time on drafting assignments, spending time on trivia and technical factors which do not impact the direction of the deal. Clients and seniors can get the experience that you are not focussing on their business and the deal, but are wasting time on technical aspects at their cost, and you’ll not know why. In fact, on one of his first assignments at Trilegal, Abhyuday, co-founder of iPleaders, had spent almost two hours listing the statutory provisions that the other side must comply with in one of the clauses to the contract, which was later replaced by my senior adding a simple ‘The client will comply with all statutory requirements’ by his seniors. He spent two hours on something that should have taken only 30 seconds to a minute. This was only one area of improvement, and there were countless others which he learnt over the year.

iPleaders is announcing a live 2-day workshop on Drafting Commercial Contracts to impart the next level of practical training, which will be led by Bhumesh Verma, Founder and Manager of Corp. Comm. Legal, who was earlier a partner at several big law firms in India.

There are only 20 seats, and you will get in-depth guidance and personalized feedback.   

Imagine applying yourself to construct an entire contract from scratch. Imagine unlocking your mind to think freely of all the different permutations and combinations in which you can draft each clause. You will dive into the situation head on and get extensive practice and feedback.  

What will your performance be like if you learn and practice drafting contracts clause by clause and learn from the expertise of a senior partner?  

How much time, struggle and effort will you save in your career? What will that be worth? What kind of results will you create?    

Even if you have read a book or taken a course on contract drafting earlier, we suggest you participate and don’t miss out on the opportunity. At the end of the workshop, you will have a new level of freedom with drafting contracts.

Dates and Timings

16th September (Saturday): 4 pm – 9 pm

17th September (Sunday): 11 am – 5 pm

Those who are interested can register here.

What will you learn in the workshop?

When you first start working on drafting contracts, certain practical questions need to be answered:

• What your client expects and how to add maximum value to transactions?
• How can you ensure that every contract you create is your best contract?
• Is your client’s interest being adequately expressed in words, timelines and money? How will you know if the contract adequately protects your client’s interest?
• How should you work with templates? How to decide what to add, edit or delete?
• How to foresee new kinds of risks that the parties didn’t contemplate and allocate responsibility for them?
• How to express your client’s intentions in language even if you haven’t drafted that kind of contract earlier contract?
• How to review contracts quickly and suggest changes that matter?
• What to look for in contracts will conducting M&A or banking & finance due diligence?

Key exercises and methodology of the workshop

You will learn how to draft more than 20 critical clauses and perform very interesting exercises that simulate real life situations, such as finding a missing clause in a template, preparing a list for a client and drafting a real contract from scratch, without any precedent during the workshop.  

In the process, you will get a real sense of what happens at each stage from the time when the client briefs you till the point you complete the work. You will also get the point behind each and every word in each clause you write and appreciate its relevance. It will literally get into your second nature. Your contracts will also be very sharp and precise.

It is very different from copying things from a template or reading in a book. The kind of energy you discover will move you.   

• Draft contracts and clauses from scratch, and without any precedents and templates.   
• Get one-to-one feedback on your work.  
• Participate in teams and groups to represent your interest.
• Identify gaps in clauses and suggest critical modifications.
• Move beyond your fears and doubts and draft with ease.  

Day-wise itinerary and syllabus

16th September (Saturday):  4 pm – 9 pm   

• What is the gap in how students & professionals learn drafting?
• What should be your primary focus while drafting an agreement?
• How to capture commercials from your client for drafting an agreement?
• How and when to use precedents / templates and when not to?
• Creation of an agreement clause-by-clause.
• Why and how you should balance a draft?
• How to remember all that you learn in the workshop for your life?

Exercises

1. Write, edit and critique clauses of a contract (this will be a group-level contract creation exercise. You will give up any fear of drafting a contract).   
2. Prepare a requisition list for capturing commercials for an agreement from your client.
3. Identify missing clauses in a template for an agreement.

You will get a 30 minutes snack break (tea and biscuits will be provided, for anything else, you will need to make your own arrangements. There are plenty of places nearby.)

17th September (Sunday):  11 am – 5 pm

All day exercises and contract drafting session

You will be drafting two contracts and get live coaching as you draft it. You will first get an overview of what such a transaction does, the commercials of the deal and the interest of the client. However, we will not give you templates, the intention is to free you up completely to draft in any situation.

• Joint Venture Agreement
• Lease Agreement

Identify missing clauses in a template

You will have a 1 hour lunch break between 1 – 2 pm (You can step out or have a biryani at the venue.)

Faculty

The session will be led by Bhumesh Verma, Founder & Managing Partner at Corp Comm. Legal at iPleaders New Delhi Office. He has been a partner at Khaitan & Co., Paras Kuhad & Associates and Link Legal India Law Service and has authored a very successful book on Drafting of Commercial Agreements.  

Address

iPleaders Office (New Delhi),

33A, Mehrauli Badarpur Road,

Saidulajab, (Around 100m walk from Saket Metro Station (Saidulajab Exit) on the main road)

New Delhi – 110030.    

Landmarks: Next to Lingaya’s Building / Red Onion Restaurant on Mehrauli Badarpur Road  

Cost

INR 4,500

Seats

20 only, selected on a first-come-first-serve basis (block your seat by registering here).

In case you have any questions, feel free to call us on 011-33138901 or write to [email protected].

Best Regards,

Team iPleaders