What is an enigma to me though, is how can people offer an effective course for such a low price.
Of course, if I just create a bunch of text material to read and some videos to watch, it is indeed possible to keep prices really low, because the marginal cost of a new student studying the same material is 0, or very close to 0. Such a course can be offered dirt cheap.
However, what if I offer live classes, top teachers with great credentials, personal feedback on assignments, career coaching, article writing and publishing, content which is updated on a monthly basis, hard copy material, recruitment support and such other services and not just some canned reading material along with a few videos you can watch in a couple of hours? My marginal cost of taking every new student will be substantial.
So the choice is clear. I think, if all you want is a certificate, you will find lots of courses that are cheaper, and in fact far easier to complete as opposed to LawSikho courses.
Recently, I was taking a mock interview of one of my students who was going to appear in a big law firm interview. I was pretending to be an interviewer and was asking her questions from her CV, so that she could prepare for her real interview well. One thing on her CV that she mentioned was a cyber law diploma she did from an organization in Mumbai when she was in her 3rd year of law college.
So I began to ask her some basic questions about cyber law. She could not answer. Before long, she decided to delete that diploma from her CV. Why? Because it is worse when you claim that you have a qualification but cannot answer questions in an interview or internship that you should be able to answer.
What happens when you said you can draft contracts in your application, citing a certificate course you have done from somewhere, but then it becomes evident during that internship that you do not know how to actually do the work? Does that reflect well on you? Does that make a potential employer want to hire you?
This lesson is more important for law students than lawyers. Lawyers already have experienced such problems and need not be convinced about this. They know the value of real skills and what happens when you have a certificate but no skills to back that.
Don’t put yourself into difficult situations because you need to make your CV bulkier.
Learn the real skills, rather than collecting a bunch of certificates. Our contract drafting course is geared towards teaching actual skills that clients pay for.
We recently updated our contract drafting course, and below are the new learning objectives.
It is fine if you cannot buy our course, because of problems of time, money or permission. You now have the entire list at your disposal, and you can always try and learn these things on your own. Print out this list, and use it as a checklist. Learn one skill at a time, from wherever you can.
Every skill from the list below that you learn will take you closer to success as a lawyer, because contract drafting is a foundational skill that every lawyer can benefit from.
- Gain exposure of strategic drafting and negotiation of high value commercial contracts
- Get hands on experience of drafting 100 types of most common commercial contracts
- Understand the technical and commercial aspects involved in advanced contract-specific negotiations
- Learn the art of drafting clauses to avoid ambiguous clauses and uncertain interpretations
- Review contracts with an objective of minimizing future disputes
- Develop the skills for negotiation of government contracts
- Learn the tricks of the trade for paying stamp duty, registration and execution of contracts
- Learn how to create or assess a negotiation strategy
- How can you prepare before walking into a high-value contract negotiation
- Learn how to quickly grasp the most important business aspects that dictate terms of any given contract
- Learn to perform a risk-analysis of any contract
- Get trained in understanding your client’s expectations, commercial objectives and ensuring your draft reflects the concerns of your clients
- Learn how to avoid mistakes that even seasoned lawyers end up making in the process of contract drafting and negotiation
- Learn skills for representing big corporations in contract negotiation and how it is different from working with smaller businesses and individuals
- Get access to hundreds of templates drafted by experts that you can learn from and actually use while doing client work
- Learn how to enforce contracts in case a term is violated, and how to decide if filing a breach of contract suit is worth it
- Learn to calculate damages for contractual breach
- Learn how to create standard format of contracts and use them successfully in any organization
- How AI softwares are changing contract drafting and what you need to learn
- Learn how to draft contracts effectively by understanding the operative clauses, boilerplate clauses and drafting clauses to mitigate risk that ensures maximum enforceability
- Identify commercial intent of the contracts across multiple industries like manufacturing, services, M&A, banking and finance, media and intellectual property, technology, public procurement etc.
- Understand the basic elements and the structure of typical contracts
- Learn how to appreciate your client’s needs and expectations and get specific instructions in writing that clients do not go back on
- Develop the skills for usage of words in your contract that give it a better clarity and precision and structurize the tone of the contract depending on your client’s needs
- Understand the expectations of law firms and companies from lawyers with respect to drafting and review of contracts
- Understand how you as a lawyer can add maximum value to a contract and provide clients what they need on a case by case basis
- Get introduced to common drafting errors and implement the tips on avoiding them that shall be taught throughout the course
- Get skilled in identifying and articulating major loopholes when you read a client’s existing contract or a previous draft for the first time
- Understand the formatting techniques necessary for efficacious and powerful drafting
- Learn to use a checklist while drafting contracts that would ensure you never miss a clause
- Learn about signing (execution), stamping, registration of contracts, attestation, notarization and apostillation of contracts and how it impacts their legal validity and enforceability
- Learn about the validity of old stamp papers and stamp papers from other states
- Learn about counterparts and their validity
- Understand how and when to create conditions precedent and conditions subsequent in a contract and allocate responsibility for their fulfilment
- Learn about the ‘closing’ of a contract and how to draft a closing/completion clause
- Learn how to specify obligations and allocate risks to the parties to avoid confusion later
- Learn how to make payment clauses watertight
- Identify when and how to create annexures for the contracts you draft
- Learn to skillfully draft various clauses like the term, termination and renewal clause
- Learn how to insert and customize boilerplate clauses
- Get a conceptual understanding about security documentation relating to the mortgage deed, hypothecation agreement and pledge agreement in negotiations relevant to the banking and finance sectors
- Learn how to draft an indemnity clause in a contract
- Get skilled in making amendments and variations in contracts
- Learn how to deal with situations where there may be an unenforceable part in a contract and draft the contractual provision of a severability clause to counter it
- Learn how to draft shareholders’ agreements
- Learn how to draft loan agreements
- Learn how to safeguard intellectual property of the parties to a contract
- Identify ways to mitigate your liability in case of Force Majeure, and clearly specify who will be responsible to which extent in cases when no one can be held responsible
- Learn how to keep information of the parties to the contract confidential and draft an effective confidentiality clause for that purpose
- Understand how to insert an effective non-compete clause and its variations
- How to specify territory and governing law on the parties to the contract to prevent future inconvenience and disputes between the parties
- Learn how to draft breach of terms clause and how to effectively identify breach
- Understand how to clearly mention consequences in the event of breach
- Understand when a party can rescind from a contract and when he gets discharged
- Learn how to claim specific enforcement of contracts
- How to obtain permanent, temporary and mandatory injunctions
- Gain expertise for the defences available in case of breach of a contract
- Get guidance from the experts to expand the deal to create win-win strategies
- Learn how to negotiate with an institution and multiple stakeholders
- Learn how to draft an effective dispute resolution and arbitration clause
- Learn how to resolve disputes through arbitration – how to initiate arbitration proceedings, how to appoint arbitrators, how to challenge their appointment, and how to challenge the validity of an arbitration agreement
- Learn about the powers and limitations of arbitral tribunals, and stages where court intervention can be sought
- Learn how to effectively draft a notice of commencement of arbitration, statement of claims and defence
- Learn how to get interim relief in an arbitration
- Learn about the pros and cons of institutional arbitration and how to select an arbitration institution for your client
- Learn how to get arbitration awards enforced and challenge the arbitration awards
- Learn how to deal with infringements of the rights of the third-parties who are not a party to the contract
Diploma
Diploma in Companies Act, Corporate Governance and SEBI Regulations | Fee: INR 28,000 | Last date of enrolment: 14th August, 2019 | Course Duration: 1 Year | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Diploma in Cyber Law, Fintech Regulations and Technology Contracts | Fee: INR 28,000 | Last date of enrolment: 31st August, 2019 | Course Duration: 1 Year | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Executive Certificate Courses
Certificate Course in Real Estate Laws | Fee: INR 14,000 | Last date of enrolment: 14th August 2019 | Course Duration: 3 months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate Course in Arbitration: Strategy, Procedure and Drafting | Fee: INR 14,000 | Last date of enrolment: 14th August 2019 | Course Duration: 3 months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate Course in Legal Practice Development and Management | Fee: INR 29,500 | Last date of enrolment: August 31. 2019 | Course Duration: 15 weeks | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate Course in Advanced Criminal Litigation & Trial Advocacy | Fee: INR 14000 | Last date of enrolment: August 31, 2019 | Course Duration: 3 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate Course in Labour, Employment and Industrial Laws for HR Managers | Fee: INR 18,000 | Last date of enrolment: August 31, 2019 | Course Duration: 6 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate course in Companies Act | Fee: INR 14000 | Last date of enrolment: August 31, 2019 | Course Duration: 3 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate course in Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code | Fee: INR 14000 | Last date of enrolment: August 31, 2019 | Course Duration: 3 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate Course in Trademark Licensing, Prosecution and Litigation | Last date of enrolment: August 31, 2019 | Course Duration: 3 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate Course in Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) Litigation | Last date of enrolment: August 31, 2019 | Course Duration: 3 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Certificate Course in Consumer Litigation | Last date of enrolment: August 31, 2019 | Course Duration: 3 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
Test Preparation
Judgment Writing and Drafting Course for Judicial Services | Fee: INR 9,900 | Last date of enrolment: September 15, 2019 | Course Duration: 2 Months | Seats: 20 | To enroll: click here.
