Sometimes negotiators care so much about the issues at stake that they mistake compromise for surrender, says the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Sometimes they’re so confident things will go their way they don’t try hard enough.

The program’s list of the 10 Worst Negotiations of 2014 includes talks that failed for one or both of these reasons, as well as for numerous other lapses. “As we reflect on the shortcomings of 2014, let’s learn from the past and strive to negotiate more rationally in 2015.” the program says on its website.

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Crowell & Moring has posted the slides from a recent webinar on the recent ASBCA decision in Laguna Construction, which is likely to reverberate in 2015 and beyond. This case introduced the doctrine of “antecedent breach” in the ASBCA as a means of denying legitimate contractor claims.

In Laguna, after the completion of the contract, the contractor submitted a $3 million claim based on a dozen separate task orders under a large IDIQ contract, the firm explained on its website. Mid-way through litigation, two contractor employees pled guilty to receiving kickbacks from subcontractors on some, but not all, of the Task Orders at issue in the litigation. The Government then added Fraud as an affirmative defense at the Board, arguing that Laguna’s entire claim should be denied because Laguna’s employees had pled to Fraud on some of the Task Orders.

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A white paper provided by DocuSign Inc. focuses on the delivery of business-class electronic signature services, discussing the legal issues that must be addressed in the deployment of e-signature services.

The white paper provides an overview covering 1) the evolution of electronic contracting, 2) the legislation enabling electronic signature usage and 3) the key legal factors for successful deployment of an e-signature system. Subsequent sections then provide detail regarding the specific ways that the DocuSign architecture addresses these critical legal issues.

DocuSign says that electronic contracting is, fundamentally, contracting — and contract law fundamentals apply.

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A guide written by Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP partner Stanley Gibson helps the reader safely move contract or legal notices from certified mail, traditional fax, and courier delivery.

Readers will learn how to send notices by electronic means and receive irrefutable proof of compliance with notice requirements, essential to managing business risk. Readers will learn though example of common pitfalls and misconceptions with many electronic services, view a side-by-side comparison of technologies and service providers, and take away a scorecard that rates software, services, and methods across a list of best-practice requirements.

This Guide is designed to provide the detail legal professionals, contract managers, and technologists would need to implement an electronic delivery service that provides for all of the considerations and legal requirements essential to give electronic notices the highest evidential weight.

Download the white paper.

Jennifer Horn and Maria Panichelli presented the second webinar in their core construction curriculum series for Women Impacting Public Policy and Give Me 5%.

The free on-demand presentation, titled “Best Practices in Construction,” covers suggested best practices for before, during and after conclusion of a construction project, in the context of both state and federal contracts, the presenters say.

The presentation provides tips on contracting, documentation, compliance and claims prevention strategies.

Watch the on-demand webinar now.

Winstead has posted a complimentary on-demand webinar covering generally accepted negotiation conventions.

Whether settling a disputed claim or agreeing to a transaction, it is important to know the accepted ethical limits in negotiation strategies, the firm says on its website. For example, what is “material’ for purposes of Rule 4.01? This recorded webinar covers questions like this.

The target audience for the webinar are in-house counsel and other key decision-making litigation contacts at banks and financial institutions.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Alstom SA pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a record $772 million to end a U.S. Justice Department investigation into bribes paid to win power-plant contracts in Indonesia and other countries, Bloomberg News reports.

The fine is the largest criminal penalty paid to the Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Bloomberg News reports that Alstom Chief Executive Officer Patrick Kron said on Dec. 19 that the Levallois-Perret-based company will pay the fines connected to its energy businesses as its shareholders voted in favor of their sale to General Electric Co. GE agreed in June to buy most of the assets for $15.2 billion, GE’s biggest acquisition ever, and the purchase should close next year.

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The International Association for Contract and Commercial Management presents a free webinar designed to help participants establish contract management as a business competence. The webinar is offered through Seal Software.

The pressure for improved business controls continues to grow and contract management is increasingly seen as a critical discipline, Seal Software says on its website. However, short-term measures tend to focus on control and compliance and these inhibit – even undermine – longer-term value.

Topics include:

• The drivers of change transforming approaches to control and compliance
• Key steps in developing commercial competence
• How to improve quality in commercial judgment
• Gaining understanding of the critical tools
• From reactive to proactive – recognizing the indicators of failure

Watch the on-demand webinar.

NeoSystems Corp. has posted a free on-demand webinar on how to forecast, plan and optimize cash flow and cash management for government contractors.

Whether you’re looking to fund your growth or just meet payroll, every government contractor – big and small – needs to manage cash, NeoSystems says on its website.

“Consider the cash flow challenges of managing your contracts:  the timeline for paying your employees versus the timeline of billing your clients and waiting for your invoice to be paid can stress anyone’s cash reserves.  Add additional contract wins to the mix and many companies find themselves cash constrained at best.  Not to fear – these challenges can be overcome by effectively managing your cash flow,” NeoSystems says.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Baker Tilly presents a complimentary on-demand webinar discussing how to analyze an engineer-procure-construct contract for risk and plan to audit EPC projects.

The list of objectives for the webinar begins with understanding the fundamental delivery differences betweenEngineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) and Architect-Procure-Construction (APC).

Other objectives include: how to learn to identify the unique contract audit risks of EPC, and how to learn to identify EPC contract audit red flags.

Watch the on-demand webinar and download the slides.

Is there a merger or acquisition in your future? If your responsibilities include contract management, you need to be prepared for what’s ahead. With the transaction comes a vast collection of client and vendor contracts – hundreds or even thousands of them, full of unknown dates and data.

Merrill DataSite offers a complimentary white paper that offers some practical advice on handling the challenge properly.

How can you get your arms around this challenge?  The key to understanding what’s in all those contracts – and what’s at stake if you fail to prepare – is all in this complimentary white paper, Acquired contracts create urgent needs: How to manage the influx of contracts after an acquisition.

Merrill DataSite says readers of the white paper will learn:

• Post-merger contract challenges, both customer-related and vendor-related
• The difference between reactive and proactive contract management
• How to prevent costly post-merger contract mistakes

Download the white paper.

The Harvard Law School Program on Dispute Resolution offers a free white paper offering advice on understanding how relationships can help someone to negotiate even the most difficult conversations.

On its website, the Program on Dispute Resolution says the free special report provides strategies on successfully negotiating difficult disputes, preserving relationships, and reaching mutually beneficial agreements.

Topics include how to:

• Foster relationships by building rapport
• Manage conflict in long-term relationships
• Negotiate business decisions with family members

Download the free white paper.

The National Labor Relations Board is getting ready to issue an onslaught of law-changing decisions as we head into the holiday season, predicts The National Law Review.

This onslaught of change likely will be hastened by the departure of Board Member Nancy Schiffer, whose term is set to expire Dec. 16.  So, keep an eye out as of December 18 when the decisions are likely to be posted on the NLRB’s website, The Review suggests.

In the article, the Review says:

The NLRB Division of Advice has answered a question that has been the subject of many charges since the Board’s decision in Alan Ritchey, Inc., 359 NLRB No. 40 (December 14, 2012), where it held that in cases where a union has recently secured representational rights, the employer has a duty to bargain over discretionary aspects of discipline before imposition until an initial contract is reached. The Board’s decision in Alan Ritchey was invalidated by the Supreme Court earlier this year, yet the agency still applies its rationale as if nothing happened to the underlying case.

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The federal government doesn’t have a system that can help pair small business subcontractors with prime contracts, and existing contract-tracking systems aren’t up to the job either, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

FCW reports that connecting small business to prime contracts matters because federal law requires prime contractors to make good-faith efforts to award a portion of their subcontracts to small businesses, and in some cases to have small business subcontracting plans.

In a report released Dec. 11, GAO said it assessed the feasibility of using existing federal contract-reporting systems to connect small business subcontractors with prime contracts, and identified actions federal agencies are taking to help in the effort, FCW reports.

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PennEnergy has posted a complimentary white paper describing the emerging generation of more capable, cloud-based contract lifecycle management solutions.

The paper, sponsored by SciQuest, examines powerful trends driving oil and gas firms towards greater supply chain efficiencies, the elements in a modern contract management environment, and how best to implement such a solution.

On its website, PennEnergy says oil and gas firms often struggle with manual and obsolete contract management systems.  The costs of those outdated methods are high: wasted administrative time and money, lost operating efficiencies, missed opportunities including loss of potential revenue, and greater risk to the organization and to executives.

Download the white paper.

Advanced Software Concepts offers a complimentary white paper discussing some of the contract lifecycle management (CLM) problems that enterprises encounter and the ways businesses can deal with them effectively.

Managing contracts and agreements manually is inefficient and cumbersome, ASC says on its website. “Contracts get lost, incorrect contract terms are used, and contract renewals do not happen when they should, resulting in wasted organizational time, lost revenue and increased costs. Compounding this situation is the potential compliance risk and liability that organizations face when not using approved terms and conditions or not following proper business rules and approval workflows. Control over contractual agreements is essential to survive the scrutiny of a financial audit or to support litigation.”

Download the white paper.

Market Connections has posted a free white paper online titled “Contract Evaluation Research: A Competitive Advantage for Winning More Government Contracts.”

The white paper covers:

• Inside higher win rates: How to effectively use contract evaluations and customer satisfaction research
• The independent third party advantage: A path to relevant, actionable intelligence, and how to benchmark your results vs. peers
• Insider tips: How to use customer feedback in strategic decision-making, and executing more effective operational improvements

Download the white paper.

Revitas offers a free white paper discussing a recent study of manufacturing and technology professionals that examines how companies are managing their channel sales relationships.

Manufacturing and technology companies depend on channel sellers to drive revenue, Revitas says on its website.  “At the same time, they struggle to apply creative channel incentive strategies, and to understand which promotions successfully drive new business. Disjointed, aging contract, revenue, and compliance management systems are largely at fault.”

The company says this study evaluates obstacles facing companies and gauges drivers that would push them to explore new alternative solutions.

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Apttus is offering a free white paper on a survey that reveals what many companies identified as flaws in their contract management processes and steps that can be taken to improve them.

Berkman Solutions has posted a contracts-and-compliance white paper and slides examining the two primary sources of compliance obligations related to contracts: performance obligations and government regulations.

For each source of compliance challenge, this paper identifies methods to improve compliance and contract management.

Berkman Solutions says that compliance requirements touch every organization across industries. Regulations can lay down the rules of the road or impose barriers to business. Compliance is essential for success, like good brakes on a car. In any organization, contract management must be an integral part of compliance.

Read the white paper.