Inside Counsel lists some of the best practices that counsel can easily adopt that will help develop process standards to boost contracting efficiency.

In the piece, Cyndie Cox examines some practical ways that you can drive more efficiency into the creation, negotiation and review of contracts across your legal team. With this information, you can fight the stereotype that legal is an impediment to closing deals and make yourself a star with the sales team, she writes.

She says it is important to find a good balance between closing deals quickly and mitigating risk.

Read the article.

Optimus BT will present a complimentary webinar for legal and contract teams looking to manage full contract lifecycle from drafting contracts, to approvals, eSignatures and contract administration.

The webinar will be Thursday, August 28, beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

This webinar will show case how eContracts, a SharePoint and Office 365 based software, can be used to implement various contract management processes within the enterprise with a special focus on legal document collaboration and workflow processes related to managing contract reviews and approvals between various parts of the organization, Optimus BT says on its website.

The webinar also will demonstrate eSignature capabilities as part of this overall demonstration of automating enterprise contract processes.

Register for the webinar.

The Association of Corporate Counsel offers a free on-demand webcast focusing on advanced drafting and negotiating strategies that may be used in connection with virtually every type of contract. The webcast was sponsored by Arent Fox LLP.

The strategies discussed in this 90-minute webcast are useful for technology agreements, contracts concerning the provision of products and services to state and local governments, and agreements relating to mergers and acquisitions.  The presenters also discuss how to respond effectively to various drafting and negotiation strategies that the other party may employ.

Speakers are Alan Fishel, Partner, Arent Fox; and Jessica Lorden, Associate General Counsel, IBM Corporation.

Kendrick Royer, Assistant General Counsel, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, is moderator.

Watch the webcast.

Are your contracting and revenue management processes jamming you up? Revitas offers a free on-demand webcast designed to help participants set up a well-planned route to relieve the jams.

Navigating a route filled with obstacles – poorly designed or outdated processes, miscommunications, oversights, and variable external conditions – can hinder any organizations ability to reach their goals efficiently and effectively, Reivtas says on its website.

This recorded webcast, “Traffic Update: Re-Routing to the Intersection of Contract and Revenue Management”, explores approaches to properly managing contracting and revenue management processes and map out a route for success. Watch now to learn:

• Best practices for integrating your contracts and financials
• The value and impact of accurate financial accruals
• Impacts of poor contracts on your bottom line
• Consequences of  viewing contracts as only a legal device

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Termination for convenience clauses can be found in almost any type of contract, so it is important to understand just what these clauses can (and cannot) accomplish, writes Roberts McGivney Zagotta LLC in its blog.

In the United States, there is no national standard or uniformly applicable rule for the interpretation of TFC clauses, each state may apply its own law — or, more specifically, the law of the state the parties consent to apply governs, the firm writes. However, TFC clauses generally cause confusion for businesses because of their name: such clauses, misleadingly do NOT generally allow one party to simply terminate a contract for simple “convenience”.

The article describes a termination-for-convenience-clause case the firm handled for one of its clients.

Read the article.

Whether you’re bringing on a new hire or renegotiating a current employee’s contract, you need to stay on the legal level in negotiations, writes FindLaw on its website. Brett Snider wrote the article for FindLaw’s Free Enterprise blog.

As Forbes reports, many employers are getting pretty brazen with how they (mis)treat potential employees in salary negotiations or interviews, the posting says. But you don’t want to begin your employee-employer relationship to begin on tenuous or legally shaky ground.

The five tips include: “Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep” and “Be Open to Changing Boilerplate Clauses.”

Read the article.

Indemnity provisions in construction contracts are not mere boilerplate that can be overlooked, the National Law Review says on its website.

During the contracting process, indemnity clauses require careful thought, negotiation and drafting. And when an accident occurs or another problem arises, the parties should thoroughly review the indemnity language of their contract.

That is the main lesson of a recent Barnes & Thornburg appellate victory.

The posting, written by Kenneth M. Gorenberg, a partner in the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a member of the firm’s Litigation Department, describes the background of the construction contract case and the developments leading to the appellate ruling.

Read the article.

One of the biggest mistakes that a startup entrepreneur can make, is not knowing the art of negotiation. How do you reach a winning negotiation for both sides?

In a video, Patrick Bet-David of Valuetainment Weekly discusses the mistakes startup entrepreneurs make in negotiation.

He said that sometimes new entrepreneurs are advised to go for the big win. But, “if one persons wins in a negotiation, then one person loses. The person losing will probably not do business again with the person winning,” he said.

Watch the video.

Revitas offers an on-demand webcast on measuring post-execution contract performance.

Analyzing the performance of a contract post signature provides organizations the opportunity to better understand just how productive each contract truly is, Revitas says on its website.

Contract processes, terms, and conditions must be optimized and carefully managed in order to continually develop agreements that will drive business – and ultimately result in ongoing success. Top executives simply can’t risk company success on contracts they can’t evaluate.

The webinar covers:

• Why measuring contract performance benefits the overall lifecycle
• Key post-execution metrics to track
• Best practices for measuring contract performance
• Transforming metrics into actionable insight

View the webinar.

Michael Elkon of Fisher & Phillips presented a webinar about non-compete agreements, trade secrets and computer protection laws.

The free webinar is now available on-demand.

In a world where employees can take valuable trade secrets on a flash drive that fits on a key chain or using an email that can be the proverbial needle in a haystack of a sent folder, companies have to focus on protecting their trade secrets on the front end, Fisher & Phillips says on its website.

Additionally, in an economy where relationships and information take precedence, it is critical for a company to both retain its employees entrusted with those assets and also effectively recruit talent from competitors in a legally sound manner.

View the webinar.

Selectica offers an on-demand webinar on how contract discovery lets you leverage legacy contracts to drive enterprise-wide value, efficiency and risk management.

Businesses are built on contracts. Successful contract management in the enterprise includes insights, control, compliance, and monetization, Selectica says on its website. But your organization may have thousands of unaccounted for or poorly managed contracts — perhaps tens of thousands — that are creating unnecessary risks, causing lost revenues, and eroding your enterprise’s hard-earned brand equity and business relationships.

The webinar helps participants:

• Gain insights based on Gartner, Inc. research, etc. into corporate counsel, procurement, and contract management trends influenced by changing compliance needs, processes, and technologies
• See a comprehensive overview of contract discovery, migration, and management best practices that can provide a positive impact for your organization
• Learn from use cases on what works and what to avoid in the context of contract lifecycle management for the modern enterprise

See the webinar.

The U.S. General Services Administration will present a webinar aimed at helping participants learn learn more about Small Business Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs).

The free webinar will be Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, 1-2 p.m. Central time.

On its website, the agency says its portfolio includes 8(a) STARS, STARS II, VETS, and Alliant Small Business. Each contract is designed to provide worldwide IT services-based solutions to federal agencies, while strengthening opportunities in federal contracting for small businesses and helping agencies meet or exceed their socioeconomic goals.

Each participant will earn one (1) continuous learning point (CLP).

Topics include:

• Small Business GWAC history
• Features and benefits
• Successes
• Highlights of current Small Business GWACs
• Support for industry partners
• New initiatives

Register for the webinar.

DLA Piper will present a complimentary webinar on recent cases and changes to contract law. The webinar will be Friday, Sept. 19.

This session will focus on a handful of cases and changes to the law that will be of interest to any practitioner working with technology and sourcing contracts.

Speakers will be Jan Pohle and Stephen Wright, DLA Piper partners.

To register please send an email to rachel.tonkin@dlapiper.com.

The Merrill DataSite team is offering a complimentary white paper on finding the right contract management system.

The report can be downloaded.

Selecting the right contract management system can be overwhelming, said a Merrill spokesman. There are so many choices … so many vendors … so many sales pitches. Which option is right for you and your company?

The first and biggest challenge is understanding the five basic types of systems:

• Internally built
• IT built, internally developed
• ERP integrated systems
• Vendor built, installed systems
• Vendor built, web based systems

Each of these types of systems has inherent advantages and disadvantages. Once you understand those, three quarters of the work is done. To help you make sense of your options, we’ve created the complimentary white paper, Finding the right contract management system, that explains and compares the five basic types of systems, including an easy-to-scan comparison chart.

Download the white paper.

Kenneth A. Adams, author of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, has posted a free video titled “Drafting and Reviewing Confidentiality Agreements.”

Confidentiality agreements play an essential but frustrating role in the transactional world, Adams said. Essential because protecting one’s trade secrets and other confidential information plays an increasingly important role in business. Frustrating because lawyers and contract-management personnel spend an inordinate amount of time drafting and reviewing confidentiality agreements and wrestling with the subtle and awkward issues they often raise.

Adams said this webcast presents a practical, structured, and up-to-date overview of key topics relating to different kinds of confidentiality agreements. Besides Adams, the speakers are Chris Lemens, general counsel of General Information Services, Inc.; and Glenn West, a partner at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

See the video here.

Security & Sustainability Forum will present a webinar on the use of energy service company contracts. The one-hour event will be Thursday, July 24, at 1:15 p.m.

The value of energy services company (ESCO) contracts has been well documented after 30+ years of deployments. Until recently, renewable energy has been too expensive with long paybacks which did not line up with traditional energy conservation measures. However, the recent reduction in cost combined with technological performance advancements makes renewable energy, such as solar PV, desirable in ESCO contracts.

In this webinar, a panel comprised of industry, finance and government leaders, will break down an actual case study and provide insight on the advantages and pitfalls.

Register for the webinar.

Scott & Scott and Iron Mountain will present a webinar on the risks associated with cloud contracts and methods to mitigate those risks, including effective use of software escrow agreements.

The webinar will be July 30 at 10 a.m. Central time.

Join Robert Scott of Scott & Scott, LLP and Frank Bruno of Iron Mountain will be the presenters.

Cloud contracts come with significant risks for security and privacy, business continuity, intellectual property and third-party litigation, especially as they relate to sudden cessation of business or an extended outage that is beyond the control of the provider, said a Scott & Scott spokesman.  Companies have difficulty entrusting critical business processes to the cloud without certain protections in place.

Register for the webinar.

Merrill DataSite has published a white paper on the technical feasibility of contract management systems.

A Merrill spokesman said the paper outlines everything you need to know about potential technical challenges and contract management systems. The paper can help arm someone with all the tools needed to make the best choice and get IT on board – plus look and sound very smart.

Download the white paper.

About DataSite

Merrill DataSite is a complete, secure virtual data room solution that optimizes the due diligence process by overcoming the many limitations of a traditional paper data room. Accessible from an Internet browser, Merrill DataSite dramatically reduces transaction time and expense and allows for multiple parties and prospective buyers to participate concurrently in the due diligence process.