Calgary Contract Lawyer

CALGARY CONTRACT LAWYER

Contract Review

The challenge associated with business agreements and contracts is the lack of familiarity that most people have with reviewing such contractual agreements, that even though they might understand the practical concepts that were the basis for the commercial arrangement, how they interact within the legal construct of a contract requires an experienced perspective as to how real world operations interconnect with contractual specifics.

The complexity is further exacerbate by the challenges arising in the petroleum sector, making it often more pivotal that the appropriate legal professional is engaged in the reviewing contractual matters pertaining to oil and gas related business. With other high-powered attorneys having developed the initial version of the legal agreement, that strives to protect and advance the best interests of their corporate client (which are not necessarily aligned with your own business interests), it is incumbent that you retain the legal services of the appropriate contract lawyer and law firm.

Contract Negotiation

The negotiation of business contracts requires the interplay of knowledgeable negotiating skills, an understanding of the business specifics, the contract's intended purposes, and a strategy to realize an acceptable (and profitable) final agreement. Meeting these objectives in the negotiation process is critical to attaining the desired contractual arrangement with your negotiating counterparts. The challenge is convincing them to accept your requirements so as to make to forge the commercial relationship that will advance each party's interests.

Contract Drafting / Writing

When drafting business contracts, the importance of having legal counsel who can write and articulate your intended goals, while extrapolate contractual aspects that you might not necessarily have considered, yet are nevertheless of critical importance to the commercial arrangements that your company is seeking to forge.

At Neufeld Legal P.C., we endeavor to develop and write legal contracts that focus on the critical aspects of the business arrangement, while recognizing the specific nuances associated with being engaged in the oil and gas sector. The drafting process unfortunately is an inexact science, with a multitude variables and future uncertainties, combined with the need to oftentimes accept or compromise on otherwise unacceptable terms.

What we strive to do is ascertain and surmise your objectives, your contribution to the arrangement, your legal exposure, your potential liabilities and those of your counterparts (together with further aspects that are to be tackled in the drafting process). We than seek to confer these elements to paper and through the process of negotiaton with your counterparty, attempt to retain, if not strengthen, those elements that your company deems essential or necessary. And where compromise is required, such compromise cannot be allowed to cannibalize your agreement, but instead see permissible modifications, which don't jeopardize your company's ability to realize its objective goals.

The ultimate goal being the realization of a written agreement with which your company is capable of working with. It may not necessarily be everything you wanted or intended. It might not be as profitable as you may have contemplated. However, on balance, it has to work to your advantage (while mitigating dangers and liabilities to your company).

Contract Dispute Resolution / Enforcement

Navigating your company through contractual disputes can be extremely stressful and disruptive, with the potential of causing significant damage to your business and its reputation. And with contractual disputes having become increasingly prevalent, it is necessary to take both proactive measures (related to the review, negotiation and writing of the actual business agreements), but also dealing with the enforcement and dispute resolution side.

Attaining the appropriate tactical advice when seeking to enforce or resolve a dispute, benefits from initiating the process early on, as this provides the possibility of minimizing its impact to you and your business. However, as every contractual dispute is different, with so much being dependent upon the personalities of the parties to the contractual arrangement, the strategy and approach for tackling each enforcement or dispute resolution situation must be specifically tailored and pursued to realize the optimal results (which isn't necessarily the preferred result, though hopefully a result that you and your company are capable of accepting and moving forward from).

Calgary contract lawyer Christopher R. Neufeld of Neufeld Legal P.C.can be contacted at Chris@CalgaryBusinessLawyer.ca or 403-400-4092.

Key Contract Law Work: Review - Negotiation - Drafting - Dispute Resolution