Contract Law
A contract – an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do or refrain from doing an act which is enforceable in a court of law – can touch upon almost any subject matter. In business, there are contracts that are common to most companies and sometimes use relatively standard contract language, and then there are contracts that are unique to a particular industry or situation. No two contracts are exactly alike.
Contract Negotiations
In our practice of contract law, the first step is to carefully and fully document the parties’ objectives, the “basis of the bargain,” and also provide for those issues to which little, if any, thought has been given by the parties. These issues include defining what constitutes an event of default, cure periods (if any), termination rights, resort to alternative dispute resolution (mediation and arbitration) or to courts, venue for resolving any dispute, availability of recovering a party’s attorneys’ fees and a plethora of other issues, both of general nature and content-specific terms. We provide employment, distributorship, franchise, sales, non-compete and non-solicitation agreements to protect our clients. Having drafted contracts covering numerous situations in a wide variety of industries allows us to help you achieve and secure your objectives for any contract negotiation.
A sampling of the contract law services provided to small- and medium-sized businesses and individuals include:
- Asset Purchase Agreements
- Buy-Sell Agreements
- Confidentiality Agreements
- Covenants Not-to-Compete (Non-Competition Agreements)
- Distributorship
- Employment
- Franchise Agreements
- Licensing Agreements
- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
- Non-Solicitation Agreements
- Physician Employment Agreements
- Sales
- Stock Purchase Agreements
Contract Law Articles
Contract Law: It Takes Two to Tango!
Just as in dancing, it always takes two to make an enforceable contract. In a recent contract law case involving a national restaurant chain, the court held that because a management representative of the restaurant chain had not signed the agreement, which contained...
Promises, Promises
The Missouri Court of Appeals recently considered whether an electrical contractor pleaded sufficient facts to establish that a “promise” was made by a general contractor to use the electrical company on a building project for St. Louis County. In its petition, the...
YOU WROTE IT, WHY NOT SIGN IT?
Sign your agreement! There are just some things I don't understand.One of them is why a company, a union, or an employer has their counterpart sign an agreement and yet they themselves never sign it. Sometimes the agreement even states that it is not effective until...
Negotiating, and Defenses to, Personal Guaranties
One of the dreaded documents any business owner faces in a deal is the "personal guaranty." After all, the business owner went through the steps to incorporate or organize their business just to avoid this personal liability, and now a lender, landlord, supplier or...