How to draft an agreement

Hello and welcome everyone to my new class, where I will teach you how to draft an agreement.

My name is Simon and I’m an attorney at law with 16 years’ experience.

I specialized in Civil and Business law in general and more specifically in corporate law and contracts law.

I have worked in a lot of fields with many companies both locally and internationally. And on countless projects from the public and private transport sector, to agriculture, to food and beverage, restaurants and hospitality, to the banking and financial sector, electronics and technology, and even in the health and cosmetics field.

I have come across all kinds of agreements, from the simplest ones, to the longest, most complex and most tedious ones. And I have always thought that everyone needs to learn a bit about agreements from a practical point of view. I am not talking about the theory behind contracts law, but the applied hands-on approach.

This class is aimed at anyone who in their everyday work need to draft, review and sign small to medium agreements.

This class will benefit also anyone who occasionally needs to enter into agreements. And who among us has not been in such a situation. Whether to rent an apartment, to lease a car or for any kind of services.

Let me start by saying that this class does not pretend to be capable of replacing the advice or the intervention of a professional such as a lawyer or an attorney. You will always need to seek professional help in certain circumstances, especially in overly complicated agreements.

This class rather, will give you some pointers on how to draft an agreement if you cannot or do not want to seek direct professional help. It will also help you to be prepared to review an agreement that was submitted to you, by explaining what are the main issues, the main points to look for in an agreement. What to focus on and what mistakes to avoid.

This class is not a theoretical one; this is not a law school contracts law course. Our main focus is to learn how to practically draft an acceptable agreement. However, some theory relating to the key elements that condition the validity of an agreement are to a certain measure necessary in order to understand the constitution of the agreement.

Our classes will be divided as follows:

• In our first lesson we will learn briefly about the key elements that condition the validity of an agreement.

• Our second lesson will be about the preamble of the agreement. In other words the introduction of the agreement, covering the parties thereto and the recitals.

• The third lesson will revolve around the main text of the agreement starting with the way the latter needs to be formulated and getting to the essential points that need to figure in every agreement.

• In the fourth lesson, I will go through some of the standard clauses that we most frequently come across in contracts and agreements. I will explain each of these standard articles and give an example of each of them.

The assignment for this class is a standard residential lease agreement from which I have deleted some key clauses or points and that you will have to review and point out what key elements are missing and that need to figure in such an agreement.