Contract Drafting Course

The idea of drafting a contract with a general template may sound very easy to any fresh law graduate or even a lay man. It actually is, as long as there is hardly any application of mind and it is done in a mechanical manner. There are several invisible ingredients which go into the raw term sheet or a basic template before the final recipe is ready to be served to the client. Some of the obvious ingredients are, your knowledge and understanding of the subject and business practices prevalent in a particular industry,  experience, and foresight as to how the Court may interpret the same.

As a legal professional the first thing you are expected to do is apply your mind, and that is what makes you a true lawyer. A mechanical copy-paste job will always lend you in trouble. Therefore, when you draft an agreement, it is very important to be aware of how a judge would interpret it, if ever, a dispute arises and the agreement hits the court of law. Furthermore, a standard clause couched under the broader head of ‘Miscellaneous’ towards the end of the contract, may not always be standard. There may be significant nuances which can easily skip your attention. Therefore, to avoid any kind of dispute, a smart lawyer will never draft a contract with any loose ends, i.e. a contract which may be subject to several interpretations, in particular the one which may prejudice the interest of his/her client.

The present course aims to give you a very comprehensive understanding of standard clauses in a contract and their interpretation. In addition, it also offers you several drafting techniques for these terms which you can use to suit your need and tweak the interpretation. The course also covers key principles of interpretation of contracts. Above all, the entire course is based on judgments rendered by various courts in Indian and practical learning experiences of legal professionals currently working at some of the reputed law firms in India.