So, do we need to further establish the importance of managing such an important contract? With such a huge responsibility also comes an equally larger set of challenges for the legal eagles to manage the contract which includes everyone from the customers, to the vendors, the distributors and employees as well.
And if you thought this is just it, the corporate legal team also has to do everything from managing to modifying to executing and even to dismiss the contract. This is just the start. The real challenges actually lie ahead.
Work with the all the parties involved with the company.
Yup, of all the teams in the corporate team, the legal team just cannot shy away from responsibility. They just have to be in the thick of things. Your company might be just sourcing cabs from a logistics provider but it is the job of the corporate legal team to assist the company with preparing the contract by understanding the complete business arrangement between the company and the vendor.
Save the money
Yes, unfortunately in today’s business, organisations expect ROI even from the last straw of resource imaginable. End of the day, it’s all about which company makes more money and that’s the only way they stay afloat and possibly rule the roost as well. So, it is needless to say that the legal team managing the contract has to save the costs. The HR does, Operations does it, so you have to do it. You have to tell the company the budget you need, show the return on investment. You might have just saved the company from a big billion fraud case but if you ain’t got the invoice for fighting the case, you will end up fighting for your own job. Jokes apart, keep track of all the costs involved.
Big Data..wondering what’s that?
If you are guessing about it, chances are you are already piled with a desk full of books, rack of legal case files, rants of colleagues shouting at top of their voices about what the rule says. There is no point if you just know the law, you have to have it at your fingertips. So, talk to your CTO, tech team, or hire a third party contract management service or get the damn hardware engineer in your office at least and ask him what’s it. You’ll know what it means to have everything at your fingertips. So don’t just be legal expert in managing contracts but also be technically sound with managing contracts. The next time they need a clause in the contract, your response time should be faster than Google search engine results.
All knowledge and no application makes managing contracts boring.
In short, don’t just be a good student, once you have learnt the nuances of your contract, you should know what is the data revealing, are we going to face a crisis, are the numbers good this quarter, is the contract outdated compared to the new business performance. Don’t wait for the kill, Legal eagle should go for the kill.
Changing times requires changing rules
The last time you spoke to your client, you realized that he is delivering the work faster, the new employee work timings have just been made flexible, and the company has just shifted to a new building. So, I am pretty sure you too moved the documents to the new office right? Vow, that’s really smart of you and then you are done. Yes, that’s it legal eagle, you are now an endangered species. Still didn’t get the joke, Jokes part, chill we’ll explain.
You never know when the tragedy strikes - it could just be a public strike at your new office in the remote island (seriously- well it could happen), or someone makes the next legal attack on the company. So make sure you don’t sit and relax and always review the contracts from time to time. Review every single contract regularly.
Don’t forget the keys
Do we further need to say what happens if someone knows your bank account details. I know what you are thinking? Stop thinking, the first thing you do now is to check if you have the top of the line security to your contracts as well. Be it on a server or the office building or at the bank safe down the alley. Make sure, nobody except under the right person and under the right circumstances can access it.
The best part - stick to the rules
If there is one department that can truly sit back and relax (he he he ..in your dreams only though) then it is the legal team managing the contracts. Yes, you don’t have to be innovative. Stick to what worked all these years, for your company, if they want, let them change as per your rules. Something’s just cannot be changed. So always stick to the terms of the contract that were critical to the success of the business all these years, off course with an open mind as well. Did we say that was easy? Yep and we are done.
Go Legal Eagle..get that contract finished...
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