The document discusses the importance of properly drafting contracts to reflect business deals. It notes that contract drafters must understand the business deal, know how to use contractual concepts to accurately reflect terms, and be able to draft precise language while recognizing nuances that can alter the deal. Effective contracts establish clear rules for the relationship, accomplish multiple goals, and consider business risks and goals. Key parts of contracts include preamble, recitals, action sections, and general provisions. The law firm helps design frameworks to add value and address potential issues.

1. The Epoch Law Group, LLC
“Understanding Your Contracts”
Translating your business deal into a written document
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2. The Basics of Contract Drafting
In order to get the best contract, your contract drafter
must know more than just the basics of good writing
skills:
The Contract Drafter Must:
• Understand your business deal
• Know how to use contractual concepts to accurately reflect your deal’s terms
• Be able to draft the proper language and also be able to recognize the
nuances in language that can change the deal
• Adds value to your deal by discerning and resolving any business issues that
the deal faces
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3. Your Contract Establishes the Terms of
Your Relationship with Another Party.
Think of your contract as the rules to a game. It outlines
how you and the other parties have agreed to play together.
Your “Rules” Will Generally Include:
• Promises as to your future performance
• Your rights
• Events that must occur before your obligated to perform
• Your discretionary authority
• How the contract will end
• General policies that govern your relationship.
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4. Goals
Your contract is trying to accomplish multiple goals in
the same document:
• Be clear and unambiguous
• Accurately memorialize your business deal
• Efficiently resolve problems
• Prevent litigation
• Be specific so all parties know their rights and duties
• Be flexible enough to cope with unexpected changes in circumstances
• Advance your goals and reduce your risks
• Be well balanced so each party feels it negotiated a good deal
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5. The Plain English Contract
A contract drafted in plain English is designed to be
reader friendly by using an informal tone. More
importantly, a plain English contract reduces the
contract’s provisions down to the bare essentials.
Each provision is analyzed one by one to determine
its usefulness to the business deal, which often results
in very short contracts that do not include provisions
that may add value or protect against risk.
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6. The Business Transaction Contract
A contract drafted for a business transaction should
be designed to be reader friendly, however the
contract is not reduced to a bare minimum standard,
but rather retains key provisions that add value and
protect against potential risks. Essentially, if a risk
can be perceived in a business transaction, draft for it.
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7. Questions to Consider
• What are your business goals?
• How could the contract further or limit those goals?
• What are the risks in the transaction?
• What are the business risks of each provision?
• What are the legal risks of each provision?
• Do the provisions give one side too much control?
• Do the representations and warranties place too much
risk on one side?
• Are there any particular events that should cause a
breach?
• Do the provisions resolve the business problem?
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8. Your Contract’s Parts
Preamble: Name of the agreement, date, and the parties
Recitals: Why the parties are entering the contract
Words of Agreement: statement that the parties agree to the provisions that follow
Definitions: section that provides definitions of terms used throughout the contract
Action Sections: Promise to perform the obligations under the contract
Endgame Provisions: This is where provisions are located that deal with the end of the
contract.
General Provisions: This is where the “boilerplate” provisions are located, such as what
state’s laws will govern the agreement.
Signature Lines: Where each party signs the agreement to bind them to it.
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9. Epoch’s Contract Creation Package
• The Epoch Law Group works with you to design the
framework of your agreement.
• Together we work through your contract from the
preamble to your signature lines, in each instance
discussing the business, legal, and drafting issues of
each part of your contract.
• We look at the deal from your perspective and add
value to your transaction by identifying business issues
using a five-prong framework of money, risk, control,
standards, and endgame.
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2015© The Epoch Law Group, LLC

10. The Epoch Law Group, LLC
Serving Businesses in
New York & New Jersey
301 Constitution Dr. #319
Bayonne, NJ 07002
P: 347-719-3762
www.epochlawgroup.com
www.epochlawgroup.com
2015© The Epoch Law Group, LLC