Six Common Contract Traps: A Field Guide

The situation is a common one. Your company is in the midst of a sales process with a potential customer, and the business principals have decided on the core order form terms — pricing, term, services specifics, and the timeline. Now it's time to involve legal. If you're anything like most of the emerging technology companies we work with on a daily basis, this is the point in the process where you might get hit with a 30-page master services agreement, the "standard form" that your big company counterparty insists on.

Setting aside the fact that there are things you could have done prior to this point to get your counterparty to start from your form of agreement (which is always preferable, and a topic for another day), let's assume that you are stuck working through this monster of a master services agreement, under pressure to get the deal signed, and trying to focus your efforts on the places in the agreement that matter the most.