Drafting Commercial Agreements in English

Course

In

£ 1,300 + VAT

Description

  • Type

    Course

  • Duration

    4 Days

Suitable for: Working lawyers who need to understand, draft and amend commercial contracts and who do not have English as a first language.

Facilities

Location

Start date

Girton College Campus

Start date

On request

About this course

You should have at least a high intermediate to advanced level of general English to benefit from this course.

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Course programme

Introduction

This is a combined skills course. It is a complete guide to:

  • The vocabulary that you need when working on commercial contracts.
  • Being accurate when you use English in commercial contracts.

  • Practical and completely up-to-date drafting skills.

  • Training in avoiding mistakes in drafting and redrafting poorly written clauses.

General Information

To offer you the best possible level of service, Cambridge Law Studio offers this combined skills course in association with EMG Associates, who are authorised to provide professional development services to lawyers by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. EMG Associates is also accredited by the Bar Standards Board.

The training sessions will first of all focus on your English language needs when drafting commercial contracts. It will improve your vocabulary and accuracy and identify your errors. You will then have the confidence and ability to successfully complete your contract drafting training.

This course is 100% practical and is based on consultation with several leading London law firms. We have based our training sessions on the practical advice we have received from these law firms regarding the problems overseas lawyers experience when drafting in English. We are confident that this is the most effective course of its kind available.

Common Questions

Is the course practical and relevant to my job?
Yes. The training is based on documents such as Share Purchase Agreements, Mergers and Acquisitions, Joint Ventures and other cross-border contracts.

Who will teach the course?
Trainers from both Cambridge Law Studio and EMG Associates of London will teach you on this course. We believe that legal English specialists should concentrate on language and drafting trainers on drafting. This produces the highest quality training available.

How long is the course? This is a four-day intensive course. You will have 24 intensive contact hours with your trainers, plus work to complete in the evenings.

Is the course accredited?
Yes. EMG Associates is authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to provide Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Training. Cambridge Law Studio is accredited by the ASIC as a premier status college in the provision of English language training. The certificates awarded at the end of the course are of real value.

Can you help me to get a visa to study in the UK?
Yes. We have a Home Office sponsors' licence for delegates to study in the UK. Our office team are dedicated to making sure that your travel and visa arrangements are as easy as possible.

Course content

The training sessions are divided into two areas, each delivered by the appropriate specialists in either English for drafting or drafting skills.

English for drafting

This part of your training is designed to improve your accuracy and your legal vocabulary in a very short time. It includes:

  • Vocabulary crash-course. The commercial and technical vocabulary you need to understand, draft and amend commercial contracts.
  • Awareness of accurate and natural sentence structure in English. Often a direct translation from a foreign language into English produces clumsy results. It is important to analyse how English lawyers put words together and follow that style.
  • Awareness of the correct register of the English language in a contract. For example, a contract should be formal but this does not mean ‘legalese' is the right style. Plain English is the target language. However, this does not mean simple English. It is important to get the balance right.
  • Awareness of how to use prepositions accurately in English. One of the most common difficulties is using the correct preposition because these words are not used with any particular logic in English. For example, there are 2 parties to a contract (not of a contract). When you mention a deadline, payment must be made by 1 September (not until 1 September). Accurate use of prepositions is vital.
  • Awareness of how to use collocation accurately in English. Collocation is using words together in natural partnerships in the same way that English speakers do. A basic example of this is to ask why interest accrues on arrears rather than accumulates or grows. The answer is that the verb to accrue forms a natural collocation with the noun arrears. An awareness of how collocation works can improve professionalism and accuracy in a very short space of time.
  • Awareness of which nouns are countable and which are uncountable. Warranties and indemnities are countable but information and interest are not. You cannot charge ‘an interest' or ‘interests' because that noun is uncountable. It is very important to learn which words in English can be made plural and which cannot.
  • Deal with problematic words found in contracts. There are certain words that are found in commercial contracts that create problems in use and understanding. What, for example, is the precise difference between a mortgage, a charge, a pledge, a lien and an encumbrance? Does indemnify mean the same as compensate? Common misunderstandings are explained.

Drafting commercial contracts

This part of your training is designed to improve your skills in drafting commercial contracts in a very short time. It includes:

  • The structure of a contract drafted in English
  • The general principles of drafting using a plain English approach

  • Replacing archaic language and deleting legal jargon

  • Exercises in contract wording and phraseology

  • An overview of cross-border contracts

  • Licensing

  • Agency

  • Distribution

  • Joint ventures

  • Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Other contracts

  • Reading and understanding international agreements

  • A joint venture agreement - a focused study

  • Exercises on redrafting poorly-drafted clauses

  • Exercises on redrafting traditionally-drafted clauses

  • Drafting Heads of Terms/Letters of Intent

  • Commercial negotiation role play

  • Drafting the operative part of a Share Purchase Agreement

  • Purchase price, warranties and indemnities, conditions precedent

  • Consolidation and review

EMG Associates say:

‘Our strategy is based on personalised learning where we aim to develop the competence and confidence of every delegate by actively engaging them in the course. Using case studies and practical examples, delegates will be provided with a thorough grounding in this field and will gain the confidence needed to deal with international commercial agreements drafted in English more effectively.'

Additional information

Students per class: 12

Drafting Commercial Agreements in English

£ 1,300 + VAT