Month: April 2016

Anette B.

Contracts: The Hidden/Overlooked Master Agreement

I have had more people come to me, explain a situation, and then ask me if they have to perform a certain task as part of some agreement or argue that they didn’t intend to be bound by the agreement.  My response:  Do you have a contract and what does it say?  It sounds pretty cut and dry, but for some, this is a real struggle and often times people will gloss over the agreement, and sign it, without really paying attention to the terms.  If this is you, don’t feel bad, you are not alone.  Countless times I have had clients bring me a Scope of Work or Purchase Order and tell me “this is the agreement” to which I ask, “Where is the rest of it?”  You can imagine people’s confusion when I ask this question, especially when they think THAT is all there is.  Unless you are dealing with someone that doesn’t understand contracting, chances are, there is more…you just may have overlooked it.

MASTER AGREEMENT:  A Master Agreement is the main portion of the Agreement that often outlines what some all the “boilerplate terms.”  Most people overlook this section and don’t negotiate the terms.  However, you should not overlook the “boilerplate terms” because they can be very important.  The “boilerplate terms” often outline payment terms, duration of agreement and renewals (like automatic ones), warranties, choice of law/jurisdiction, dispute resolution, damages for failure to adhere to the contract, intellectual property rights, etc.  A person’s failure to overlook these types of terms can be detrimental if not carefully reviewed and considered.  If you are curious about what kinds of issues can be present in “boiler plate” contract language, you can read my prior blog post Contract Terms: The Boilerplate Language IS Important.

ORDER FORM:  The Order Form is typically the portion of the agreement that outlines the client/customer specific information which are typically negotiated between the parties. This is typically why it receives the most attention.  These documents typically incorporate by reference the Master Agreement (which might be provided as a simply link to a URL online).

  • PURCHASE ORDER:  A Purchase Order (“PO”) is commonly used where the Master Agreement contemplates a purchase/sale of goods.  This will typically outline the types, quantities and agreed upon prices for products and/or services that may be associated, payment method and scheduling for the same and method of shipping, and includes any special requirements or other miscellaneous that the Master Agreement may not contemplate or you otherwise negotiate for (such as a change of a term under the Master Agreement).
  • STATEMENT OF WORK:  Statement of Work (“SOW”) is commonly where the Master Agreement contemplates services to be provided.  This will typically define the scope of the activities to be completed, the location of the work to be performed, period of performance, itemize deliverables and what timeline exists in connection with those deliverables, pricing, payment method and schedule for the same, any standard regulatory or governance terms and conditions, and includes any special requirements or other miscellaneous that the Master Agreement may not contemplate or you otherwise negotiate for (such as a change of a term under the Master Agreement).

Unless you are a contracts attorney who loves the fine print (and maybe we don’t even really love the fine print but at least we can understand it) you may be tempted to only focus your attention on the Order Form document, however, as discussed it is incredibly important that you read through all of the terms of any Master Agreement in connection with any Order Form to make sure you don’t get caught off-guard.  It’s always good practice to inquire about a Master Agreement when presented with nothing more than a Order Form…and keep the two documents together.  Don’t just rely on the information you can read in a URL link because you never know when the Master Agreement at that URL will change.  It’s better to trust your own records than to rely on someone else!

If you are unclear as to whether or not the boilerplate language is appropriate for your situation, and you want to work through the issues, you are encouraged to speak with a Contract Attorney in your area who can assist you.  Beebe Law, PLLC is an Arizona based law firm representing clients in the state of Arizona.

 

Anette B.

Your Social Media Could be Damaging to Your Professional Goals

Technology is all around us and chances are you probably have some level of interaction with Social Media.  For example, you might have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr or some other online blog, etc.  Further, if you are the normal person, you probably post and interact freely without really considering consequences of those interactions and THAT is what I am discussing here.

I’d like to think that most people are pretty good at self policing and watching what they say online, however, as I have eluded to in my blog series “Fighting Fair on the Internet” that isn’t exactly the case.  Through my own personal and business experience I have come to find that people can be very dark and spiteful.  There is something about the internet that can bring out the worst in people…kind of like booze.  I believe there are a whole host of reasons for that, some of which I discuss in my blog series, however what remains true is that people are now, more than ever, being very “free” with their emotions (positive and negative) and their personally identifying information.  Not only does this behavior present some level of risk from a security standpoint, but also a risk to your professional goals.

Some studies suggest that 77% – 80% of employers will “Google” (meaning run a search using the popular search engine, Google) a perspective employee prior to a job interview.  Chances are, the statistic is probably similar for any person looking at anyone, for any position, in today’s market.  What is your name associated with?  Typically it will be associated with professional websites like LinkedIn and social media accounts such as Facebook where you place particular information out there for the public view.  In other instances it could be attached to anything else that you have been tagged in, had your name mentioned in, and/or your information has otherwise been placed in the public domain.  Do you know, for sure, what that information looks like? Does that information, to the eye of the most strict and ultra conservative individual, give a positive or negative impression of you?

If you feel like you are being turned down for opportunities and you aren’t sure why…maybe it’s time for “check up” on your personal social media presence.  The easiest way to do this is to simply run a search for your name, or names that you are known by, via a popular search engine like Google.  Another avenue would be to go to the particular social media outlets that you use and check to see what is visible to the public.  For example, on Facebook, you can (at least as of this writing) go to Settings, Followers, then “Want to know what followers can see?  View your public timeline.”  That should show you what people, who are part of the general public, can see about you.  Does it give out more information than you would want any perspective employer type person learning about you?  If you aren’t sure whether or not the information might be perceived poorly, ask a friend or family member.  If you (or your trusted friend) don’t like what you see, and you have control over the information*, start working on a social media clean up.  For a whole host of reasons, you will be glad that you did!  As my wise grandmother use to say, “it’s okay to maintain a little mystery.”

* For those of you who read this and say “…but what about information that I don’t like that is outside of my control?” understand that topic is a whole other beast, reserved for a wholly separate set of blog postings, on a totally different day.