IACCM EMEA 2008

The annual IACCM EMEA Conference is always a stimulating affair, and this year was no different. A key discussion topic at the Academic Symposium was Proactive Law, and the contribution it can make to improving commercial relationships. This is a topic very close to our hearts at Devant, and we are enthusiastic supporters of the Proactive Law movement.

If you're new to Proactive Law, it's essentially the practice of contracting proactively with the objective of increasing the probability of positive outcomes of our commercial relationships, rather than just focusing on covering corporate bottoms in the event that things go wrong. This is a key foundation stone of Devant's approach to contracts - while it's good to know that you're protected in the event of failure, it's much better to avoid things going wrong in the first place.

Take a look at the Nordic School for Proactive Law's web site if you're interested in learning more. I believe that this is the only sensible way forward for the legal profession - certainly, those lawyers that we work with, and encounter in our working lives, are working hard to add value by being more than a doom-mongering 'sales prevention squad'.

The other big glimmer of hope at this year's IACCM conference was the 'small is beautiful' message from Proctor and Gamble. They have been working for several years to pare down their many different sets of terms into a small number of simple documents. Their main purchasing terms are now a mere 15 pages - down from 50 before! The challenge, they said, was identifying the terms that were key to these commercial relationships and stripping out the unnecessary. They also separated out the provisions that belonged properly in appendices, such as quality control processes, so that these could be managed by those with skill and expertise in those particular areas.

It's great to feel that we are at the forefront of commercial contracting, here at Devant. We have been working since our inception to ensure that the terms we develop for our clients are practical and focussed on the real needs of the relationship, rather than simply gluing together large chunks of 'boilerplate' and changing the names!

End of the Rainbow

This weekend my husband and I made our annual pilgrimage to Larmer Tree Gardens in Dorset for the End of the Road festival. It's the one weekend in the year when we leave behind the children, the dog and the ducks to chill out as foot-loose grown-ups!

For the first time in the festival's short history, it was raining on Friday when we arrived at the site. Luckily our tent is pitched flysheet-first, so we were able to quickly put the flysheet up and push all of our increasingly soggy kit underneath. And I, in my waterproofs, had the task of putting the in pegs while Simon sorted out the inner tent.

I guess everything's relative, but after a hectic week of drafting and negotiation the process of pushing tent pegs into the soft, fragrant ground, while the rain poured down fit to float an ark, was blissfully relaxing. Then, as if to reward my hard work, the sun came out on a distant hill and created a fabulous double rainbow!

The rest of the weekend was sunny and warm but the initial deluge meant that we were sliding around in mud underfoot. Festival professionals will say that's all part of the fun - and the small boy who was wallowing in a deep puddle of silky mud, until there was no boy-coloured skin left showing, certainly seemed to be having a great time.

Among the bands to grace our earbuds was the glorious Richard Hawley. His double-bass player, Colin, was captured here by my talented husband...

So here I am, grubby but relaxed, back at my computer. And ready for more contracts and negotiations!