Most people agree that it's better not to get sick in the first place, than to have to wheel in the antibiotics on a regular basis. Healthy eating, modest drinking and regular exercise all fall into the 'preventative medicine' category, and are familiar concepts to many of us.
But 'preventive law'? Does this mean jogging while you negotiate? Or 'exercising at the barre' rather than 'practicing at the bar'?
While you won't have encountered the phrase before on this blog, or on our web site, preventive law underpins Devant's entire commercial contract drafting and negotiation methodology. It's based on the concept that we'd rather keep you out of trouble in the first place, rather than having to help you negotiate yourself out of a dispute.
The idea is that by ensuring that everyone in the commercial relationship understands exactly what their obligations are under an agreement, and exactly what they can expect from it, there's a good chance of things going smoothly. So by doing things right from the start, we can prevent disputes further down the line.
This will be familiar ground for anyone who's attended one of our commercial contract training workshops, or even one of our free seminars - the evils of 'small print' feature large in our training presentations! After all, if the client can't actually read your terms, the chances of them complying with them have to be drastically reduced! And the probability of dispute and dissatisfaction are increased in direct proportion.
I've recently linked up with Helena Haapio and Linda Baines, two of the founder members of the ProActive ThinkTank of the International Association of Commercial and Contract Managers (IACCM). Helena and Linda are both highly experienced and enthusiastic proponents of Preventive Law - you can learn more by going to http://www.proactivelaw.org or visiting the web site of the National Center for Preventive Law at the California Western School of Law in San Diego at http://www.preventivelawyer.com/main/default.asp.
Keep in touch to see how Preventive Law will be adding more value to Devant Training and Commercial Management services in 2008.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Shiny new office!
After many years of working from our own home offices, the Devant team finally has its very own, shiny and lovely little office. It's only a ten minute walk from home for me, and a slightly longer trip for Janine, Jan and Alison (well, there have to be some perks for being the boss!). This means that I can walk to work (good for the stress levels), and don't have to face traffic first thing.
The other joy of office life is having a lovely meeting room all of our very own so that we can discuss your contractual and negotiation issues in comfort over a nice cup of tea (very domestic!).
The office is in Spencers Wood, a village one mile South of M4 J11, so it's easy to get to.
There are some great walks over the fields nearby which I've been exploring at lunchtimes with Freddie, my enormous hound, who has his own basket in the corner of the office. So all in all, a very exciting start to 2008. I hope to be able to welcome you here soon!
Tiffany
The other joy of office life is having a lovely meeting room all of our very own so that we can discuss your contractual and negotiation issues in comfort over a nice cup of tea (very domestic!).
The office is in Spencers Wood, a village one mile South of M4 J11, so it's easy to get to.
There are some great walks over the fields nearby which I've been exploring at lunchtimes with Freddie, my enormous hound, who has his own basket in the corner of the office. So all in all, a very exciting start to 2008. I hope to be able to welcome you here soon!
Tiffany
Monday, January 07, 2008
Happy New Year!
The last few months have been a whirlwind of new opportunities, great new clients and new projects for us at Devant. Our feet have scarcely touched the ground - so apologies for the lengthy gap in our blog, for those of you who notice these things ;0).
It seems that you are busily creating more (and more valuable) commercial relationships. The last half of 2007 saw a huge leap in the number of new clients approaching us to help them establish their partnering and reselling organisations overseas. Perhaps because so many of our clients are in the technology and services sectors, we haven't really seen much sign of the supposed global economic slowdown. Business is booming for our oil and gas clients, and we've also acquired a couple of new clients with innovative offerings for the toy sector. So life is far from dull, and I'm delighted to see so much economic activity and considered risk-taking.
My new year's resolution is to keep you up to date more regularly with what we've been up to here at Devant. There are a couple of press releases in the pipeline that I'm really excited about and will share with you soon. In the mean time, all the best for a fantastic 2008!
Tiffany
It seems that you are busily creating more (and more valuable) commercial relationships. The last half of 2007 saw a huge leap in the number of new clients approaching us to help them establish their partnering and reselling organisations overseas. Perhaps because so many of our clients are in the technology and services sectors, we haven't really seen much sign of the supposed global economic slowdown. Business is booming for our oil and gas clients, and we've also acquired a couple of new clients with innovative offerings for the toy sector. So life is far from dull, and I'm delighted to see so much economic activity and considered risk-taking.
My new year's resolution is to keep you up to date more regularly with what we've been up to here at Devant. There are a couple of press releases in the pipeline that I'm really excited about and will share with you soon. In the mean time, all the best for a fantastic 2008!
Tiffany
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