MODULE 1 - Business contracts law

Make yourself at ease with your contract negotiations in English

Before the contract
• Prepare the negotiation stage
• Be mindful of applicable rules
• Monitor the bargaining process
Forming a contract
• Validity and proof
• Express and implied terms
• Representations and warranties
• Liability and limitation clauses
• Specific versus standard terms
• Financial terms
Performing the contract
• Performance
• Breach and remedies
• Force majeure and hardship
• Terminating the contract
Exercise: correct poorly drafted clauses
Learn the language
• Drafting style
• Vocabulary and necessary nuances
Exercise: draft efficient clauses

MODULE 2 - Company law

Learn the Basics of U.S. and U.K. Company Law

A primer on US Business Structures
• Agency Law
• Partnerships
• Corporations (organization, formation, pre-incorporation contracts)
• Officers and Directors
• Shareholders
• Fundamental Corporate Changes
A primer on UK Business Structures
• Company and partnership
• The partnership (1890 Act)
• The limited partnership (1907 Act)
• Companies limited by shares
• Company Management
• Fundamental Company Changes
Focus on specifics through a comparative approach
• Choice of a corporate form in the US, UK and France
• Regulatory requirements specific to your sector
• Forms of debt
• Directors' duties and liabilities
• Insolvency procedures
Exercise: reviewing the main clauses of a shareholders agreement

MODULE 3 - A primer on Intellectual Property (US/French Law) and on International Arbitration

Intellectual Property basics under US law

• Copyright, patents, trademarks, industrial designs
• Relevant agencies (US Copyright Office, Patent and Trademark Office)
• Contracts governing the transfer or licensing of IP rights
• Licensing/transfer of foreign technology
Exercise: identifying efficient versus inefficient clauses in a software license agreement
Intellectual Property basics under French law (compared)
• Droit d'auteur, patents, trademarks, industrial designs
• Relevant agencies (INPI, HADOPI)
Exercise: highlighting the main differences between the two systems, based on a review of relevant agreements
International arbitration : choice of forum for dispute resolution
• Arbitration versus French, US, UK courts
• Recognition and enforcement of court decisions and arbitral awards
• Selecting a valid and enforceable dispute resolution clause
Case study: determining whether a particular commercial dispute may/should be subject to arbitration