Better contracts, Episode 3: #breakcoronavirus (the one with the force majeure resources)

What you’ll get out of this episode

Practical resources to help you think about and manage force majeure and business continuity issues resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. 

Force majeure resources

Force majeure clause generator

Here’s a free generator I created using coda.io to help you redraft and renegotiate force majeure clauses especially to handle COVID-19 and similar events of that time in the future (let’s hope not…).

It’s designed to generate short- and long-form clauses based on your circumstances with just one click. It also gives you a framework for thinking about how the clauses should differ across contract types, where you may be a customer or a supplier. 

Update May 2020: I’ve been expanding this tool over the last weeks and it now also contains an interactive checklist, a tool to help you negotiate interim arrangements for your key contracts, and a brand new tool to help you interpret your force majeure clauses. You gotta see it to believe it!

Pro level COVID-19 tools on Majoto

We’ve also been building up pro level tools on majoto.io - including a triage and risk assessment tool for human-led review of multiple contracts. Check it out and get in touch if you want to try it out.

Reviewing your contracts

If you are reviewing your contracts for COVID-19 impact, don’t rush to your nearest AI vendor. First, heed Radiant Law’s advice on how to do it without getting bogged down.

Guidance and commentary

There is a lot of it…  often many words, little practical guidance.  But if you want to dig into it, a #forcemajeure search on LinkedIn will bring up a bunch of commentary that you can browse through for your country, or just ask your favourite law firm or lawyer friend for their free guide.  If I see anything really good for non-lawyers, I will let you know.

Other goodies while we’re at it

Some other tools and resources, which are not specific to force majeure, but I thought worth sharing:

COVID-19 help for law firms and legal teams 

LawSites has curated a big list of resources - especially tech and legal providers who are offering free access to their products during the crisis. It also includes legal resources on force majeure and other legal topics thrown up by the crisis.

Work from home policy

You can generate a custom Coronavirus Work From Home Policy courtesy of SeedLegals. Also check out Translated’s policy shared by Marco Trombetti.

Information juicer

Moving fast in a crisis and WFM means you and your people need tools to help process and condense information, to aid sharing and alignment.  Kjuicer is a simple yet powerful tool that I use a lot - it lets you create condensed click-to-expand reads of any content, just by highlighting.  It’s like a multi-level information pyramid that you can create in minutes or seconds, and it’s free. Try using it to condense your COVID-19 guidance or policy for your organisation into a set of short practical take-aways or action points.

Bit of fun

It’s important to have a bit of fun. Here’s a joke random force majeure clause generator. It’s funny but also painful because it isn’t that much worse than some of the stuff you see in contracts…! Use this as a hook to get your bosses and colleagues focussed on the issue.

Final thoughts

Many (most? all?) of us have been caught swimming naked as this particular tide has gone out. Let’s manage the crisis and think forward - disruption is going to be the new normal.  With WFM and the need to use resources smartly, “simple” and “lean” is going to be key, so keep “simple” as a primary objective, always.