Vendor Contracts Training Hub

Free Resources + Premium Content

Explore our resources on drafting and negotiating procurement and supply chain contracts to buy, sell, and license products and services

Free Training Series Sponsored by Agiloft

Become a Vendor Contracts Expert

Laura Frederick is partnering with Agiloft to present Vendor Contracts Boot Camp, a 5-part training series for lawyers and contract teams focused on drafting, negotiating and managing vendor contracts. Register for Module 1 today!

Cover graphic for NDA and non-disclosure agreement templates, checklists, tips and more.

Watch these videos

Battle of the Forms: How Sales Quotes and Purchase Orders Work

Laura Frederick explains the essentials of purchase orders and sales quotes. She explores how they can overlap and contradict each other, leaving the vendor and customer unclear as to the terms. She emphasizes how these documents all come down to contract formation concepts of offer and acceptance, highlighting the importance of clear communication and controlling the narrative in business transactions.

Liquid error: Nil location provided. Can't build URI.

Don't Make These Mistakes in Your Purchase Orders and Sales Quotes

In this video, Laura Frederick highlights what sales quotes and purchase orders should and shouldn't say. She focuses on their role as binding contracts, pointing out the risk of sloppy handling and contract drafting. Laura underscores the importance of consistent contract terms and the role of master agreements, advising to defer to these agreements when applicable.

Liquid error: Nil location provided. Can't build URI.

How to Triage Your Vendor Contracts When You Have No Time

Laura Frederick shares her approach for managing vendor contracts when she's limited for time. By following these strategic steps, Laura ensures you can efficiently prioritize and handle your contracts, saving valuable time and effort. Watch for details on the four things she looks for before she starts redlining.

Liquid error: Nil location provided. Can't build URI.

You Can Contract Interview with Will Drewery, Supply Chain Leader

This is a You Can Contract episode featuring Will Drewery, Founder and CEO at Diagon, and a former lead for Tesla's supply chain segment for manufacturing equipment. Will talks about ways to create synergy between lawyers and supply chain managers to generate better contracts and manage risk more effectively. This episode would be great for lawyers who want to learn how to best work with the supply chain on contracts.

Liquid error: Nil location provided. Can't build URI.

Review tips from Laura's book

Cartoon with man saying he didn't remember a clause in the NDA requiring he name his first child after Rumpelstilskin Lucifer but there it was.

How Vendors Shift Liability to Their Suppliers

There are several techniques that vendors use in sales contracts to shift liability for product problems to the vendor's own suppliers. This can be a problem for customers. Customers want the vendor to stand behind their products, including all the parts of it that originated with someone else. But some vendors are not in a position to take that liability on. They use the contract to deflect some of that responsibility. This approach is frequently used by vendors that sell complex systems. Here are six drafting techniques vendors use to do that. READ MORE

How to Draft Vendor Reporting Obligations

This contract tip addresses how to draft clauses about vendor reports. When customers hire vendors to research, test, evaluate, or assess something, the vendor provides the customer with a written response in a report. Here are some of the things to address: 1. Delivery and contents. The contract should identify what the report will include and when it must be delivered. Some reports require a preliminary draft for the customer to review in advance. If there are any assumptions on which the report relies, those should be identified too. READ MORE

Cartoon with man in chair saying that he wants to tell the other person confidential information but it is not proprietary and meets the trade secret definition in 11 states and mongolia.

Estimate Your Vendor's Profit Margin Before You Negotiate Your Deal

As a newer lawyer, I had no idea that the vendor's profit margin should play into how I negotiate. I thought our goal for negotiations was to shift as much risk and pay as little to the vendor as we can. What I learned over time was that this kind of attitude is short-sighted for our clients. It can do more harm than good. Here's why I believe knowing your vendor's profit margin is critical: 1. Gauge how to allocate risk. Every business contract has some risk. We allocate that risk in a way that makes this contract make sense for both parties. READ MORE

Download a free template

When you’re looking to protect your confidential information, having a well-drafted non-disclosure agreement is essential. An NDA template helps you quickly establish confidentiality terms with your counterparties. These three free NDA examples in Word and PDF cover the critical elements you need. Each non-disclosure agreement template is customizable, easy to use, and crafted by legal experts to ensure you have the protection you need.

Common Paper Professional Services Agreement

Bonterms Online Marketplace Transactions

Buy Laura's book to get access to 322 contract tips and cartoons

BUY LAURA'S BOOK

Sign up for The Contract Strategist newsletter

Our newsletter contains contracting strategies, course discounts, HTC updates, and more. Unsubscribe anytime.