Webinar: Negotiating Asia deals

The CMS Commercial group is delighted to invite you to our fourth webinar for this year. This practical session will feature two expert partners with a commercial and a disputes spin on making the best choices when drafting commercial contracts and negotiating them with counterparts in Asia. 

Transactional lawyers can spend a lot of time negotiating liability clauses, indemnities, warranties and termination rights, among others. However, governing law and jurisdiction often ends up being a short debate towards the end of the negotiation about “home territory”, without clear justification on either side for a particular approach. This is a particular problem when negotiating with counterparties in Asia and can even lead to your contract being unenforceable. 

Disputes lawyers can recall countless occasions where they have seen all of the effort on liability, indemnities, warranties and termination rights defeated by a poorly-drafted governing law and jurisdiction clause. In fact, when it comes to Asia deals, we think it might just be the most overlooked boilerplate clause of all – not least because Court judgments are not always enforceable in Asia jurisdictions, which means that "home law and courts" clause might not be the negotiation "win" it first appeared to be. 

So how can your Company implement a smart strategy to governing law and jurisdiction clauses in Asia – and use this to its competitive advantage?

This practical session will look at:

• A brief overview of arbitration and litigation and the relative pros and cons of each.
• Comparative review of arbitration and litigation in various jurisdictions in Asia.
• A step-by step guide to drafting governing law and jurisdiction clauses.
• Recommended best practices: developing an internal protocol to ensure consistency and enhance enforceability. 

The session will be led by two of our most experienced partners in Asia-Pacific, Lakshanthi Fernando (a Disputes lawyer) and Matt Pollins (a Commercial lawyer), based in CMS’s Singapore office. 

As usual, attendance is free of charge, the webinar will last an hour and you are welcome to invite any colleagues who might also be interested.