Thomas Friedman argues that "The World is Flat" in his best selling book. The combination of fibre optic communications links and increasing computing power has made global deals not just a nice to have but a necessity.
However it can be difficult enough to conclude say a major outsourcing deal which is contained within one jurisdiction. It is far far harder to do so if the transaction involves customers and suppliers in several countries.
There are many reasons for this chief amongst them being:
(1) the different legal regimes involved;
(2) the best contractual model to use - probably some kind of central master services agreement with a series of local agreements;
(3) tax and financial considerations;
(4) the required intracompany trading particularly in the supplier to facilitate service delivery; and
(5) last but not least the variety of cultures and customs involved.
Whilst there are many skills and techniques a lawyer or other professional adviser needs for a multi jurisdictional contract the one I have found most useful is the "master document". This means simply creating perhaps a spreadsheet in which all the countries, companies, services, charging mechanisms, tax treatment and other potential factors are captured identified and captured in an organised manner. This can then be used by all parties as a baseline to manage the creation of documents and processes to delineate the work needed. It should be treated as a live document that evolves as the contract development work proceeds.
This can then be coupled with a project plan to enable a path to be picked through the many intricacies of these complex and time consuming but rewarding transactions to work on.
However it can be difficult enough to conclude say a major outsourcing deal which is contained within one jurisdiction. It is far far harder to do so if the transaction involves customers and suppliers in several countries.
There are many reasons for this chief amongst them being:
(1) the different legal regimes involved;
(2) the best contractual model to use - probably some kind of central master services agreement with a series of local agreements;
(3) tax and financial considerations;
(4) the required intracompany trading particularly in the supplier to facilitate service delivery; and
(5) last but not least the variety of cultures and customs involved.
Whilst there are many skills and techniques a lawyer or other professional adviser needs for a multi jurisdictional contract the one I have found most useful is the "master document". This means simply creating perhaps a spreadsheet in which all the countries, companies, services, charging mechanisms, tax treatment and other potential factors are captured identified and captured in an organised manner. This can then be used by all parties as a baseline to manage the creation of documents and processes to delineate the work needed. It should be treated as a live document that evolves as the contract development work proceeds.
This can then be coupled with a project plan to enable a path to be picked through the many intricacies of these complex and time consuming but rewarding transactions to work on.
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