Formal Relational Contract: Five-Step Process | CLE Course

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Course Details

Course Information

smart_display Format
On-Demand
signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
work Practice Area
Commercial Law

Date & Time

event Date
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
timer Program Length
90 minutes

Credit Information

This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00

CLE

ALL

This CLE webinar will address how to utilize a formal relational contract for a business arrangement. The panel will discuss the process of establishing a formal relational contract, how the parties can work jointly to achieve individual goals, and when a traditional contract would be considered best practices.

Faculty

Jim Bergman

CEO

Commercial Officers Group

Mr. Bergman is a commercial contract professional with global experience spanning the USA, Latin America, UK, Europe, China, South Korea, Japan, India, SE Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia. He has worked on a wide range of direct and indirect spend categories in numerous sectors, developing a deep knowledge of services, goods and technology procurement and sales. Initially, Mr. Bergman served as a contracts attorney for a Fortune 500 petrochemical corporation, Amoco Corporation, supporting the enterprise’s global procurement staff. He addressed legal and sourcing issues with services and commodities valued at more than $1 billion annually. His experience grew to include commercial roles in strategic planning, project management, supply management and business development. His audiences and clients have included over 7,000 attorneys and commercial professionals from over 1,000 corporations and public-sector entities.

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Kate Vitasek

Architect of the Vested Business Model

University of Tennessee

Ms. Vitasek is an international authority for her award-winning research and Vested® business model for highly collaborative and strategic relationships. Her practical and research-based advice ignited a movement on how to create healthy and sustainable business relationships. Ms. Vitasek is the author of seven books on the art, science and practice of highly collaborative relationships. Vested stems from award-winning research by the University of Tennessee funded by the United States Air Force to find a “better way to outsource.”

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Description

Long term formal business arrangements often leave little room for the dynamic nature of a changing economy. A co-authored October 2020 Harvard Business Review article promotes the use of "formal relational contracts" as a means of obviating or limiting opportunistic behaviors by contracting parties allowing parties to consider and amend terms due to either unknowable circumstances or factors beyond the businesses control.

Similar to Agile, a formal relational contract allows parties to amend terms and reset objectives. However, a formal relational contract is one that specifies mutual goals and establishes governance structures to keep the parties' expectations and interests aligned over the long term. Designed from the outset to foster trust and collaboration, this legally enforceable contract is especially useful for highly complex relationships in which it is impossible to predict every what-if scenario.

Five steps to the framework of formal relational contracts are generally accepted. The parties typically must have mutual values and objectives prior to beginning any actual contracting with terms and conditions of the formal relational contract tightly aligned with those principles. The process also provides for continued monitoring and governance to adjust terms as needs require.

Listen as our expert panel discusses formal relational contracts and relational contracting, as well as how to assess the utility and desirability of using relational contracting in times of uncertainty.