The contracts between businesses and those they supply and between businesses and those that supply them are vital. Most well-run businesses now realise that the quality of these contracts may prove to be the difference between success and failure or between a smooth working relationship and an expensive piece of litigation.

The complexity of this area is often underestimated. If you include, for example, laws which limit the enforceability of certain common contractual terms, anti-trust considerations, EU regulations, different laws affecting international trade and provisions which apply to on-line trading and consumer protection law, we consider that supply chain management can be one of the most complex areas of law.

This is certainly an area in which prevention is much cheaper than cure. We often see badly drafted contracts which create problems, which could have been avoided for the want of a limited amount of legal input. We tend to find that if we are involved early we can keep legal fees down and we can normally provide a fixed price for the work involved. If we conclude that we do not need to be involved, we will tell you.