Level 10,
15 Adelaide Street
Brisbane Qld 4000

PO Box 12016
George Street
Brisbane Qld 4003

Ph: (07) 3210 1833
Fax: (07) 3210 2411

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Commercial Agreements

Commercial agreements are all about relationship management.

Core agreements

‘Core’ agreements relate to the operation and future of an enterprise.  Differing types of business structures drive considerations unique to the structure, for instance the unlimited liability of partners in a business can be contrasted with the more remote liability of company directors (although developments in relation to director's liability is narrowing the difference).

Issues that are common to any type of enterprise are:-

• protection of intellectual property of the enterprise
• participation in the fruits of the business
• admission of new owners of equity
• dealing with the forced need to realise equity, for instance in the case of disablement or death of an equity owner

Well constructed shareholder agreements regulate the relationship between the equity owners to reduce uncertainty associated with such issues.

External agreements

A well resourced SME needs to have on hand agreements to regulate its relationships with those that it receives services from or supplies services to.  These will be:-

• clients - what is the enterprise undertaking to do?
• suppliers of services to it (example subcontractors)
• staff in the changing industrial law landscape

All such agreements need to be kept up to date, and on occasion may need adapting to specific circumstances.

Maunsell Pennington will address what is needed in your core agreements and external arrangements to ensure the right outcomes for the SME are achieved.