Consultancy Agreements in General

A precondition for a successful consultancy project is a carefully drafted consultancy agreement.

A consultancy project should have clear and precisely defined objectives. The parties to the project must understand the content of the agreement in the same manner. The tasks of the consultant should be specified in the agreement, and if required, excluded tasks should also be set out. In addition, attention should be paid to the consultant’s professional expertise and definition thereof.

The deliverables should be easy to measure, and the grounds for payment of the commission mutually acceptable. It is advisable to agree upon a clear time schedule for performance of the tasks and consequences of delays. Likewise, it is advisable to agree upon the liability of the consultant and procedures for, among others, errors and defects.

To enable successful completion of the consultants tasks and the consultancy project, actions by the client, such as provision of necessary background information and materials, are often required. In such cases, the client’s obligation to contribute should be specified in the agreement.

It is important that a consultancy agreement defines the rights to materials provided upon commencement of and during the project, and especially the client’s rights to the deliverables prepared and provided by the consultant. Often, it is also necessary to agree upon confidentiality of materials.

A consultancy agreement should define, at a minimum, the following issues:

1. scope of the assignment;

2. objective of the assignment;

3. how the tasks are organized on a person-specific level;

4. fees, or basis for determining the fees, and refundable expenses;

5. time schedule and terms applicable to delays;

6. reporting by the consultant;

7. deliverables and the client’s rights to such deliverables;

8. the client’s obligation to contribute;

9. liability of the consultant;

10. confidentiality obligations of the consultant and the client.