Thursfields Talk Legal: how to tackle COVID-19’s impact on commercial contracts
The best approaches to solve problems caused when commercial contracts are unfulfilled because of COVID-19 will be discussed at a Thursfields Solicitors’ webinar later this month.
Stuart Price, a director at Thursfields and an expert in commercial contracts, will host the free Talk Legal webinar at 10am on Wednesday 21 October.
Commercial Law Contracts
This has been titled: “How to tackle COVID-19’s impact on commercial contracts”.
Stuart will introduce the webinar live on Zoom, will then play a short vidcast explaining the issues and ways they can be solved, before returning to the screen to answer any questions.
The session is expected to last no longer than 30 minutes, including any questions, and attendees will leave with some insight as to how commercial contracts have been hit by the pandemic.
Stuart said: “COVID-19 and the resulting restrictions means that many planned events and activities simply cannot happen, seemingly contravening many commercial contracts.
“With so many parties facing this scenario, the legal term force majeure is now trending, which means unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.
“We’ll discuss the detailed meaning of this phrase, and what to do if the emergency or safety guidelines prevent a contract from being fully performed.
“Importantly, we’ll look at whether a party can just abandon or terminate a contract if COVID-19 makes it too hard or expensive to perform, or whether they must first attempt to vary the contract or renegotiate its terms.
“Many businesses may desperately need the continuation of contractual arrangements to prevent insolvency, so we’ll also talk about the steps can they take to protect supply chains using commercial contracts.”
Stuart added: “Put simply, can the law compel a supplier to continue to provide a service during COVID-19? And if a business can’t perform all its contracts in full, how does it choose which ones to maintain?”
The webinar on 21 October is the seventh in Thursfields’ Talk Legal series which was launched during the COVID-19 lockdown to ensure the company continued its regular free workshops for businesses and the community.
Michelle O’Hara, managing director at Thursfields, said: “Our developing series of vidcasts are regularly drawing in large online audiences to learn from our various experts’ wide knowledge and in-depth experience on different legal topics.”
People can register for Thursfields’ latest Talk Legal webinar here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thursfields-talk-legal-in-conversation-with-stuart-price-tickets-124117493765
