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Are you a photographer, filmmaker or creative type and find yourself bogged down by contracts and legal documents? No where to turn? Do contracts make you want to scream?Well hello friends. It’s me Kate, Executive Producer over here at Chase Jarvis Inc. One of my roles as EP is to deal with all of the legal schmegal that comes through our shop and –while I have an excellent lawyer that I always consult– I feel your pain. Over the years I’ve learned a fair bit and now try to do as much of the legwork as I can reasonably do to keep legal costs as low as possible. You may want to consider this approach – it has saved us thousands of dollars.
I will start by stating very overtly that I am NOT a lawyer and can’t give you legal advice. This post is not said advice. I do, however, think that–by example–it could be really helpful if I were to break down one common contract that photographers often get asked to sign before a project – the Non Disclosure Agreement (the “NDA”) AND THEN outline some generally helpful tips regarding contracts in general. This won’t give you all the details, but it will give you an important foundation, an approach, on which to build. That’s the point of this post – here goes:
Example: The Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
The NDA is a contract that is also commonly known as a confidentiality agreement or secrecy agreement. It is a legal contract between at least two parties that protects the discloser (person sharing the info) and the confidential information when they share information with a recipient (person receiving the information) for a specific purpose. You may be asked to sign one any time an individual or company feels that they are sharing confidential information with you. This is certainly smart business practice for sharing sensitive information… IN FACT, you may even want to have your own NDA to protect your own confidential information if you’re in a positon to share such info with contractors, etc.
My Top 10 Checklist for NDAs
Below you will find ten things to consider as you review any NDA. And again, you should definitely consult a lawyer, but this is a great starting point:
Some companies have developed really excellent NDAs that are perfectly good to sign in their original state. Others may just have a stock NDA that is quite broad and may even feel that it doesn’t make sense for your situation. You are looking to make sure that whatever you sign works for your company and the purpose of your project. I have the impression that many recipients believe that they MUST sign the NDA AS-IS in order to even be considered for the project. While that MAY be the case, in my experience, I have found that companies have been very open to suggestions IF the following is true:
If the company is not open to making any changes, it’s up to you to decide with your lawyer if you are willing to sign the contract with a real understanding of what your risks are.
Finally, Some General Contract Thoughts.
In this post, we looked at one specific kind of contract, but there are so many more… JOY! As you go forth, with your pen poised to sign away, stop first and consider the following before you sign anything [and did I mention that I am NOT a lawyer?? So, please take these thoughts with a grain of salt. These are just my thoughts after working in this capacity with Chase for so many years.]
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