In a surprising number of businesses, commercial contracts are treated as paperwork — a form of words to be signed so that the real work can start. In practice, the supply agreement, the distribution agreement or the SaaS terms you sign today are the rulebook for what happens when a supplier misses a delivery, a distributor underperforms, or a partner wants to leave early. Problem contracts rarely cause trouble on the day they are signed. The difficulty appears later, when the commercial relationship deteriorates and the parties find that the contract does not clearly provide for what they thought they had agreed. That is why, in drafting and reviewing a commercial contract, we look not only at the deal about to be signed but at the issues that may arise while it is being performed.
Where a contract is silent or a clause is unclear, the relevant provisions of the law apply. Limits of liability, notice periods and grounds for termination, force majeure, governing law and jurisdiction are among the points that can look secondary during the negotiation but become decisive once a dispute arises. Dealing with them clearly in advance reduces uncertainty and the risk of having to resolve them later through negotiation or litigation.
"A contract found online and lightly edited is not a bespoke agreement — it is a set of assumptions written by someone who has never met your business, your counterparty, or your risk tolerance." Where a foreign template is being used, a commercial contract lawyer in Greece checks which clauses Greek law will not enforce as written.
We draft and review commercial contracts the way an in-house General Counsel does — because that is the role this practice is built on. A contract has to be legally sound, but it also has to be usable by the commercial team that will actually operate under it day to day: clear enough that sales, procurement and operations can read it without calling legal every time, and precise enough that when a dispute does arise, the answer is in the document rather than in argument. Send the draft and we will mark what will not hold in Greece.
Not just drafting
Every clause has a commercial meaning
Every clause in a commercial contract allocates rights, obligations and risk between the parties. In drafting and negotiating a contract we look at who takes each risk, on what terms and subject to what limits, so that the allocation is deliberate and matches your commercial interests.
The default rules
When contracts are silent
Where a contract does not deal with a point, the law fills the gap. The answer the law provides is not necessarily the one that serves the parties' commercial interests. That is why we aim to have the critical points dealt with expressly in the contract, rather than left to be settled afterwards by the default rules.
Governing law
Cross-border contracts
We draft, negotiate and advise on contracts with foreign counterparties and on contracts governed by Greek or English law.