01
Scope is assumed instead of agreed.
The proposal, email thread and client expectations describe the work differently. Deliverables, exclusions and client inputs remain open to interpretation.
Commercial contract attorneys
Contracts that operate.
Make scope, evidence, acceptance, payment and change clear before the work starts.
Review the contract in front of you. Build the agreement your next project needs. Use a Contracts Desk for ongoing attorney support when contract work becomes recurring. Or redesign the workflow that feeds it.
Drag the sheet, test a clause, and watch the schedule return to form when pressure lifts.
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Advising project-based teams in
Software and implementation partners
Engineering and technical firms
Agencies and studios
Consulting and advisory firms
IT and managed service providers
Where contracts fail
Operating instruments. Not paperwork.
The dispute usually appears later. The failure starts earlier: vague scope, unclear acceptance, payment that depends on opinion rather than proof, and change requests drifting through email. That is not a document defect. It is an operating-system failure.
02
Acceptance depends on opinion instead of proof.
Completion has no agreed evidence, review window or valid reason for rejection. The work may be finished while approval and payment remain discretionary.
03
Change reaches delivery before it reaches the contract.
Another round, feature or workshop enters the project through email. The work changes immediately; the fee, deadline and written scope do not.
A contract should not just describe the deal. It should run the work.
Services and fees
Start with the contract in front of you.
Review it before you sign. Build it properly before kickoff. When contracts keep arriving, use a Contracts Desk for ongoing attorney support. If the process itself needs work, redesign the contract flow.
Review
Contract Review
Review your agreement before you sign, showing where scope, acceptance, payment or change are exposed and what should be fixed in the negotiation.
From R7,500Fixed-fee work
- Plain-English commercial summary
- Scope, evidence, acceptance, payment and change risk map
- Specific legal flags where relevant
- Recommended fixes and fallback positions
Build
Agreement Build
Turn your proposal, SOW, service model or client paper into a service agreement or SOW package built around how the work will happen.
From R18,500Fixed-fee work
- Structured intake and scoping call
- One service agreement or SOW package in a defined lane
- Deliverables, evidence, acceptance, payment and change terms
- Attorney-reviewed plain-English deal summary
Ongoing capacity
Contracts Desk
Ongoing review, drafting, redlines and negotiation support for businesses with recurring customer or supplier contracts.
From R25,000per month
- Defined monthly contract queue
- Agreed response and turnaround bands
- Reviews, drafts, redlines and negotiation notes
- Reusable clauses, fallback positions and SOW packs
- Clear exclusions for disputes and litigation
Method
Own the document that decides approval and payment.
Make the Services Schedule the place where delivery, acceptance and payment become decidable.
Client paper
Often lockedMaster agreement
Sets the relationship. It rarely decides this project's approval and payment.
Controllable surface
Own thisServices Schedule / SOW
Turns delivery into something that can be checked, accepted and paid.
Define the work.
Name the deliverables, exclusions, assumptions and client dependencies before work starts.
Make approval decidable.
Name the approver, the evidence, the review window and the route after rejection.
Prove completion.
Name the artefact, where it goes and how acceptance is decided against the document.
Trigger the invoice.
Tie invoicing to a clear event, period and response when payment is late.
Control additions.
Define the change, written approval and its effect on fee, programme and milestones.
Specimen clause architecture, drafted by Operative.law. General information, not legal advice on your agreement.
Read the schedule argument →Attorneys
A new brand.
Established judgement.
Operative.law is a new public brand. Its attorneys are not new to the work. Every matter is handled by an admitted attorney. Nothing is routed to an anonymous drafting queue.
Paul Kruger
Admitted attorney (South Africa), LLM · Cross-Border Transactions · Legal Tech Implementation · Building Agreemint.dev
Christoph Hellmann
Rechtsassessor (Ass. iur.) · Fully qualified in German law · Legal engineering and digital workflows · German client work.
Anrea Kruger
Admitted attorney (South Africa) · Former Investec Legal · Banking, finance & lending transactions · Property transactions.
Start a matter
Make the contract run the work.
Tell us what the contract needs and when the deal must move. Written scope, fee and timing follow a conflict check.
Prefer email? paul@operative.law