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Commercial contracts law for schools and academy trusts

Commercial contracts for schools and academy trusts

education-pencils-and-coins

Whilst the continued expansion of the educational services market will present opportunities to make savings, schools and academies are under increasing pressure to demonstrate appropriate due diligence has been carried out in relation to their contracts. Whether it is straightforward terms and conditions of sale, complex outsourcing projects or partnership agreements, ensuring your school is aware of the commercial risks is critical to protecting your school, your reputation and your budget.

Our expert team can advise on a wide range of contractual issues including helping you to identify and manage risk in commercial contracts, negotiate key terms or look at debt recovery. We provide a quality service to fit your needs, whether it is a high-level review on terms and conditions or supporting you through detailed negotiations on a high value contract. We help you put in place robust, commercially-focused agreements that protect you and your school.

What we do...

Supporting schools in terms of a wide range of contractual advice including procurement, drafting contractual terms, assisting clients with risk assessments of contractual terms with suppliers.
Sharing experience of common commercial issues with suppliers.
Partnership agreements assisting schools in putting together partnership agreements to support collaborative and commercial activities.

Advising on all contracts from simple terms of conditions all the way through to outsourcing agreements.
Protecting your intellectual property - providing advice on trademarks, copyright and other intellectual property issues.
Supporting with litigation including debt recovery.

Recent experience

Reviewing a catering contract from the favoured tenderer of a school. We advised the contract contained extremely onerous and unclear terms which the contractor was unwilling to change. As a result, our client worked with a different catering company, whose terms we reviewed and were much more favourable to the school.
Drafting and negotiating a bulge provision agreement for a school that had been put under extreme pressure from their local authority to take additional numbers at very late notice. We worked with the head teacher under severe time pressure to ensure the agreement secured contractual comfort from the local authority, that the provision was adequately funded and that key safeguards were put in place.
Negotiating the terms of a joint use agreement between an academy, a county council and a district council where the terms of use of a leisure centre, hockey pitch, car parking and a bus lane were agreed. The project involved extensive discussions involving issues such as contributions to utilities, shared access, sharing of employees and safeguarding.

What the directories say...

They are effective, efficient and user-friendly.

Chambers 2022

The team at Browne Jacobson are extremely clear and transparent in their communication with clients ensuring that there is thorough understanding at different levels within the organisation which makes the process of engagement a much more enjoyable and seamless exercise. One key strength is their ability to recognise and share best practice in order to inform future development and improvement.

Legal 500 2021

While the team have detailed knowledge of the education sector, they consistently take a pragmatic approach that supports the clients understanding and ensures decisions are meaningful. They understand the requirements to such an extent that options, and recommendations, are clear and timely.

Legal 500 2021

A client commends the team's "diligence, proactiveness and determination to get the job done."

Chambers 2021