Lilypie

Friday, July 18, 2008

Attending An In-House Workshop

Finally, after almost two years and numerous in-house course and workshop applications later, I have finally been approved to go for a course! Perhaps because it is free and is by a top law firm, but whatever it is, at least I can get to know more and be more efficient in my job.

What is best is the speaker of this workshop which I will be going to happens to be the author of The Teenage Textbook and The Teenage Workbook! (Yes, he is one of the partners in one of the top law firms here.) Hmmm... wonder if I can just bring my two books there for his autograph? :-p

A few months after I joined the company, I have been hoping to go for courses. There have been lots of flyers and emails for courses on property transactions, Intellectual Property and Contracts, but each time I was not approved to go. Maybe because this current boss is keeping up to his promise of helping me out to his best, or maybe because this course I applied for really seem relevant, but I am happy I can at least get to upgrade whatever I know!

The course is on Contract Drafting and Interpretation. Contract Law was not exactly my favourite subject back in school. Granted I only took the bare minimum under Introduction to Law, not an entire module, but whatever I knew about Contract Law while reading someone's textbooks and studying together with my friends, I was convinced it would never be my favourite subject. If it is Criminal Law, Family Law or Intellectual Property, or even Shipping Law, my interest would be more captivated.

Unfortunately, ever since I ventured into the legal profession, I have been dealing with a lot of contracts. It is unavoidable actually, because everything require contracts or agreements. As long as it is an agreement with the signatures of two parties, it is a contract and both parties have to be bound by the terms and conditions of the agreements.

For the past few years, I have learnt a lot from the various companies I have worked for, so much that now whenever I need to see an agreement, I actually scrutinise it from top to toe and point out which are the points that are not that valid! :-p Anyway, the course will take place on the afternoon on the last day of July, so I can take time off to go there. It is not exactly time off or leave, just a normal working day except I am taking a work-related course.

The course will cover how case law affects the interpretation of contracts and the impact this has on contract drafting, difference between the plain and ordinary meaning of a contract, when is extrinsic evidence admissible to aid the interpretation of a contract, must evidence of previous negotations and subjective intent always be disregarded, potential impact of an "entire agreement" clause and approach to contract interpretation and drafting.

Rather heavy material actually. I hope it will be interesting, but from someone who used to be a school debater and who injected so much humour in his books, I believe it will be an interesting and entertaining workshop indeed!

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