The Problem: The Case of the Tilted Contract

You have sent the rough draft of a contract to your outside counsel to prepare a formal document. When the draft of the contract comes back, you notice that the terms of the contract are exactly as you had indicated but the attorney has added many other clauses which cause you some concern. One group of clauses you know is very one-sided (they benefit you but not the other parties to the contract). When you ask about them, your attorney says that even though they are one sided, they are to protect you from litigation. Another group of clauses seems very harsh. When you ask about them, your attorney says that even though they may be unenforceable, the clauses will deter the other party from suing you because of the expense.

Please complete each section of this worksheet. Some people find that writing the answers out on another page and then "cutting and pasting" them into the worksheet lets you think through the problem better.

Be Attentive: Set the Context

1) Ethical Actor: The first step is to identify the ethical actor. In a sentence identify the ethical actor for this problem.

2) Stakeholders : The next step is to identify the stakeholders. List the other stakeholders for this problem

3) Assumptions: In two or three bullet points, identify any assumptions you are making about the problem.