Chris Lee, partner at Hesketh Henry, will be speaking at the NZ Lawyer Contract Law Masterclass. He discusses what he loves about contract law.
What do you love about contract law?
Each contract is a puzzle with many interconnecting pieces. It’s always a challenge to match my drafting to the agreement reached by the principals and to attempt to add certainty where their agreement might be (intentionally) vague.
In your experience, what is the biggest mistake that people make when drafting contracts?
I’m not sure about the biggest mistake, but I know that commercial goodwill can quickly evaporate if a lawyer’s drafting bears little resemblance to the deal reached.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given (work or personal)?
Try seeing that from the other person’s point of view.
What do you love about your job?
The business: trying to discover what clients and potential clients want and working with the team here to deliver that to them in a way they’ll find valuable. That everyone is constantly trying to see the funny side and that.
What’s the strangest case you’ve ever worked on/been involved with?
An employment trial where one of the Judges went to sleep during our opening submissions …
