By Buddy Broussard, LegalSifter

Most commercial contracts begin with familiar business terms: what will be delivered, what it will cost, and when performance is due. But when negotiations become difficult, they rarely stall over scope or timing. They stall over risk.

That’s why the limitation of liability clause is one of the most negotiated and most consequential provisions in modern contracting. Few provisions shape contract exposure more directly than limitation of liability. At its core, this clause answers a simple question: What is the maximum financial downside if the deal goes wrong?

World Commerce & Contracting’s annual Most Negotiated Terms research consistently ranks limitation of liability among the most heavily negotiated provisions in commercial agreements, reflecting how central this clause is to risk allocation.

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By Buddy Broussard, LegalSifter

Every contract is written for the world as it’s expected to be. Force majeure is the clause that governs the world as it sometimes becomes.

But contracting professionals know that real-world operations rarely stay predictable forever. Supply chains break down. Weather events disrupt delivery. Governments impose restrictions. Markets shift overnight.

That’s why the force majeure clause remains one of the most important and most carefully negotiated provisions in modern contracting. World Commerce & Contracting’s annual Most Negotiated Terms research consistently finds that risk allocation provisions dominate negotiation priorities, underscoring how much time organizations spend negotiating contract language that will only apply when performance breaks down.

Force majeure provisions gained renewed prominence after COVID-era disruptions, but they have always played a critical role in defining contractual resilience: what happens when performance becomes impossible due to events outside either party’s control.

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By Buddy Broussard, LegalSifter

Most commercial contracts are built around performance: what will be delivered, when it will be delivered, and what the parties expect from the relationship. But expectations alone do not create enforceable protection.

That’s why the warranty clause remains one of the most important and most frequently negotiated provisions in modern contracting.

Warranty language defines what one party is actually committing to deliver, and what the other party can reasonably rely on. Disputes often arise when warranties are drafted too broadly or remedies are unclear.

A promise without a remedy creates uncertainty. A remedy without limits creates risk.

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By Matt Darling, LegalSifter

You didn’t get into the nonprofit world because you have a burning passion for “Limitation of Liability” clauses or “Indemnification” provisions. But as organizations grow, nonprofit contract management quickly becomes an unavoidable part of running a successful mission-driven organization. 

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By Matt Darling, LegalSifter

Everyone obsesses over cycle time.

How fast did legal turn that NDA? How many days to get that new business contract signed? It’s the metric that gets reported in every quarterly business review, the number that sales leaders focus on, and the benchmark that determines whether your legal ops team gets a pat on the back or put under the microscope.

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By Matt Darling, LegalSifter

You know what kills deals? Time.

Not price objections. Not competitor pressure. Not even budget freezes. It’s the slow, agonizing crawl through contract review that turns hot opportunities into cold losses.

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By Buddy Broussard, LegalSifter

Most experienced business leaders are comfortable reviewing and negotiating familiar deal terms in their commercial contracts: scope of work, pricing, delivery timelines, renewal periods. But negotiations rarely stall over those points.

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Indemnification is one of those contract terms that can look like “boilerplate” until something happens, and then it becomes the clause everyone needs to interpret quickly.

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For years, key performance indicators (KPIs) have been the standard for measuring contract performance. They track numbers like cycle time, approval rates, and renewals, but they often stop there, providing information without direction. As businesses demand greater accountability and alignment across legal, procurement, and finance, many are replacing KPIs with contract operations OKRs, or objectives and key results.

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Because smart teams don’t reinvent the wheel, or ask GenAI what their policies should be.

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By Lars Mahler + Buddy Broussard, LegalSifter

As generative AI becomes more accessible and widely adopted, it might be tempting to assume that a tool like ChatGPT can replace more specialized solutions. After all, it can draft, summarize, and translate language quickly and convincingly.

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By Tom Henson, SVP of Product Management & Marketing, LegalSifter

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) 2025 conference was, in a word, energizing. As professionals across procurement, supply chain, and operations came together, a surprising and consistent theme emerged: contract review is still a major bottleneck, particularly in complex industries like healthcare, energy, and logistics. At LegalSifter, we had the chance to talk with dozens of professionals who were candid about their pain points and priorities. Their stories illuminated the growing gap between what traditional contract lifecycle management (CLM) systems offer and what business leaders, supply chain and procurement professionals, and their legal teams actually need.

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AI is no longer a futuristic ideal, it’s a practical necessity.

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By Buddy Broussard, LegalSifter

If you’ve spent enough time negotiating contracts, you know the feeling: déjà vu over the same terms, last-minute escalations, misaligned expectations. The question isn’t whether your organization needs a contract playbook, it’s why you haven’t built or refreshed one yet.

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Know the essential elements of a contract for it to be legally binding. If one or more of these elements are missing, the contract may be void or unenforceable.

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I’ve seen more than my fair share of unfortunate drafting, but my work for LegalSifter has exposed me to a whole new level of stoopid.

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Ken Adams here. This is from this post on my blog. In contract drafting, sometimes choosing one word or phrase over various alternatives involves fiendish subtlety. Other times…not. The post below falls into the latter category. But even if not a whole lot is at stake, you have to make a choice, so it might as well be a halfway principled one. 

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