Contract Review Lawyers
We review contracts put in front of you and flag the risks and the clauses worth negotiating.
Overview
Reviewing a contract before signature is the cheapest legal service you can buy and the one that saves the most. A contract that takes three days to examine can carry a clause costing years of obligation or an entire claim. Review is not a quick read but a systematic examination of what is written and what is missing.
We review contracts presented by the other side and deliver a clear report: high-risk clauses, missing clauses that should be added, and proposed amendments in wording ready to send. We rank them by priority: what to refuse, what to negotiate, and what can be accepted.
What we most often find is not a bad clause but an absent one: no termination mechanism, no liability cap, no defined scope. The real danger in contracts is usually the silence rather than the text.
The legal framework
Review is conducted against the framework applicable to the subject matter:
- The Civil Transactions Law on obligations, interpretation and liability
- The Commercial Courts Law and the Arbitration Law on dispute clauses
- Sector regimes according to the subject matter and the parties' activities
- Competition rules on exclusivity restrictions and pricing
- The data protection regime in processing and confidentiality clauses
- The agency and franchise rules in distribution contracts
Situations we handle
A contract presented by a large customer
Large corporate contracts tend to shift risk onto the counterparty. Review identifies what is genuinely negotiable.
A commercial lease
Term, renewal, escalation, eviction and assignment — clauses that decide the fate of the business, not merely the cost of the premises.
A partnership agreement before signature
Exit and deadlock provisions should be examined first, not the profit split that usually occupies both parties.
A finance or facility agreement
Financial covenants and events of default carry more risk than the rate, and are read closely before signature.
A technology services agreement
Service levels, liability on outage, and ownership of deliverables — three clauses routinely forgotten.
Costly mistakes we see
- 1
Signing under time pressure
"Sign now and amend later" does not happen in practice. After signature the negotiating balance changes entirely.
- 2
Reading the price and ignoring the rest
Price is one clause. Liability, termination and indemnity determine the contract's real cost.
- 3
Assuming standard clauses are non-negotiable
Much of what is presented as a fixed template is genuinely amendable, particularly on liability and termination.
- 4
Ignoring annexes and incorporated documents
An annex or referenced document forms part of the contract and can carry heavier obligations than the body itself.
How the procedure runs, step by step
Reviewing a contract is not proofreading. It is identifying what you lose if things go badly, and what can still be negotiated before signature.
- 1
Read the contract against your commercial position
We establish first what you want from the transaction, then measure the contract against it. A legally sound contract can be commercially poor, and a formal review will never show you that.
- 2
Identify the high-risk clauses
We focus on liability, termination, exclusivity, intellectual property, confidentiality and dispute resolution. These decide the outcome of any future disagreement more than the performance clauses do.
- 3
Check compliance with Saudi law
We test every clause against mandatory provisions of Saudi law, particularly in contracts imported from foreign templates. A void clause leaves a gap in the contract, not protection.
- 4
A prioritised review report
We produce a report in three tiers: what must change before signature, what is worth negotiating, and what is acceptable. That ordering makes negotiation possible instead of a long list rejected wholesale.
- 5
Draft the proposed amendments
We supply ready alternative wording for each point rather than an objection. The other side accepts drafted wording far faster than an open discussion.
Documents we will ask you for
- The contract or draft under review
- The related annexes, schedules and specifications
- The commercial proposal or heads of terms
- Information on the counterparty and its bargaining power
- What matters most to you in this transaction
- Any earlier contract with the same party
Fees and timelines
Review is offered at a fixed fee per contract according to length, including the risk report and proposed amendments in ready wording. Express review of short contracts is offered at a reduced fee with a condensed output.
On timing: a short contract within one to two days. Long contracts or those with technical annexes take three to seven working days. We hold to the stated deadlines, because review usually precedes a fixed signing date.
Common questions
What does the review report include?
A list of high-risk clauses and their practical effect, missing clauses that should be added, and proposed amendments in wording ready to send — ranked between what to refuse, what to negotiate and what to accept.
How long does a review take?
A short contract takes one to two days; long contracts or those with technical annexes take three to seven working days depending on length and the number of incorporated documents.
Can a large company's contract be amended?
Usually yes, and more than clients assume. Clauses on liability, termination and service levels are typically negotiable even in contracts presented as fixed templates.
What is usually the most dangerous clause?
It varies, but the most recurrent are unlimited liability, unilateral termination without notice, and open-ended indemnity for any third-party claim.
Do you review the annexes too?
Yes, and annexes often carry the heavier obligations: service levels, technical specifications and price schedules. Reviewing the body without its annexes is an incomplete review.
What if we have already signed?
We review the contract to identify the room available: clauses amendable by annex, obligations that can be managed operationally, and risks to prepare for. Post-signature review is less useful but far from useless.
Do you provide alternative wording?
Yes. Amendments are delivered in final wording ready to send to the other side, not as general comments that still need translating into text.
Do you review English-language contracts?
Yes, and where both exist we also check that the Arabic and English versions match, because divergence between them is a recurring source of dispute when no prevailing version is stated.
Related services
Contract Drafting Lawyers
We draft clear, enforceable contracts that reflect what was actually agreed.
Due Diligence Lawyers
We produce legal due diligence reports that surface risk before a transaction closes.
Legal Opinion Lawyers
We prepare written legal opinions you can rely on for a decision or submit to a counterparty.