September Meeting Recap

Submitted by Betsy Rhame-Minor on Sat, 2010-09-11 21:54
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Safeguarding Your Freelance Business: Legal Contracts And Intellectual Property

Are you fully protected by your client contracts against liability or delinquent payments? Are you up-to-date on the latest legal issues that affect your freelance business? Is legalese a mystery to you? Attorney Jon Lee Andersen answered these questions and many more at the Freelance Forum's September 2nd meeting where we discussed contract matters and intellectual property.
 
Here are some helpful hints from Andersen:
  • What you have to have in a contract: identification of parties with their addresses, good description of services including deadlines, approvals, revisions and benchmarks, payment provisions, and signatures.
  • What you should probably have in a contract: ownership provisions (who owns what and when once the work is complete), indemnification, warranties and representations, beginning and ending dates, arbitration, confidentiality and governing law.
  • If you have a business name but you are an individual freelancer, sign contracts in your business name so you aren’t personally liable for damages.
  • If you are a freelancer that has created something for a client, you own it if you are not employed by the company.
  • If you think you might subcontract out some work for a client, be sure to add that in the contract.
 
To learn more, contact Jon Lee Andersen, Andersen Law Firm, 770-315-8668 or jlandersen [at] lawyer [dot] com.