The contracts your business runs on
Every business needs commercial contracts — customer agreements, NDAs, service and consultancy arrangements, terms of use, distribution and reseller contracts, project agreements, and more. They’re the “quiet infrastructure” that set the guardrails and context for all of your important relationships.
Our contract specialists advise on the full range of commercial agreements, whichever side of the table you’re on. Because we act for both customers and suppliers, we understand each party’s perspective and can avoid an impasse before it happens.
We draft, review, and negotiate contracts by identifying risks that genuinely matter while protecting the relationship that the contract is meant to support. We provide commercially focused advice and we “don’t sweat the small stuff” (unless you want us to).
We also help clients build their own set of standard contracts and playbooks so that future deals move faster without starting from scratch each time. And many clients use our free online templates as a starting point to create commercial contract suites that work. See our Resources page.
While we’re “at home” drafting those important, but routine, contracts that many businesses need, we also work on genuinely novel arrangements like commercialisation models for new technology or drafting contracts for equipment that is headed into orbit. Our experience means we can build you a contract that fits your new technology, even when nothing like it has been written before.
Examples of our commercial contracting work include:
- developing base contracting suites for clients to use in their day-to-day business, including “fill in the blank” MSAs, SOWs, consultancy, and similar generic agreements;
- advising on distribution, reseller, OEM, white-label, teaming, and other channel partner agreements for hardware (including medical devices), licensed software, and SaaS solutions;
- developing equipment and hardware supply and manufacturing agreements;
- negotiating the commercial contracts for complex multi-party delivery models for major implementation projects;
- drafting evaluation and clinical trial agreements for novel technology and devices, including medical devices with hospitals and other clinical trial users in North America and Europe;
- advising on commercialisation licences for technology spinouts from university and research institutions, including in the space, animal health, and pharmaceutical sectors; and
- helping clients with RFP responses, and negotiating implementation, supply, and services agreements for major IT and telecommunications projects.
Resources
Template services agreement
See a simple “supplier friendly” B2B services agreement for one-off low value/low risk service supplies.
The contracts behind your relationships
Templates, playbooks, and standard forms
Building reusable contracts for agile businesses.
Whichever side of the table
We’ve acted for both sides, so you’re never at a disadvantage.
Good results while building on connections
Ensuring that today’s deal doesn’t jeopardise tomorrow.
350+
SaaS companies have trusted us to help them grow.
And we can help you too. Talk to us today.
We know the terrain. You set the course.
The commercial world isn’t always smooth, but your contracts can be.
We act for New Zealand businesses on the agreements that drive growth, from supply and services to distribution and partnerships, and we write them to be clear, commercial and built to hold up when conditions change.
Frequently asked questions
We do a lot of work for startups and founders, investors, and businesses who are dealing with tech – whether as a purchaser or vendor. But we don’t have one type of client. We think that’s a good thing. It means we’ve got great depth of experience across different situations.
We’re also big on transparency. If we don’t think we can help you, we’ll be upfront about that and are always happy to point you in the direction of someone who is better placed to do your work.
We get it — fit is important.
Kindrik Partners is a corporate and commercial law firm that is focussed on the technology sector, but we also do general corporate and commercial law work. Corporate and commercial law is a specialist area and we don’t advise on all areas of law. Check out our [Services] page for a detailed description of what we do.
If you’re unsure of whether we can help you, we suggest you book in for a 30 minute free consultation via our Contact Us page. The consultation is obligation-free.
It can be hard to know when best to involve a lawyer.
While some people worry that involving a lawyer early may result in extra legal cost, we find that the earlier we’re involved, the more likely we can help – and this reduces legal spend later in the process. We’re always happy to have a chat with you about whether it’s the right time for us to help.
This covers a 30 minute telephone or video call with one of our lawyers, and is available once for someone who isn’t an existing client.
While we don’t provide legal advice or review documents as part of that call, it gives us an opportunity to understand your business and legal issues, and to give you our initial thoughts and information on next steps.
After that, if you want to use us, we’ll set you up as a client and will provide you our Terms of Engagement (the terms on which we provide our services).
Generally, we charge on an hourly rate basis for time spent on your work. We add a 3% office services charge to cover office related expenses. If we have third party costs (e.g. PPSR search fees), we also charge these.
We’re happy to provide you an estimate for your work.
In some cases, we may agree a different fee arrangement and this will take into account the factors that we are required to consider under the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
What we charge, and your payment obligations, are subject to our Terms of Engagement which we’ll provide to you when setting you up as a client.
Not usually. Until we start a job, it can be hard to know how much work is involved. E.g. if the work relates to a negotiation, the time it takes to complete the negotiation depends on the other side too.
But we understand that you want an idea of how much a job will cost. We’re happy to provide you an estimate. To do this, we will need to receive from you a clear understanding of what is the job. If you haven’t worked with us before and are unsure of what you need, we suggest you take advantage of our 30 minute free consultation so we can discuss your issue and get a better understanding of scope. See our Contact Us page.
Of course, but unless you have reviewed and verified that advice or content, it may not be the best way forward. Sometimes AI produces outputs that are long, not relevant, and inaccurate. If you haven’t reviewed and stress-tested the outputs, it can take us a long time to review them to work out what needs to be done. This can be expensive for you.
We think you are better to discuss with us first your legal issues, and we can advise the most efficient next steps.
Based on client feedback, we have fast turn around times compared to other law firms in New Zealand.
The turn around time for work depends on how urgent it is, how complex it is, and the availability of our lawyers.
While we always try to complete work as quickly as possible, if you have a deadline, we suggest you let us know when you send the work through. If there could be a problem with meeting that deadline, we’ll be up front about it.
Lawyers don’t always have the best reputation – when you think of a traditional lawyer, you probably see a person in a suit, with a pompous voice, using long words, and with a bill in hand. But don’t worry, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
As for our favourite joke, where to start? A client asks her lawyer “how much do you charge?” “$500 for 3 questions.” “Isn’t that a bit expensive?” “Yes. What’s your third question?”