Commercial
Contracts
for
Non-Lawyers
Practical skills to understand, draft, and manage commercial contracts with confidence — no legal background required.
Practical Contract Skills for Global Professionals
Commercial contract negotiations are often challenging — not because parties disagree on objectives, but because underlying issues are unclear, unstructured, or poorly prioritised. This programme provides a structured, practical approach to preparing for and conducting contract negotiations with confidence.
Day 1 focuses on understanding contractual pain points, analysing issues, and preparing negotiation plans. Day 2 focuses on negotiation strategies, tools, and hands-on practice.
Participants will learn how to break down contracts into negotiation issues, link these to clear negotiation strategies, and conduct discussions in a structured, commercially grounded way.
- ✓Identify and analyse contract issues across commercial, operational, legal, and risk dimensions
- ✓Prepare for negotiation using a structured Issue Mapping Framework
- ✓Build negotiation briefs with objectives, walk-away points, and concessions
- ✓Apply anchoring, framing, packaging, sequencing, and 8+ core negotiation strategies
- ✓Understand BATNA and ZOPA in real commercial contract contexts
- ✓Handle difficult counterparties, pressure tactics, and escalation
- ✓Earn a recognised Certificate of Attendance in Commercial Contracts
What You'll Gain
Break down complex contracts into commercial, operational, legal, and risk issues with clarity.
Apply 8+ proven strategies — anchoring, framing, packaging, concessions — in real scenarios.
Identify liability, indemnity, and termination issues before they become costly disputes.
Leave with a personalised negotiation brief — objectives, fallback positions, and concessions ready to use.
Navigate cross-border contract standards and understand how jurisdictions affect your obligations.
Demonstrate practical contract and negotiation skills with a certificate shareable on LinkedIn.
Real Testimonials
Karen brings deep practical expertise — her training made complex contract concepts immediately applicable to our work.
The Issue Mapping Framework alone was worth the entire programme — we now approach every negotiation differently.
Karen's ability to make legal concepts accessible to non-lawyers is exceptional — practical, engaging, and directly relevant.
Outstanding delivery — Karen connected legal strategy directly to commercial objectives in a way I've never seen before.
The negotiation simulation on Day 2 was transformative — we left with real skills we could use the very next day.
Best contract training I've attended — structured, hands-on, and directly relevant to my day-to-day procurement role.
Meet Karen Dawson
Karen Dawson is an experienced legal consultant and trainer with over 20 years in the oil & gas and construction sectors. She has held key in-house legal positions including with global offshore contractor Saipem Asia Sdn. Bhd., and later as Head of Legal at Sime Darby Berhad's Energy & Utilities Division, where she built and led a dynamic legal team.
Karen has advised extensively on legal and contractual matters in oil & gas projects across upstream and midstream sectors, and on large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Bakun Dam. She has negotiated successful outcomes with major industry players including ExxonMobil, Total, Murphy Oil, Maersk Oil Qatar, PTT Thailand, Modec International LLC, and Sarawak Hidro Sdn. Bhd.
Areas of Expertise2 Days of Intensive Learning
- Scope of Work clarity, pricing & payment structures, delivery timelines, liquidated damages
- Warranties, indemnities, liability caps, insurance, termination rights
- Identifying commercial, operational, legal, and risk issues
- Issue interdependencies and the Issue Mapping Framework
- Setting objectives, walk-away points, and concession design
- Preparing an internal negotiation brief
- Understanding realistic alternatives and determining leverage
- Establishing ZOPA boundaries and planning fallback options
- Setting initial positions, soft vs firm anchors
- Framing proposals to improve acceptance
- Concession structure, timing, and sequencing
- Grouping issues, conditional offers, and structuring trade-offs
- Clarifying, probing, and verification questions
- Handling delay, pressure tactics, silence, and escalation
Participants apply all skills — issue identification, anchoring, concessions, packaging, questioning, counter-tactic management, and closing techniques — in a live group simulation.
Invest in Your Future
Group discounts available. All pricing excludes taxes.
- ✓Live 2-day online sessions
- ✓Course material soft copies
- ✓Certificate of Attendance
- ✓Transformation toolkit
- ✓Full negotiation simulation
- ✓Everything in Individual
- ✓Save $200 per delegate
- ✓Team learning collaboration
- ✓Shared group exercises
- ✓Team implementation plan
- ✓Everything in Small Group
- ✓Save $400 per delegate
- ✓Organizational strategy
- ✓Priority enrollment
- ✓Dedicated support
Got Questions?
Ready to Master Contract Negotiation?
Join contract professionals from across the globe. Limited seats available. Build skills you can use the very next day.