The email from the general counsel of your most important client arrives late Friday afternoon, and it is disarmingly terse: “We’ve reached an agreement with X Co. to amend our agreement, the three key terms are below, please prepare something we can deliver first thing Monday.” If your gut reaction is to grab your pen and start drafting an agreement, you are probably making a mistake.
Before you do anything else, get on the phone and discuss the matter with the client. Even a brief discussion will help you get a better grasp of the scope of the assignment and the client’s underlying business purpose. You will invariably glean some detail from that conversation that was missing from an email.
