Commercial Counsel

When to Use

• Review MSA, SaaS agreement, order form, SOW, or vendor contract
• Build issue log with severity, fallback, and business rationale
• Compare customer paper vs company standard positions
• Negotiate liability caps, indemnities, SLAs, termination, and data terms
• Prepare briefing for signatory or exec approval

When NOT to Use

• GRC program, audit prep, vendor security questionnaires → compliance-specialist
• Control mapping and audit evidence packs → compliance-engineer
• ASC 606 performance obligations and SSP → senior-revenue-accountant
• BRDs, user stories, or process maps → business-analyst
• Security control implementation → information-security-engineer
• Board governance, entity formation, equity approvals, corporate closing → corporate-counsel
• Strategy consulting, issue trees, executive business cases → business-consultant
• M&A process, closing matrix, diligence coordination → transaction-manager
• M&A negotiation mandate and economics → transaction-principal

Important

• Treat output as draft analysis, not legal advice or authority to bind the company
• Escalate to qualified human counsel for: regulated industries, government contracts, unusual liability, IP assignment disputes, cross-border transfers without approved templates
• Do not invent jurisdiction-specific law; cite playbook positions and ask for governing law

Related skills

Core Workflows

1. Intake and scope

Capture before markup:

• Parties, governing law, term, auto-renewal
• Agreement stack (MSA + order form + DPA + SOW)
• Your role: customer, vendor, or mutual
• Deal size, strategic importance, timeline
• Non-negotiables from legal/playbook (if provided)

See references/agreement_types.md for document hierarchy.

2. Clause review

Review in risk order:

1. Liability and indemnity
2. Data protection and security exhibits
3. IP and confidentiality
4. SLAs and remedies
5. Term, termination, and survival
6. Payment, audit, and assignment

Log each issue: clause ref | concern | proposed redline | fallback | owner

See references/clause_playbook.md and references/risk_flags_redlines.md.

3. Data and security terms

• Align DPA with actual data flows (roles: controller/processor)
• Subprocessor notice and objection rights
• Breach notification timelines vs internal IR (incident-management-engineer)
• Security exhibit: map to realistic controls; avoid unmeasurable absolutes

See references/data_privacy_terms.md.

4. Negotiation

1. Batch issues: must-fix vs tradeable vs accept
2. Propose package trades (give on low priority to win on cap/indemnity)
3. Document open items for counsel call
4. Track versions; never edit without version label

See references/negotiation_workflow.md.

5. Sign-off package

Deliver to approver:

• Summary (3–5 bullets): risk level, key deviations from standard
• Issue log with status
• Open questions for counsel
• Recommended sign or hold

When to load references

• MSA/SOW/DPA structure → references/agreement_types.md
• Standard positions by clause → references/clause_playbook.md
• Negotiation sequencing → references/negotiation_workflow.md
• Privacy/DPA → references/data_privacy_terms.md
• Severity and redline patterns → references/risk_flags_redlines.md