How A Contract Is Concluded - Video for Listening Comprehension in English Classroom

Have you ever asked yourself how a contract is concluded? You must surely imagine very serious meetings attended by dozens of lawyers.

Maybe you’ve even got the image in your head of two chairmen on a golf course who, arriving at the eighteenth hole, shake hands to finalise their agreement.

In fact, everything begins here: in the secretary’s office. The future partners contact each other by phone to arrange a meeting.

The most difficult thing is agreeing on the legal and financial terms of the contract. Here, the two parties hope to find a common ground concerning the building of a new tourism complex.

The architect’s objective is to have his project accepted and the property developer’s, to get the best proposal for the least cost and with a reasonable period of construction.

The plans drawn up by the architect will probably undergo a few modifications because some of the proposals put forward risk turning out to be very costly.

The two men are trying to come to an agreement. They state their points of view and look for a way to overcome the possible obstacles. In a word, they negotiate.

The contract, now written, is then handed over to the lawyers who also try to get as much money out of the deal as possible. Their work consists in warning and protecting their clients from possible conflicts.

In fact, a contract resembles a sponge. Everyone wrings it to try and get a maximum out of it.

The lawyers have come to the end of their work and the contract is finally ready to be signed. At the last minute, the architect doesn’t agree with one of the clauses.

Some of the property developer’s demanded changes would considerably change the villas’ outward appearance and could jeopardise the deal’s success. He can’t accept such a thing.

Well, it’s always like that! Just into the final straight and within an inch of uncorking the champagne, a final problem arises. The architect demands an explanation as to why such changes are needed. He refuses to take part in a construction project of banal villas.

Now all he’s got left to do is redesign everything, or more or less, a good part of it. He modifies his plans and allows the developer to save lots of money. Everyone finally seems to be satisfied.

The secretary adds the last amendments to the contract’s text, the lawyers examine it a final time and the men shake hands. Who would have thought that negotiating a contract needed so much time, work and, above all, dialogue?


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