• Don't avoid lawyers: that is often false economy.
  • Functionality, specifications and change control issues should be addressed specifically and upfront.
  • Don't park difficult issues into schedules to be agreed later between possibly uninterested parties.
  • Don't cut and paste marketing material and in particular "marketing speak" into contracts.
  • Understand that costs are incurred because time needs to be spent. Some lawyers' time is irreducible and inevitable; some can be avoided by reduction of demands and allocation of resource or increased co-operation and responsiveness.
  • Don't treat your lawyers as the enemy; they are part of the team. Objective advice, and devil's advocacy has a place. Be prepared for your assumptions to be challenged.
  • Prepare for objective analysis. Any problems and the range of possible solutions to them must be analysed coldly, without emotion and in a wholly commercial way.
  • A particular course of action may be attractive as a matter of principle but not as a financial investment. Losing face or losing a case are not necessarily important. The prospect of losing more money than necessary is more important.
  • If possible, let someone who has had no emotional involvement deal with the matter. There will then be a more realistic prospect of cutting losses and stopping litigation in its tracks. There is no more dispensable luxury than a fight over a matter of principle.
  • One of the many benefits of hindsight is that it shows that, on many occasions, it has proved cheaper to give up a legal battle than to achieve 100% success in Court but not recover all your costs.
  • There is considerable advantage in having a records and document management system which enables relatively straightforward access to the evidence underlying any dispute and will assist in preparing the witness statements which are increasingly necessary at an early stage.
  • It is a common and understandable approach to delay or omit the search for certain documents and the preparation of detailed witness statements. Since strategic advantage can also be gained from front-loading, early preparation may save costs by increasing awareness of what costs will be involved.
  • Tell your lawyers everything, ask for what you don't understand to be explained and make your concerns known.
  • Break any of the rules rather than do anything completely stupid.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.