Writing & Executing Contracts
From First Draft to Signed, Managed Agreement
Educational content, not legal advice. This course teaches business people, freelancers and agencies to draft, negotiate, sign and manage everyday commercial contracts competently, and to recognize when a lawyer is needed. Legal examples focus on United States law (state common law, the UCC, ESIGN/UETA), with notes on England & Wales and the EU (GDPR, eIDAS, the Data Act). The templates are teaching materials: have a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction review any template before you use it with clients.
What you'll learn
Every website project and hosting plan is a contract. Most small businesses run on contracts copied from somewhere else, signed without reading, and forgotten until something goes wrong: scope disputes, unpaid invoices, a client who expected to own code they never received in writing, a vendor contract that silently renewed for another year.
In this course you follow Northwind Web Studio, the agency that built and hosts the Harbor & Pine Bakery site in RNK-WEB-201 and RNK-HOST-301, through its contracts:
- How contracts work: formation by email, click and conduct; writing requirements; online terms; how courts read contracts; the defaults that apply when contracts are silent.
- Anatomy and drafting: parts of a contract, architectures (MSA + SOW, terms + order form), definitions and cross-references, and plain-language drafting that can't be misread.
- Commercial terms: checkable scope, acceptance, change control, pricing and payment, SLAs with real arithmetic, and exit terms (including the EU Data Act's switching rules).
- Risk allocation: warranties, indemnities, limitation of liability, insurance, IP ownership through the whole chain, confidentiality and data processing addenda.
- Term, termination and disputes: renewals, cure periods, remedies, liquidated damages, notices, force majeure, and choosing between courts, mediation and arbitration.
- Negotiation and redlining: interests and BATNA, playbooks with fallbacks, redlines you run yourself, issues lists and honest trades.
- Execution: authority, ESIGN/UETA and eIDAS, electronic vs digital signatures, audit trails, closing checklists and signing fraud.
- Contract management: registers, deadlines, reminders and calendars, amendments, renewals and retention.
- Templates, automation and AI: template governance, document assembly, testing templates like code, and using AI tools safely.
Everything is practiced with contractkit, a small, readable Python toolkit, and eight complete, annotated agreement templates.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, you can:
- Explain how contracts are formed and interpreted, and the defaults that apply when they're silent.
- Structure a contract and its related documents (SOWs, change orders, DPAs, notices).
- Draft clear, unambiguous clauses in plain language, and lint them.
- Write commercial terms: scope, acceptance, change control, pricing, payment and service levels.
- Allocate risk with warranties, indemnities, liability limits, insurance, IP and data protection terms.
- Manage term, renewal, termination, remedies, notices, force majeure and disputes.
- Negotiate with a playbook, run redlines and issues lists, and trade concessions honestly.
- Execute contracts with proper authority and valid electronic signatures, with evidence.
- Manage contracts after signature: records, deadlines, amendments, renewals and retention.
- Build and govern tested templates, and use AI tools within guardrails.
Who it's for
- Freelancers and agencies selling web design, development, hosting or other services
- Small-business owners and managers who sign customer and vendor contracts
- Project managers and operations staff who manage contracts after signature
- Graduates of RNK-WEB-201 and RNK-HOST-301
Prerequisites
None in law. Basic command-line use for the labs (each lab gives every command). RNK-WEB-201 and RNK-HOST-301 help with the examples but aren't required.
Equipment and software
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| OS | Linux, macOS, or Windows 10/11 (the labs run in PowerShell, or in WSL2 if you prefer) |
| Python 3.10+ | python3 --version (Windows: py --version) |
| A text editor | VS Code or any editor with Markdown preview |
| A web browser | To read assembled contracts and redlines (.html) and print them to PDF |
| A calendar app | Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar or Thunderbird (Module 9 imports an .ics file) |
| A word processor (optional) | Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer, to practice tracked changes in Module 7 |
The full setup guide, with verification steps, is in your learning materials when you enroll.
Format and study time
40 guided hours (10 modules × 4 h) plus ~12 h capstone. Instructor-led cohort, 5-day intensive, or self-paced with office hours.
| Format | Schedule | Contact hours |
|---|---|---|
| A. Part-time cohort | 10 weekly 4-hour sessions + Presentation Day in week 11 | 40 |
| B. Intensive | 5 days × 8 h (2 modules/day); capstone due 2 weeks later | 40 |
| C. Self-paced + office hours | 10–12 weeks, weekly 1-hour office hours; role-play with an assigned partner | ~40 + 12 |
Each scheduled class below states its own format, every meeting date and time, and its time zone.
What a seat includes
| Component | Detail |
|---|---|
| 10 instructor-led modules | ~40 h of teaching: lecture notes, slide decks, step-by-step labs, quizzes |
contractkit toolkit | Document assembler (variables, conditions, tables, automatic numbering and cross-references), drafting linter (20 rule types), contract anatomy mapper, section-aware redline (text + HTML), negotiation playbook reviewer with issues lists, Ed25519 e-signature envelopes with hash-chained audit trails, obligations tracker with renewal-deadline math and calendar (.ics) export |
| 8 annotated templates | Mutual NDA, Website Development Agreement, Change Order, Web Hosting & Maintenance Agreement (with SLA), Data Processing Addendum, Independent Contractor Agreement, Statement of Work, Formal Notice; each with sample answers and drafting notes (sample agreements) |
| Practice material | A badly drafted agreement, a client's counter-draft with a hidden trap, one-sided vendor hosting terms, two playbooks, a contract register with a late-notice scenario |
| Assessment suite | 10 quizzes, a final exam with marking guides, a capstone with a 100-point rubric |
| Verifiable certificate | PDF certificate with a registry-backed verification ID |
| Curated sources | Statutes and regulations (UCC, ESIGN, DTSA, GDPR, eIDAS, Data Act), leading cases, drafting and negotiation references, open standard agreements |
| Instructor kit | Run sheets, expected lab results, role-play briefs, answer keys, gradebook |
Curriculum
- 01How contracts work4 h · Lab: Formation analysis of eight scenarios, defaults and online assent
- 02Anatomy of a contract4 h · Lab: Anatomy reports, deadline table and an MSA/SOW/DPA document map
- 03Plain-language drafting4 h · Lab: A badly drafted agreement rewritten to zero lint errors and warnings
- 04Commercial terms4 h · Lab: A development and a hosting agreement from a term sheet, SLA math, a change order
- 05Risk allocation4 h · Lab: Vendor-paper review, five liability scenarios, IP chain and a GDPR Art. 28 map
- 06Term, termination & disputes4 h · Lab: Notices, termination and force majeure analyses, a dispute clause
- 07Negotiation & redlining4 h · Lab: Redline review, issues list, a v3 response with no high-severity issues, role-play
- 08Execution & signatures4 h · Lab: A verified two-party signing ceremony with tamper tests, a closing checklist
- 09Contract management4 h · Lab: A contract register, calendar import, an amendment and a renewal memo
- 10Templates, automation & AI4 h · Lab: A new tested template, an AI clause review, an AI policy and a pipeline
- ★Capstone clinic & presentation dayLab: Capstone project
Assessment and completion
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Labs (10 × 4%) | 40% |
| Quizzes (10 × 1.5%) | 15% |
| Final exam | 15% |
| Capstone project | 30% |
| Outcome | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Distinction | ≥ 90% overall; capstone includes a completed two-sided negotiation round and a signature envelope verified against trusted keys |
| Merit | ≥ 80% overall |
| Pass | ≥ 70% overall, capstone ≥ 70, ≥ 8 labs submitted, ≥ 80% attendance (formats A/B) |
Simply opening a lesson or a video never counts as completing an assessment. Completion is recorded only when the published requirements are met and your instructor has confirmed the result.
Course outcomes and recognition. Each course page explains the training and assessment it includes. Any RNK Academy completion certificate records the course requirements you met. It does not by itself establish an accredited qualification, professional license or third-party credential.
Course policies
- Late work: −10% per day for up to 3 days; one free 48-hour extension.
- Not legal advice: the course teaches skills and principles. Students who use course templates in their business must have them reviewed by a lawyer licensed in their jurisdiction. Instructors don't advise on students' live disputes.
- Confidentiality: capstones may use a real business only with its permission and with confidential details removed or fictionalized. Never submit a real counterparty's confidential contract.
- Keys and credentials: never submit private keys. Lab signing keys are for practice only.
- AI assistants: allowed with disclosure and within the Module 10 guardrails; you must be able to explain every clause you submit. Fabricated legal citations are academic misconduct.
- Accessibility: all materials are searchable PDF documents (Markdown sources available on request); accommodations on request.
Upcoming classes
No classes for this course are scheduled right now
New classes are added as instructors and dates are confirmed. Browse the courses to see what each one covers, or ask us about upcoming dates.