Consulting Services Agreement Templates

What is a Consulting Services Agreement Template?

A consulting services agreement template is a pre-drafted legally binding document which outlines a consulting engagement’s terms and conditions between a client and a consultant or consulting firm. Examples of common terms included are details on the scope of the engagement, payment rates and terms, intellectual property rights, deadlines, and termination provisions.

The template will typically contain customizable fields (i.e., [CLIENT NAME], [CONSULTANT NAME], [HOURLY RATE], etc.) which a consultant will populate each time they are hired by a new client with the specific details of the engagement.

Given the template has been pre-drafted by a lawyer, the document will define the rights and obligations of both parties in a legally sound way, so that both parties are protected. If the field of consulting has industry specific terms, a lawyer will customize the template to make sure these terms are reflected in the agreement.

How to Write an Agreement for Consulting Services

Writing a consulting services agreement involves a business lawyer clearly defining terms of an engagement to ensure both parties understand their rights, obligations, and expectations.

While we always recommend starting from a lawyer-drafted template, below is a short step-by-step process a lawyer will use to write your agreement:

Title of Agreement

The lawyer will start by giving the agreement a title which reflects the content of the contract. Examples of titles may be “Consulting Services Agreement”, “Sales Consulting Agreement”, “HR Consulting Services Contract”, etc.

Identifying Parties

Next, the lawyer will create a clause that identifies and introduces the parties, which will include their full legal name and address.

Describing Scope of Services

The lawyer will then add a clause that describes the services to be provided by the consultant, which may include information about the scope of work, goal of engagement, description of deliverables, and any relevant timelines.

Compensation and Payment Terms

The lawyer will then outline the compensation and payment terms for the consultant. This means they will state the fee of the consultant (i.e., hourly rate, fixed fee, retainer fee, etc.) and when and how the client is responsible for paying.

If there are any expenses that would be passthrough costs for the consultant, this section will also address the procedure for handling these.

Addressing Timelines and Deliverables

The lawyer will then create a clause that addresses relevant timelines for the project (i.e., start date, end date, milestones) along with the expected deliverables by the consultant.

Confidentiality

Given consultants often work with confidential information, the lawyer will likely include a confidentiality clause to protect proprietary or sensitive information the consultant may gain access to during the engagement.

Intellectual Property / Ownership of Work Product

Consultants will often create work product as part of their deliverable to clients. Given clients are paying for it, they will want to make clear who owns the work product that is created during the engagement. The lawyer can handle this by adding an intellectual property clause.

Indemnification and Liability

The lawyer will add an indemnification clause and a limitation of liability clause to make sure both parties are protected against any unforeseen risks associated with the project.

Termination Clause

Given there is always a risk of a client or consultant needing to get out of the contract, the lawyer will add termination provisions which outline the procedure for ending the contract. This may include requirements about notification and notice periods.

Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation

A lawyer will often include a non-compete and non-solicitation clause, which will limit the consultant’s ability to work for a competitor or try to hire one of the client’s employees. These terms are common in competitive industries.

Dispute Resolution

A lawyer will address dispute resolution, since disputes do happen between clients and consultants. This will outline the procedures on how disputes will be handled and the legal options available for both parties.

Governing Law

A governing law clause will be added to state which jurisdictions laws govern the contract. For example, if the client is in California, the lawyer will say California laws govern the contract.

Miscellaneous Provisions

The lawyer may add some other clauses you see in legal contract, like:

• Entire Agreement Clause
• Severability Clause
• Amendments

Signature Area

The lawyer will add a signature area for both parties to sign to make the contract legally binding.

Benefits of Lawyer Drafted Consulting Agreement Templates

Consultants and clients can benefit greatly from having a lawyer drafted consulting agreement that fits their business needs. As mentioned above, legal templates are great tools for getting transactions done quickly while making sure your rights are protected.

Some of the benefits are below:

• Legal protection. Having a lawyer-drafted consulting services agreement will make sure that both parties are legally protected when entering new engagements. Attorneys are trained in limiting risk exposure for their clients and ensuring compliance. Starting each transaction from a solid template will give clients and consultants the peace of mind they need while entering a consulting relationship.
• Easy customization. When lawyer’s create templates for clients to use, they will include easily customizable fields to update with specific information related to the consulting engagement. This makes it easy for the consultant or clients to create a new agreement to put into place for a new project.
• Professionalism. When using a template drafted by a lawyer, the formatting and presentation will be high quality. This means your brand comes off as professional and is a good way to create confidence between the parties before starting a new consulting project.
• Faster transactions. Having a customizable template means that you do not need to go to a lawyer for each new engagement, which adds extra time. This will allow for agreements to be presented and signed faster.
• Lower costs. Each time you engage a lawyer, they will bill their time. Having a consulting agreement template ready will allow you to avoid these unnecessary legal expenses by allowing you to create each new agreement yourself.

Who are the Parties to a Consulting Services Agreement?

The parties of a consulting services agreement are typically a client and an individual Consultant or Consulting Firm. The term consulting can cover a broad range of things, so a consultant may specialize in different areas – like HR, IT services, sales, business strategy, finance, legal, and more.

• Consultant or Consulting Firm. This is the party being hired to execute the consulting services in the agreement.
• Client. This is the party hiring the consultant or consulting firm to execute services on their behalf.

What’s Generally Included in a Consulting Agreement Template?

Consulting services agreements can include a variety of terms, depending on the type of consulting that’s being provided. For example, an IT services consultant may have terms in their agreement that are more technical related as opposed to a sales management consultant. There may also be differences in insurance requirements for high-risk industries.

However, there are many common terms you will see in an agreement, which are below:

• Name of Parties. You will need to enter the details of each party, which includes their full legal name and address.
• Scope of Services. This section outlines the services that will be provided by the consultant. In a template, you will want to update this field to make sure the services match the discussions between the parties.
• Term of Contract. This section outlines the length of the contract. Most templates will have fields available to update, depending on what has been agreed between the parties.
• Fees and Payment Terms. This section will outline the consultant’s fees, which will need to be customized for each project engagement. There may be standard payment terms (i.e., 15-days, 30-days, 60-days, etc.), and the payment terms should be customized to fit the engagement.
• Insurance Requirements. If the consultant is required to have an insurance policy (i.e., E&O insurance), this will be addressed here and there is likely no customization needed.
• Independent Contractor Status. There will include a standard field in a template to make it clear the consultant holds independent contractor status and is not an employee of the company. This is for compliance purposes.
• Ownership of Work Product. This clause addresses who owns the work product provided by the consultant. There is likely no customization needed in this section.
• Confidentiality. This section addresses how confidential information is to be handled by the consultant. Consultants are often provided sensitive information (i.e., company financials, customer lists, etc.), so the client will want to make sure this is protected. There is likely no customization needed here.
• Indemnification and Limitation of Liability. The contract will have an indemnification and liability provision, which will protect both parties of any unforeseen risks.
• Governing Law. The contract will outline what State laws govern the contract, and this clause will likely be customizable in case it needs to be changed.

Types of Consulting Agreements Available for Purchase

There are many consulting services agreements for sale on the ContractsCounsel template marketplace. All of these templates are 100% lawyer drafted and customized by use case so consultants or clients can find what they need.

Some examples of popular consulting agreement templates are below:

• General Consulting Services Agreement
• HR Consulting Services Agreement
• IT Consulting Services Agreement
• Sales Consulting Services Agreement
• Supply Chain Consulting Services Agreement
• Technology Consulting Services Contract
• Real Estate Consulting Services Agreement
• Risk Management Consulting Services Agreement
• Marketing Consulting Services Agreement
• Financial Planning Consulting Services Agreement

The above represent popular agreements that are for sale on ContractsCounsel. However, there are many more, so feel free to explore to find one that works best for you.

Benefits of Buying a Consulting Agreement Template from a Lawyer

There are many benefits of buying a consulting agreement template from a lawyer, as opposed to a generic template company. Please find some benefits below:

Confirmed Drafted by a Lawyer

When purchasing a template directly from a lawyer, you have the peace of mind that the agreement was drafted by a licensed attorney. This means you will know the template is drafted to protect you legally, and there is no need to have another lawyer review it to make sure it is legally compliant.

No Need to Start Over

If you use an online template, you can ask a lawyer to review it after you've filled it out to ensure it's correct and meets your needs. However, most lawyers prefer to use their own templates, which they are familiar with, rather than reviewing and editing someone else's. In many cases, it takes them more time to review and revise a template than it would to draft one from scratch using their own.

Customization

If you need further customization, you can go to the lawyer who drafted your template who can quickly help since they already know the terms. This will save you time and money.

Negotiation Help

A lawyer who drafted your template can help in the event you enter a negotiation. Given the counterparty will be redlining a template the lawyer is familiar with, there will be less work involved in reviewing the template since the lawyer already knows the terms.

Updates and Adjustments

If things change in your business or you wish to update the template with new terms or services, hiring the lawyer who drafted the original template will be much faster and cheaper, since they will not need to re-review the entire template.

On-going Legal Support

Purchasing a template from a lawyer will open a relationship for any future on-going legal support. The lawyer will learn about your business quickly, and it will be easy to service you moving forward.