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© 2026 International In-house Counsel Journal Ltd. | ISSN 1754-0607 | Picture Credits: Freepix, Unsplash and by permission of the authors
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Is It You, or Is It the System?

July 2026ContractGeneral

Abstract

Why contracts are failing business – and what in-house counsel should do about it There is a moment, familiar to most in-house counsel, when a deal that seemed well-structured begins to fracture in execution. The terms were carefully reviewed, they were mutually agreed, and the contract was signed. And yet here you are, being alerted to a dispute that the document was supposed to prevent, reviewing a scope that was supposed to be fixed, and wondering how a carefully drafted instrument has delivered so little of what it promised. And there is a quieter frustration beneath it: from the moment it was signed, the contract went silent, filed away where it could answer no one, surfacing again only now, when it has already failed.

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Author

Tim Cummnins

Founder & President, WorldCC, UK

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