§ Contract Review
Service · Consulting · Contractor · NDA · Vendor
Fixed-fee review of a single commercial, employment, contractor, or vendor agreement. The deliverable is a flagged document, a revision memo with the reasoning behind each change, and a 30-minute call. Booked, scoped, and quoted in writing before the file opens.
§ 01 — What you receive
The output of a contract review is the same on every file. No hourly mystery, no clause-by-clause noise — a tight, structured memo that points to the lines that change the outcome and the lines that do not.
The contract returned with comments on the clauses that matter — anchored to the page and section, not buried in a separate spreadsheet.
A short written memo: the issues, the recommended changes, and the reasoning behind each. Suitable to forward to the other side or to your finance and ops leads.
A call to walk through the memo, talk through the negotiation order, and answer the practical questions that always come up after the read.
§ 02 — How it runs
Send the contract and a short summary through the consultation form. Do not send confidential commercial terms until the firm confirms it can act.
Northline screens for conflicts based on the named counterparties before opening the file. If a conflict exists, the firm refers out the same day.
A written fee arrangement is sent for signature with the scope, fixed fee, and turnaround. Work begins after the engagement is countersigned.
The contract is read against the six structured lines (below) and the memo is drafted. Most reviews land within five business days unless otherwise scoped.
A 30-minute call walks through the memo and the negotiation route. If a re-draft is in scope, it follows the call. Otherwise the engagement closes there.
§ 03 — How we read
Every commercial contract is read against the same six structured lines. The paragraphs that talk about these are the ones that change the outcome — the rest is template.
What is being delivered, by whom, by when, and how changes are documented and priced.
Milestones, holdbacks, late fees, currency, taxes, and what triggers the obligation to pay.
Termination for convenience, for cause, notice periods, survival of obligations, and wind-down.
IP assignment versus licence, background IP, residuals, data, deliverables, and templates.
Caps, carve-outs, indemnities, insurance, consequential damages, and third-party claims.
What each side actually relies on in practice, and what would happen if the relationship ended today.
§ 04 — Fixed fees
The starting point depends on the type of agreement. Volume and complex commercial files move onto an advisory retainer with a written scope.
Document review, red flags, revision memo, and call.
Agreement review, issue summary, call, and recommended changes.
Draft or review, classification risk notes, and a revision round.
§ 05 — Scope boundary
A contract review is a defined deliverable for a single agreement. It is not a litigation strategy, an audit of a prior dispute, or a tax read. Files that need that work are referred to the right counsel — or scoped onto a separate engagement if Northline can act on them.
For ongoing contract volume — vendor queues, hiring templates, contractor onboarding — the right structure is usually an advisory retainer rather than a stack of individual reviews.



§ 06 — Related
§ Send the contract
A fixed-fee review returns a flagged document, a revision memo, and a call. The matter type is preselected on the booking form.
Toronto · Ontario