A power of attorney is authorisation to act on another person’s behalf and in their name in a legal or business matter. The person granting the power of attorney is known as the grantor and the person authorised to act is the agent or attorney-in-fact. The power granted may be very wide in scope and may include the power to sign documents on behalf of the grantor, deal with their financial affairs and property, etc.
A proxy commonly refers only to authorisation to vote on another’s behalf and is therefore more limited in scope than a power of attorney. For example, a shareholder entitled to attend and vote at a company meeting may appoint a proxy to attend and vote in their place or a British student backpacking around the world may appoint his or her mother to vote in a general election on his or her behalf (note that a proxy is also the person to whom authorisation is granted). [read more]

When drafting contracts, it is extremely important to pay attention to all grammatical aspects of the document, particular the placement of punctuation marks. Although, at first glance, this would appear to be a minor detail, incorrect usage of punctuation marks can change the entire meaning of a clause or of a contract. [read more]

Liquidated damages are a fixed or determined sum agreed by the parties to a contract to be payable on a breach of contract by one of the parties to compensate the injured party (also known as the “non-breaching party). The purpose of liquidated damages is for the non-breaching party to avoid the costs which arise in the difficult task of proving the amount of the loss actually incurred. If a liquidated damages payment constitutes a penalty, it will be void, so it is important to draft the liquidated damages clause in the contract such that it compensates the injured party for anticipated loss caused by the breach and does not serve as a penalty. Therefore, for example, the amount of damages stipulated in the contract should be reasonable, and not extend far beyond that which would normally compensate the anticipated loss. It should be noted that, in all other cases where the court quantifies or assesses damages or loss, the damages are known as unliquidated damages. [read more]

The practice of law is a wide and varied area of employment ranging from academic studies to lawyers working for law firms. Each country has different education systems, different requirements for certain types of work and different titles for its lawyers. The following is therefore a general description of the various types of work within the legal profession. It should also be noted that lawyers often move between these areas of practice in order to gain experience from one field which may be useful in another area of work.
Education [read more]