Tips for Drafting Executive Employment Agreements

For every well-drafted executive employment agreement in the business world, there seem to be multiple poorly drafted agreements. Too often, employers simply copy and paste from older agreements without knowing anything about the identity or qualifications of the author of the original agreement, or the jurisdiction or circumstances in which the agreement was intended to be used. Moreover, employers sometimes borrow terms from an agreement that was heavily negotiated by an executive with considerable leverage. Under such circumstances, the agreement likely will contain terms that are less favorable to the employer than those that can be negotiated with another executive.