Agreement · Commercial & Corporate Advisory
Short-form services agreement (United States commercial)
Short services agreement for a US commercial engagement: scope, fees, a liability cap, customer materials, and electronic signing under the ESIGN Act. It is not a sale agreement and it does not cover employment.
- Kind
- Agreement. A contract between two or more parties.
- Where it applies
- United States
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for United States.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use for a straightforward services engagement between two US businesses, where the work, fees and cap can be stated in a few pages. For software as a service, a data-processing addendum or a statement of work with milestones, use those forms. Do not use it to hire an employee.
Used for these tasks
- Draft a first-pass commercial contract from the term sheet
- Review and redline counterparty paper against the playbook
- Compare liability caps across a set of customer master services agreements
- Check that the final contract matches the agreed changes
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may fill the scope, fees and cap from an approved order. The lawyer checks the cap, the indemnity and whether customer information needs a separate confidentiality or privacy term before the agreement is signed.
AI may
- Turn an approved proposal into the scope, fee and term blanks
- Compare a counterparty services draft with this form and list differences in the cap, the indemnity and the term
- Check names, dates and cross-references
AI must not
- Must not set the liability cap or the indemnity from a playbook the lawyer has not adopted for this client
- Must not describe personal information practices that are not in the client's instructions
- Must not sign or send the agreement
The lawyer checks
- Scope, fees, expenses and payment timing match the commercial instruction
- The cap and the carved-out claims are a deliberate choice for this counterparty, not a leftover
- If personal information or trade secrets will be exchanged, the confidentiality clause or a separate agreement covers them
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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