POLICY
SMART
Claire Freeman, senior associate at law firm
Clifford Chance, reveals to Martin Fullard what
contract and insurance matters eventprofs should
be familiar with in the future after Covid-19
he Covid-19 pandemic
has shone a spotlight
on event contracts and
insurance. There is no
denying that the current
situation is a once-in-a-lifetime
event, and that it may not
happen again for a lifetime. But
that is little recompense to
event organisers around the
world, as all events have been
cancelled or postponed, and
many have not had insurance
coverage for the communicable
disease at the centre of it.
On 26 March, the Event
Marketing Association (EMA)
ran an online panel discussion,
which I was privileged to
moderate. On the panel was
Claire Freeman, senior
associate at law firm Clifford
Chance, and an expert on
contractual and insurance
matters for the events industry,
and someone who I imagine has
been very busy over the last two
23
months.
Freeman said that Covid-19
has changed the way the
industry will approach
contracts, and that already
people are looking at how
clauses will be reviewed.
“Back in February we started
seeing the first event
cancellations and
postponements, and at that
time it wasn’t quite clear just
how severe the outbreak was,”
Freeman noted during the
panel.
She added: “Government
action around the world has
seen all events forced to cancel
or postpone, and now people
are looking forwards to future
events while keeping them
under review as there remains
uncertainties. This means that
new wording is being added into
contracts to allow for risk
allocation between parties in
the event this continues for
longer than we expect, and
future events find themselves
cancelled or postponed.
“We have shifted from
uncertainty of whether or not
we should be cancelling or
postponing events,
to getting
through
this
www.conference-news.co.uk
Insurance
and
maintaining
relationships.”
We do not know when events
will return, but it is possible that
Q3 and Q4 in 2020 will be busy.
How is this likely to impact
contracts, I asked Freeman?
“People are expressly addressing
Covid-19 or its successors in new
contracts,” Freeman replied.
“Specifically, this covers whether
fees will be repaid, or credit will
be provided if an event is
subsequently impacted as a
result of the outbreak.
“It is very much a commercial
agreement between you, the
client, and the supplier. Everyone
is in this together and it requires
a common solution.”
What you
need to know
On behalf of Clifford Chance,
Freeman shared with Conference
News what you should know
when it comes to contracts and
insurance for events.
When faced with the possibility
of cancellation or postponement,
there are two crucial questions
you must ask yourself from
the legal perspective: