Consulting Agreement

This Consulting Agreement is an agreement between a client and a consultant for the provision of consulting services to the client. A consultant is a person hired to provide consulting services. A consultant is hired because of their skills and expertise in a particular field, For example, this document can be used for different forms of consultants, such as IT consultants, business consultants, investment consultants, etc. A client would use this document to hire or retain the services of a consultant in exchange for compensation.

The consultant works as an independent contractor (that is, an external professional) and not an employee. This means that the consultant is only entitled to a specified fee but not entitled to employment benefits, such as holidays, leaves, pension, and other employment benefit. For more information about employees and independent contractors, please see the legal guide on the Difference Between an Employee and Independent Contractor.

Please note that this document should only be used in cases where a person is hiring a consultant. However, when an independent contractor is hired to provide services other than consulting services, the Service Agreement should be used instead.

This document outlines basic details such as the following:

• Role of the consultant. This is the consultant's job title or position. For example, if the consultant is hired as a legal consultant, it should be specified in the document. The document also requires the specific services the consultant is hired to provide.
  
  
• Obligations of Parties. This specifies the obligations or what is expected of both the consultant and the client.
  
  
• Consultant's Fee or Remuneration. This is the amount the client has agreed to pay the consultant for their work. It could be a fixed fee, paid only once, or a periodic payment (weekly, monthly, or yearly).
  
  
• Confidentiality Obligations. This clause prevents the consultant from disclosing confidential or trade secret information about the client's business during and after the termination of their contract.
  
  
• Ownership of Intellectual Property (IP). This clause identifies the party that will retain ownership of the intellectual property the consultant creates under this agreement. Intellectual property created during this engagement may include designs, patents, trademarks, or other copyrighted materials. The party who retains the IP rights to materials created by the consultant for the client will possess exclusive use of the IP even after the termination of the consultant's contract.
  
  
• Non-compete Provision. This clause prevents the consultant from engaging in any business that directly competes with the client's business. The essence of this clause is to prevent the consultant from working for the client's competitor during their engagement and for a specific period after the consultant's contract is terminated.

How to use this document

This document is used to outline the relationship between a client and consultant. The person filling out this document is expected to enter all the required information.

After completing this document, it should be signed by the client and the consultant. If either of the parties is a company, either two directors or one director and one secretary must sign the agreement.

If either of the parties is an organization other than a company, the signature of one officer of the organization will be required. An officer here is a person who is in position of authority, such as a general manager, managing partner, CEO and any other person authorized to execute contracts on behalf of the organization.

After signing the document, each party should keep one original copy of the signed document for their record.

Applicable law

The Nigerian Labour Act is the applicable law.

Also, the general rules of contract are applicable to this document.

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.