As 2018 comes to a close, we have once again compiled all the links to our Contract Corner blog posts, a regular feature of Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis. In these posts, members of our global technology, outsourcing, and commercial transactions practice highlight particular contract provisions, review the issues, and propose negotiating and drafting tips. If you don’t see a topic you are interested in below, please let us know, and we may feature it in a future Contract Corner.

In this Part 2, we take a detailed look at some of the commercial issues arising from DPAs, the GDPR’s mandated contract requirements.

Although the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been in force for more than six months, many organizations are still getting to grips with some of the practical requirements, including ensuring that their contracts comply with Article 28, which mandates a number of key clauses if personal data is being processed under the service agreement.

The United Kingdom government’s Cabinet Office (the central procurement department for central government) is requiring major government suppliers to draft “living wills.”

A significant fine imposed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on an established UK insurer is further evidence of the increased scrutiny being placed on outsourcing arrangements by the financial services regulator, and also of the importance the regulator places on issues that directly impact retail customers.

A shrinking in traditional outsourcing deal volumes since the United Kingdom's EU membership referendum vote on June 23, 2016, is being partially attributed to business caution following the “Brexit” decision.

Morgan Lewis partner Barbara Melby, the leader of our technology, outsourcing, and commercial transactions practice, has been invited to present at an upcoming Practising Law Institute (PLI) event, Outsourcing 2018: ITO, BPO and Cloud, in New York City.

This week we welcome new partners to our outsourcing and commercial transactions practice, Mike Pierides and Simon Lightman.

There are books out there that get into great detail and can be very useful in developing negotiating skills (one of our favorites is Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss). In our experience, though, many negotiators that we come across either have an inflated view of their skills and can’t be bothered with reading a book like this, don’t have the time to read a book like this, or read the book and just can’t make the techniques work.

There is an adage that basically says that businesses don’t do business—people do business. That might seem obvious, but it’s useful when one stops and thinks about the interplay between a contract, how that contract is negotiated, and whether the relationship between the people who will be doing business can survive the negotiations.