I took a course in contract law in 1962...IBM had a seminar taught by a couple attorneys.
Best course I ever took.
One memorable contract was when I was working with a process instruments manufacturer and happened to read their standard sales agreement, which was heavy in the confidentiality and ownership of proprietary and patentable aspects deriving from the use of the technology. So, I read the contract and it had so many technology loopholes as to render it borderline useless. I marked up the contract then got together with the company owner to discuss. His response was priceless - “I like my loopholes because I can interpret them any way I want”.
I was going into a chemical manufacturing facility as a consultant to do some testing with my company's process instrument and while clearing through security had to sign the usual confidentiality agreement. In the liability clause, it was written such that it put my company at extraordinary risk and refused to sign. I called up my boss and he agreed.
. I called up my corporate contact and told him I would not agree and was leaving and would be invoicing them for my time and expenses per our professional services contract . Within a half hour, I had a high level management person at the security gate that waived the confidentiality agreement and personally signed me into the facility. He said no one ever reads what they sign away.
I was a bit ticked off so charged them a few extra thousand $$$ for wasting my time. Per our sales contract, I billed out at a hefty daily fee + expenses + a surcharge over 8 hours. As a company, we had no interest in the professional fee other than recouping actual cost (we wanted to sell instruments) so I had lots of leeway on that fee. In this case, I charged them full pop for me + added expenses, no mercy. Most times, whether it was a 4 hour or 12 hour day, it was the flat rate $$$.