A contract lawyer for contract review, drafting, and negotiation. Before you sign a business contract, employment agreement, lease, or vendor agreement, we make sure it actually protects you. Serving Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Hoover, and all of Alabama.
Schedule a Consultation Call (205) 202-9801A contract is only as good as the words in it. Vague language, missing provisions, unfavorable terms buried in the fine print, or clauses unenforceable under Alabama law, these problems are invisible when you sign and catastrophic when a dispute arises. If you are looking for a lawyer for contract review or a contract lawyer to draft or negotiate an agreement, that is exactly what we do. At Colvin & Sawyer Law Offices, founding attorney Christopher Colvin reviews, drafts, and negotiates contracts for businesses and individuals across Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, and throughout Alabama.
Below you will find the types of contracts we handle, exactly how our review process works, what we look for, the red flags we catch, and honest answers on cost and timing. If you already know you need help, call (205) 202-9801 or request a consultation.
"The time to negotiate a contract is before you sign it, not after something goes wrong. A few hours of attorney review can prevent years of legal headaches."
Most people do not bring us a contract because they enjoy reading legal documents. They bring us questions:
Every review is built to leave you with clear answers to each of these, in plain English, for your specific agreement.
We read the entire agreement, identify unfavorable and missing terms, explain every major provision in plain English, and give you specific recommended changes. You decide what to do with them.
Everything in a review, plus we communicate directly with the other party or their attorney to get the terms revised. Most useful when the stakes justify pushing back and you want a professional doing the pushing.
Custom contract drafting services for Alabama businesses and individuals: agreements built from scratch for your transaction, your risks, and Alabama law, not a template with the names changed. We draft, you review, we revise until it is right.
Not sure which you need? Send us the contract, or tell us about the deal that needs one, and we will tell you the scope honestly at the consultation. We provide contract drafting, review, and negotiation across Birmingham, Jefferson County, and all of Alabama.
As a contract lawyer serving Alabama businesses and individuals, we work across the full range of agreements. If your contract is not listed here, call us anyway, chances are we handle it.
Partnership, joint venture, shareholder, and buy-sell agreements, plus master service agreements and general commercial contracts that define how your business operates.
Employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, offer letters, severance agreements, non-compete and non-solicitation clauses, reviewed for enforceability under Alabama law.
Commercial leases are usually written to protect the landlord. We review and negotiate rent escalation, personal guarantees, maintenance obligations, and exit terms for Alabama tenants.
Supply contracts, distribution agreements, and vendor terms, checked so pricing, delivery, liability, and termination actually protect your business.
Client service contracts, statements of work, and consulting agreements defining scope, payment, intellectual property ownership, and dispute resolution.
Non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, whether you are protecting your own information or being asked to sign someone else's.
Purchase agreements, sale contracts, and asset purchase agreements reviewed before closing, when problems are still fixable.
Franchise agreements, manufacturing and supply arrangements, and commercial financing and loan documents, reviewed before you commit to their obligations, covenants, and defaults.
Licensing, software and SaaS agreements, and intellectual property assignments, reviewed so you keep the rights you mean to keep.
If you are a physician, dentist, veterinarian, physician assistant, or other licensed professional reviewing an employment or partnership agreement, Alabama gives you something most states do not. Under Alabama law, contracts restraining a lawful profession, trade, or business are void by default, with narrow exceptions (Alabama Code Section 8-1-190), and Alabama courts have long held that non-compete agreements are generally unenforceable against professionals, a doctrine applied to physicians, veterinarians, accountants, and licensed physical therapists, among others. Many professionals sign agreements assuming the non-compete is binding when Alabama law may say otherwise, and employers sometimes present those terms as non-negotiable anyway.
The analysis is genuinely fact-specific: whether your role qualifies as a profession, whether a non-solicitation provision survives even where a non-compete would not (an area Alabama courts are still working out), and what the rest of the agreement, compensation, termination, tail obligations, call coverage, buy-in terms, actually commits you to. That is exactly what our review answers before you sign, and it is the conversation worth having before you assume any restriction is enforceable, or safe to ignore.
Contract review should not be a black box. Here is exactly what happens when you bring us an agreement:
Depending on the scope of the engagement, your review may include:
You should leave the review knowing what the contract requires, where your risk sits, what we would change, and what your options are. Not a verdict of "good" or "bad," but an actual understanding of what you are signing.
When we review a contract, we are checking dozens of specific provisions. The ones that most often cause problems for Alabama businesses and individuals:
A few provisions should make you stop and get a contract lawyer before signing. If your agreement contains any of these, call us:
Contract review is not only for agreements you have not signed yet. If you are already operating under a contract, we can review it to explain your rights and obligations, determine what it actually says about termination and renewal, evaluate whether a breach has occurred, identify notice requirements you must follow, and lay out your options before you take a step that affects your rights. We regularly review existing agreements when one party is not performing, a customer has stopped paying, a vendor relationship has broken down, a breach or default notice has arrived, or you simply want out and need to know what leaving costs. The earlier an attorney reads the agreement, the more options you tend to have.
Contracts have a life after signing, and review pays at each stage of it. Before renewal: reassess pricing, restrictions, and the renewal mechanics before the window closes and locks you in for another term. When circumstances change: amend or renegotiate the agreement properly, in writing, rather than relying on a handshake modification the contract itself may not recognize. When you want out: know your termination rights, notice deadlines, early-exit costs, and which obligations survive, before you announce anything to the other side.
Search for contract review and most of what you will find is not a law firm: subscription legal plans, lawyer-staffing platforms (some of which state plainly that they are not law firms and do not provide legal advice), AI tools, and financial companies with partner attorneys. Some of those products are useful for what they are. But they are a different product. When you hire Colvin & Sawyer, you get a direct attorney-client relationship with a licensed Alabama attorney: your communications are protected by privilege, your contract is reviewed under the law that actually governs it, the advice comes with professional accountability, and the person reviewing your agreement is the same person you can call when the other side responds. Know what you are buying before you buy it; that advice applies to legal services just as much as to contracts.
Here is the honest answer most law firm websites avoid: it depends, and we will tell you exactly what it depends on rather than hiding the ball. Drafting a new contract, negotiating changes with the other side, or reviewing a long commercial agreement costs more than a simple read-and-explain review. Four things drive the number: the length of the document, what is at stake if it goes wrong, whether you want negotiation or just understanding, and how fast you need it.
We explain the expected scope and cost for your specific contract at the consultation, before any work begins, so there are no surprises. For most people, the review costs a fraction of what a single bad clause, an aggressive non-compete, an uncapped liability provision, an auto-renewal you did not notice, can cost over the life of the agreement.
One more thing worth saying, because people ask whether review is worth it when the other side "will not negotiate anyway": yes, and here is why. Even with a true take-it-or-leave-it contract, the review buys you something negotiation never could: you walk in knowing exactly how you can be terminated, what the non-compete actually restricts, what happens to your bonus or deposit, and, just as important, what the contract conveniently leaves out. If a term is not written down, the other side does not have to honor it. Knowing that before you sign is the entire point.
For a straightforward agreement, review typically takes one to two business days. More complex contracts, or ones requiring negotiation with the other side, take longer. If you are working against a signing deadline, tell us when you send the contract and we will tell you honestly whether we can meet it.
AI tools can summarize a contract and flag provisions worth examining, and they are genuinely useful as a first pass. An Alabama attorney adds what the tool cannot: advice about how these provisions apply to your situation, judgment about whether a non-compete is actually enforceable here, identification of the protections that are missing entirely, and negotiation with the other side. So use the tool, then bring us its summary along with the contract. We will tell you what it got right and what it missed, and the second list is usually the expensive one.
Have a contract you need reviewed or drafted?
Call Colvin & Sawyer Law Offices at (205) 202-9801 or send us a message. We serve businesses and individuals across Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, and all of Alabama.Christopher Colvin founded Colvin & Sawyer Law Offices and is an honor graduate of the Birmingham School of Law. Before practicing law he owned and ran a small business, so he reads contracts the way an owner does: what does this cost me, what can go wrong, and who is holding the risk when it does. He drafts, reviews, and negotiates the agreements Alabama businesses actually run on, from service contracts and vendor agreements to commercial leases, franchise agreements, and financing documents. He also serves as a pastor in small churches across the region, and clients tend to describe his counsel the same way his congregations do: honest, steady, and direct.
Because contracts rarely stand alone, Christopher and partner Valerie Sawyer coordinate this work with the firm's business law and estate planning practices, so an owner's company, contracts, and personal plan fit together.
"Fast, efficient, and made the entire process so much less stressful. From the beginning, they took a huge weight off my shoulders and handled everything with professionalism and confidence. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for an outstanding attorney."
Contracts are legally binding, and poorly written agreements can cost businesses and individuals significant money and legal exposure. An attorney review catches hidden risks and unfavorable terms before you sign, when changes are far easier to negotiate.
We review and draft business agreements, vendor contracts, employment and contractor agreements, commercial leases, real estate contracts, service agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and operating agreements. Contact us at (205) 202-9801 to discuss your specific needs.
An enforceable Alabama contract requires offer, acceptance, consideration (something of value exchanged by both parties), and mutual assent on essential terms. Some contracts, including real estate agreements, must be in writing under Alabama's statute of frauds.
Ideally before you sign, when your leverage to change terms is greatest and problems are cheap to fix. But review is also valuable after signing: to understand your obligations, evaluate a possible breach, avoid an automatic renewal, or plan an exit. If a dispute is developing, earlier review means more options.
Both. We draft new contracts from scratch tailored to your business and Alabama law, and we review, revise, and negotiate contracts drafted by the other side. Founding attorney Christopher Colvin brings a small business and contract law background to both.
A contract lawyer reviews, drafts, and negotiates agreements. On review, we read the full contract, flag risks and missing protections, explain each major term, and recommend or negotiate changes. On drafting, we write agreements tailored to your business and to Alabama law so they hold up if challenged.
Cost depends on the length and complexity of the agreement, what is at stake, whether you want review only, proposed revisions, or negotiation with the other party, and how fast you need it. We explain the expected scope and cost for your specific contract at the consultation, before any work begins, so there are no surprises.
A straightforward agreement is usually reviewed within one to two business days. Complex contracts, or ones that require negotiation with the other party, take longer. If you have a signing deadline, tell us up front and we will tell you honestly whether we can meet it.
Yes. Beyond flagging problems, we can work directly with the other side or their attorney to revise unfavorable terms. Having a contract lawyer negotiate often gets better terms than trying to push back on your own, and it keeps the relationship professional.
Yes. Alabama does not require an attorney to write a contract, and a self-written agreement can be fully binding if it has the basic elements: offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, and a legal purpose. The risk is not that your contract will be invalid; it is that it will be valid and missing the terms that protect you. Payment timelines, termination rights, dispute resolution, and liability limits do not appear on their own, and if a term is not in the contract, the other side does not have to honor it.
A contract can be void or unenforceable when it lacks a basic element (no consideration, no real agreement), when a party lacked capacity (a minor, or someone without mental capacity), when it was signed under fraud, duress, or serious misrepresentation, when its purpose is illegal, or when certain agreements are not in writing as Alabama law requires, such as contracts for the sale of land. Some one-sided terms can also be struck as unconscionable while the rest of the contract survives. If you think you signed something that should not bind you, have an attorney look before you act on that assumption.
AI can summarize a contract and flag obvious clauses, but it cannot determine how Alabama law applies to your situation, tell you what protective language is missing, or negotiate for you, and it carries no responsibility for the advice. Use it as a first pass, but have an attorney review anything you are about to sign.
We work with businesses and individuals across the Birmingham metro. For local detail on how we help in your city:
Contracts rarely stand alone. Depending on your situation, these may also apply:
Christopher Colvin and Valerie Sawyer serve clients throughout Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, Alabaster, Pelham, Helena, Chelsea, Trussville, Gardendale, Bessemer, and Montgomery.
Schedule a Consultation Call (205) 202-9801