Contractual Risk and Indemnities Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Contract Managers, Commercial Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CM-108

Before you join: Participants should have experience reading, administering, negotiating or approving commercial contracts, procurement documents or project agreements.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Contracts often allocate risks without making their financial, operational and insurance consequences visible to the people who must manage them. A broad indemnity, an uncapped liability, a poorly drafted additional-insured requirement or an uninsured contractual assumption can turn a manageable project issue into a dispute, uninsured loss or failed recovery. Contract managers need to identify these exposures before signature, test whether insurance responds, and create controls that remain effective through delivery, change and close-out.

This course develops the practical judgement needed to review contractual risk allocation, indemnities, insurance clauses, limitations of liability and claims provisions. Participants use ISO 31000 risk concepts, contract risk registers, clause review methods, insurance programme analysis and scenario-based exposure testing. They examine common insurance classes, including commercial general liability, professional indemnity, contractors' all risks, marine cargo, cyber and directors' and officers' liability. The course also addresses additional insured status, waivers of subrogation, primary and non-contributory wording, deductibles, self-insured retentions, exclusions and evidence of cover.

Teaching combines focused briefings with clause-marking work, sector cases, group negotiation, insurance-placement scenarios and application planning. Cases reflect construction, infrastructure, procurement, technology services, energy, banking and public-sector contracting. Across the first week, participants build a risk allocation and insurance review pack for a selected contract. During the second week, they deepen that work through claims analysis, negotiation and governance controls. They leave with a completed contractual risk, indemnity and insurance assessment pack, together with a certificate of completion. The course is delivered over 10 classroom days in more than 50 cities or live online, with training days running from 08:30 to 16:30 and approximately 6.5 contact hours each day.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess contractual risk allocation using a structured contract risk register
  • Draft indemnity provisions that define triggers, scope, defence and recovery rights
  • Review insurance clauses against policy limits, exclusions and contractual assumptions
  • Distinguish insurable risks from retained, transferred and uninsurable exposures
  • Negotiate liability caps, exclusions and consequential-loss provisions using exposure analysis
  • Test additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary coverage requirements
  • Prepare claim preservation and notification actions following an incident
  • Present a complete contractual risk, indemnity and insurance assessment pack

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging indemnity and insurance wording before contract signature
  • A repeatable method for identifying uninsured contractual assumptions
  • Stronger evidence for recommending liability caps and risk acceptance decisions
  • Improved ability to preserve contractual and insurance recovery rights after incidents
  • A practical assessment pack for immediate use on live contracts

For your organisation

  • Fewer contracts containing uninsured or disproportionate liability commitments
  • Better alignment between procurement requirements and available insurance cover
  • Earlier escalation of high-value indemnity, liability and exclusion exposures
  • More consistent contract reviews across projects, suppliers and business units
  • Improved claim recovery through timely notices, evidence retention and insurer engagement

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can classify contractual exposures and establish a risk-based review approach.

  • Contract risk allocation distinguishes retained, transferred, shared and accepted exposures
  • Risk appetite statements connect project objectives, tolerances and escalation authority
  • ISO 31000 principles applied to contract planning and governance
  • Cause-event-effect risk statements make contractual exposures testable
  • Probability-impact matrices calibrated against cost, schedule and safety consequences
  • Risk owners, action dates and residual ratings establish accountability

Participants can locate and interpret provisions that create material contractual exposures.

  • Contract architecture links definitions, obligations, remedies, schedules and incorporated documents
  • Priority-of-documents clauses resolve conflicts between specifications and commercial terms
  • Defined terms tested for hidden extensions of responsibility and liability
  • Obligation mapping identifies who performs, pays, approves and bears consequences
  • Cross-references traced to reveal risk terms outside the liability section
  • Contract review checklists separate legal interpretation from commercial risk judgement

Participants can evaluate whether proposed risk allocation matches control and price.

  • Control-benefit-burden analysis tests whether allocated risk follows practical control
  • Risk allocation matrices compare customer, contractor, supplier and insurer responsibilities
  • Pricing assumptions recorded beside allocated risks and contingency allowances
  • Pass-through obligations tested against subcontract and supplier contract terms
  • Back-to-back contracting identifies gaps between upstream and downstream liabilities
  • Approval thresholds distinguish acceptable deviations from prohibited contractual commitments

Participants can analyse indemnity wording and define its intended scope.

  • Indemnity triggers distinguish breach, negligence, third-party claims and statutory liabilities
  • Hold-harmless wording compared with indemnify, defend and reimburse obligations
  • First-party and third-party loss treatment examined through contract scenarios
  • Scope language tested for losses arising from, relating to and caused by
  • Fault-based indemnities contrasted with strict and no-fault indemnity obligations
  • Carve-outs protect against indemnitee negligence, misconduct and uncontrolled losses

Participants can prepare balanced indemnity provisions and negotiate key protections.

  • Mutual indemnities matched to each party's controllable risk categories
  • Defence control provisions address counsel selection, settlement and cooperation duties
  • Notice requirements preserve defence rights without creating technical forfeiture traps
  • Indemnity caps aligned with liability limitations and available insurance limits
  • Contribution clauses address shared fault and multiple responsible parties
  • Negotiation fallback positions rank preferred, acceptable and unacceptable indemnity language

Participants can assess liability caps and exclusions against realistic loss scenarios.

  • Aggregate, per-claim and annual liability caps produce different exposure outcomes
  • Supercaps assessed for data breaches, confidentiality and intellectual property claims
  • Consequential-loss exclusions tested against revenue, delay and replacement-cost scenarios
  • Direct-loss definitions prevent uncertainty over foreseeable commercial consequences
  • Liquidated damages distinguished from penalties, service credits and indemnity obligations
  • Cap carve-outs analysed for fraud, wilful misconduct and non-excludable liabilities

Participants can interpret core insurance concepts relevant to contract obligations.

  • Insuring agreements define the initial grant of policy protection
  • Conditions precedent, warranties and endorsements can affect claim recovery
  • Limits, sublimits, deductibles and self-insured retentions change retained exposure
  • Occurrence and claims-made policies create different notification and timing requirements
  • Named insured, additional insured and insured contract status compared
  • Declarations, schedules and endorsements read alongside the policy wording

Participants can match liability exposures with relevant insurance protections and limitations.

  • Commercial general liability responds to bodily injury and property damage allegations
  • Contractual liability coverage tested against assumed obligations and insured contract definitions
  • Professional indemnity addresses negligent services, design and advice failures
  • Employers' liability obligations distinguished from third-party liability exposures
  • Product liability scenarios link defective goods, recalls and contractual remedies
  • Policy exclusions examined for pollution, contractual assumptions and defective workmanship

Participants can assess project insurance arrangements and associated contractual responsibilities.

  • Contractors' all risks policies allocate physical loss during construction works
  • Builder's risk responsibilities tested against site control and title transfer
  • Delay in start-up cover linked to critical-path damage scenarios
  • Existing property clauses distinguish owner assets from contractor works
  • Defects exclusions assessed for resulting damage and rectification costs
  • Joint names insurance considered for project participants and waiver arrangements

Participants can identify when specialist insurance should inform contract risk decisions.

  • Cyber insurance tested against data protection, outage and ransomware obligations
  • Marine cargo cover analysed for Incoterms, transit and title risks
  • Environmental impairment liability considered for pollution incidents and remediation duties
  • Directors' and officers' insurance distinguished from corporate contractual liabilities
  • Political risk insurance considered for expropriation, currency and transfer restrictions
  • Surety bonds and performance guarantees compared with insurance policies

Participants can write and review insurance requirements that are specific and verifiable.

  • Insurance schedules specify policy types, limits, territories and policy periods
  • Minimum limits derived from realistic loss scenarios and contractual obligations
  • Certificates of insurance checked against endorsements and actual policy wording
  • Additional insured requirements distinguish ongoing operations from completed operations coverage
  • Primary and non-contributory wording tested against other insurance provisions
  • Waivers of subrogation assessed for recovery rights and premium implications

Participants can identify and report mismatches between contract obligations and insurance cover.

  • Contract-to-policy mapping matches each obligation with policy response evidence
  • Assumed liability registers identify obligations exceeding available insurance protection
  • Exclusion analysis tests contractual commitments against policy limitations and endorsements
  • Retention analysis quantifies deductible exposure and funding responsibility
  • Coverage gap reports distinguish uninsured, underinsured and uncertain risk positions
  • Risk treatment options compare redrafting, insurance purchase, pricing and acceptance

Participants can build a decision-ready register for contractual and insurance exposures.

  • Risk registers capture clause references, exposure statements and financial estimates
  • Inherent and residual ratings demonstrate effects of planned controls
  • Risk response plans assign avoidance, mitigation, transfer and acceptance actions
  • Key risk indicators trigger review before losses or disputes escalate
  • Assumptions logs record unresolved facts, dependencies and required confirmations
  • Executive summaries present priority exposures, decisions and accountable owners

Participants can negotiate risk terms using evidence, alternatives and approval limits.

  • Negotiation preparation identifies interests, risk positions and concession boundaries
  • BATNA analysis strengthens decisions when contractual terms remain unacceptable
  • Issue packages trade liability, price, insurance and operational controls
  • Objective criteria use loss estimates, market practice and insurance availability
  • Redline logs record concessions, rationale and unresolved approval conditions
  • Escalation briefs frame decisions requiring legal, finance or executive approval

Participants can preserve contractual and insurance rights when incidents occur.

  • Incident triage separates safety actions, operational containment and legal preservation
  • Contractual notice clauses analysed for timing, content and service requirements
  • Insurance notifications protect cover while avoiding unnecessary admissions of liability
  • Evidence preservation plans secure records, photographs, logs and witness accounts
  • Reservation of rights correspondence understood from insurer and insured perspectives
  • Claims chronologies connect events, notices, costs, decisions and recovery actions

Participants can support dispute and settlement decisions with contractual risk analysis.

  • Dispute escalation clauses distinguish negotiation, mediation, adjudication, arbitration and litigation
  • Quantum evidence separates recoverable losses from unsupported commercial assertions
  • Mitigation duties require reasonable actions to reduce continuing losses
  • Without-prejudice communications handled carefully during settlement discussions
  • Subrogation rights affect recovery strategy after insurers indemnify a loss
  • Settlement agreements address releases, confidentiality, payment timing and tax treatment

Participants can control risk flow through subcontracting and supplier arrangements.

  • Flow-down clauses transfer relevant customer obligations to delivery partners
  • Subcontract indemnities aligned with upstream liabilities and practical control
  • Supplier insurance requirements matched to scope, value and risk profile
  • Vendor due diligence tests financial capacity, insurance validity and claims history
  • Step-in rights considered where supplier failure threatens critical delivery
  • Subcontractor default scenarios assess replacement costs and schedule consequences

Participants can adapt risk and insurance reviews to common sector contract forms.

  • FIDIC risk allocation examined for employer, contractor and engineer responsibilities
  • NEC4 early warning processes support proactive management of emerging risks
  • Technology services agreements address data, service continuity and intellectual property risks
  • Public procurement requirements balance competition, proportionality and risk assurance
  • Energy project contracts consider interface risk, delay exposure and performance guarantees
  • Financial services outsourcing clauses address operational resilience and regulatory obligations

Participants can establish governance controls for high-risk contract commitments.

  • Contract approval matrices assign authority by value, risk and deviation type
  • Legal, finance, risk and insurance reviews coordinated through defined gates
  • Insurance compliance monitoring tracks renewals, endorsements, limits and certificates
  • Post-signature obligations converted into contract administration action plans
  • Management reporting uses heat maps, exposure totals and overdue actions
  • Lessons-learned reviews update playbooks after claims, disputes and near misses

Participants can build, review and present a complete contractual risk, indemnity and insurance assessment pack.

  • Contract scope and commercial objectives framed within an assessment brief
  • Clause-by-clause review identifies material allocation, indemnity and liability exposures
  • Insurance mapping tests proposed cover against each priority contractual commitment
  • Risk register ranks exposures, controls, owners, decisions and residual positions
  • Negotiation recommendations present preferred wording, fallbacks and approval requirements
  • Executive presentation defends the assessment pack using evidence and scenarios

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Contractual risk register template
  2. Indemnity clause review checklist
  3. Insurance requirement schedule template
  4. Contract-to-policy mapping matrix
  5. Liability cap scenario model
  6. Claims notice and evidence preservation checklist

Who should attend

  • Contract Managers — responsible for allocating and controlling obligations through the contract lifecycle
  • Commercial Managers — need to price, negotiate and approve contractual risk positions
  • Procurement Managers — require defensible insurance and indemnity requirements for suppliers
  • Project Managers — manage delivery risks that trigger contractual notice, liability and insurance issues
  • Legal Counsel — review operational contract terms and advise internal contract owners
  • Insurance and Risk Managers — align insurance programmes with contractual commitments and loss scenarios

Skills and tools covered

Contract risk allocationIndemnity draftingInsurance clause reviewLiability cap analysisClaims preservationRisk governance

Tools and standards

ISO 31000, FIDIC Red Book, NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by clause review, case analysis, group exercises, negotiation simulations and structured application planning. Participants analyse realistic contract extracts, insurance schedules, incident reports and claims correspondence. Trainers compare alternative drafting approaches and explain the commercial consequences of each position. Teams assess risk allocation, identify insurance gaps and prepare recommendations for approval. Individual application planning links the methods to participants' current contracts, supplier categories or project portfolios.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience reading, administering, negotiating or approving commercial contracts, procurement documents or project agreements. Familiarity with common contract terms such as liability, warranty, breach, termination and notice is assumed. Participants should also be comfortable discussing project costs, operational risks and supplier obligations. Prior insurance training, legal qualification, underwriting experience and claims-handling experience are not required. The course explains insurance terminology before applying it to contractual clauses, but it is not designed for people with no exposure to contracts or commercial project work.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should already work with contracts, procurement documents, projects or supplier relationships. No legal qualification or insurance-specialist background is required, but participants need to understand common commercial contract terms.

Participants may bring a redacted contract, insurance requirement schedule, risk register or recurring clause issue from their work. Course materials provide cases and templates, so bringing workplace documents is useful but not essential.

The course suits contract, commercial, procurement, project, legal, insurance and risk professionals who influence contract terms or manage contract delivery. It is especially relevant where indemnities and insurance requirements create significant financial exposure.

General contract management courses address the wider contract lifecycle, performance management and supplier administration. This course concentrates on risk allocation, indemnities, liability limitations, insurance response, claims preservation and associated governance.

Participants can use the review checklists, risk register and contract-to-policy mapping matrix on pending negotiations or existing high-risk contracts. The methods also support clearer escalation to legal counsel, finance leaders, insurers and senior approvers.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes risk, indemnity, liability and insurance analysis; the second week addresses claims, negotiation, supply chain controls, governance and the capstone assessment pack.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.