Simon Young underlines the importance of updating partnership agreements
It is often said, in the context of partnership disputes, that the partnership agreement is unlikely to be of help since, by definition, by the time you get the agreement out of the safe to investigate what it says about an issue, the problem has already gone beyond the possibility of reconciliation. One valid answer to that, however, would seem to be the message is not that there should be no agreement; but that its contents should be sufficiently clear, and known to the partners generally, that it is actively in play at all times.
How, then, may a properly drafted agreement help the position?
The first point is that any body of people with close and complex relationships, which are of a high degree of significance for their lives, will all benefit if each knows what the agreed rules for the operation of their relationships are. Just as sometimes in management terms any decision may be better than none, so here any rule
