We represented an interior designer to negotiate an agreement for a residential project, with a design fee of around $190,000, from concept development through furniture installation. The agreement included enhanced language protecting the designer as the project owner’s “purchasing agent” for furniture, furnishings, and equipment (FF&E). The owner agreed to reimburse the designer for approved FF&E merchandise purchased from third-party vendors, regardless of potential owner aesthetic dissatisfaction (dye lots, color, wood graining, marble veining, etc.) with any such FF&E once it arrived on site. This protected the interior designer from financial risk arising from owner-vendor disagreements. It involved custom editing of the agreement and discussions with the owner’s attorney to explain the reasoning behind the appropriateness of our proposed revisions.
