Two or more companies coming together to execute a project, with their relationship governed by a contract.
Although companies may work together on several projects over many years, they form discrete joint ventures for each such venture. In Proposal Land, each discrete venture would be for a contract or project.
Apparently there is significant ambiguity regarding under what conditions a Canadian court will treat a joint venture as something other than a partnership, which affects little things like liability. This may explain the leeriness of corporate lawyers regarding the use of “partnership” language in proposals.
Acronym? JV, pronounced by spelling it out.
The “leeriness” of lawyers derives from the legal terms of a “partnership” which, as I understand it, makes any one of the partners liable for the indiscretions of any or all other partners. The concept of behind a “limited liability corporation” is that one is only liable to the extent of one’s shares in that corporation — if you own 1%of the company, you can only be liable for 1% of its debts or penalties. (I write as an outside to the financial and corporate worlds.) But isn’t that distinction blurred by the inclusion of “jointly and severally” clauses?
Jim T
Jim – I am also outside this world but as I understand it, “joint & several” responsibility applies to partnerships, which makes them riskier than corporations on the face of it (for the participants) than a true JV – which isolates the risks of this project to this project.