Negotiating fair contracts

Virtual Skills Chat: Negotiating fair contracts
Presented by the NASW Freelance Committee
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025
Start time: 1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific
Event access link: https://www.nasw.org/virtual-events-auditorium (NASW member login required)

This month’s NASW Freelance Committee virtual meetup will be a skills chat on negotiating contracts. To speak on this important topic, volunteer event hosts Jennifer Huber and Ellen Kuwana have invited Dawn Fallik, a journalism professor and freelance investigative reporter.

Dawn will share practical tips on how to negotiate with clients for a fair contract. She’ll describe examples of predatory terms to watch out for. She’ll also share examples of specific language you may want to advocate for or avoid, if you can’t eliminate clauses you find problematic.

For more information on contracts, check out NASW's Fair Contracts Tip Sheet, developed by the Freelance Committee.

A reminder that per NASW's Code of Conduct, attendees must use their first and last name as their Zoom display name in order to be admitted. Please review the code for additional expected behaviors.

Invited speaker

Dawn Fallik, M.S.
https://dawnfallik.com/
Speaker-provided bio:
Dawn Fallik is a medical reporter with a background in database analysis. She worked at the Associated Press, on the spotlight team at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the medical desk at the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is now a tenured professor at the University of Delaware, where she continues to write for the Washington Post, the Guardian and Wired magazine. She recently won a Pulitzer Center grant to investigate psychedelic medicine oversight, and was part of a team that won a $1 million NSF grant on the illegal rare earth mineral mining trade. She lives in West Philadelphia, where she remains bitter that Will Smith does not visit.

The National Association of Science Writers, Inc. (“NASW”) supports practical measures meant to help freelancers build and sustain a thriving business, from compensation surveys that offer a historical look at the field to tip sheets on matters like how to approach contract negotiation. In offering these educational resources to support our members, and in all our activities, NASW is committed to compliance with all applicable antitrust laws. NASW members are reminded that they must exercise their independent business judgment in pricing their services or products, dealing with their customers and suppliers, and choosing the markets in which they will compete. Federal laws stipulate that members may NOT agree with other NASW members or writers on prices or terms or on any other matter which is inconsistent with exercising their independent business judgment in pricing their services or products, dealing with their customers and suppliers, and choosing the markets in which they will compete. NASW members are always free to accept any assignment at any rate they choose. For further information, please see our Antitrust Policy, available here.

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