"After all, who is really signing this?"  Did I forget something from a previous ep.  Does Coop. know that Don is not Don??

It's in Season one - to avoid spoiling it too much, let's just say there's an incident with Pete...

Ahhhh...I am remembering that now!

I don't really understand the pressure being put on Don to sign the contract.  How would him not signing hurt Bert and Roger?  They'd already made their fortunes through the sale of the company.  Whether Don signed or not, Cooper and Sterling (as well as Don) could be on the chopping-block at any moment.  Plus, there is an additional danger to Don, because Conrad Hilton is a man who CAN find all of the skeletons in Don's closet.  Why sign a contract like that and tempt fate?  It was strange to see Don not flinch in that moment.  He should have been heading for the door, given his history.

Keep in mind, Pete...
Don brought in the Hilton account.  When Hilton agreed to do business with Sterling Cooper, it was under the assumption he gets Don.  His attorneys made sure Don came along with the deal--at least for the next three years.  Don, we have come to learn, is a part of the formula Conrad Hilton wants.  For what reason remains to be seen. 

Previously, SC operated and grew its business based on relationships.  They felt (rationale unknown) that Don would keep his word and at his request he was allowed to work without a written contract.  Even after the PPL merger, Don assured Roger if he left SC, he would not be going into any form of advertising.  Conrad Hilton doesn't know him like Roger or Burt, so his attorneys are protecting his interests.

If Don hadn't signed the contract, they would not have gotten the Hilton business.
__________________

Leggzz analysis is spot on and sound from an RL POV.  That's one of the things I really love about this show - there is not an abundance of stretch in the name of dramatic license.  The characters are acting like pragmatic businesspeople in this situation - Cooper's application of a little leverage to seal the deal is absolutely no surprise at all.

I don't see Don bolting at this point - too much of the persona he has created for himself is dependant on him being a success in business.  He may wonder why all that money can buy does not make him happy, but he's not ready to give it all up either.  He also appears to have given his "word" to cooperate earlier as the sale of the firm went through and it seems in matters business, that means something to him.

JK - I certainly agree - the logic that motivates so many of the characters is what makes them so believable.

I also don't think that Don will bolt at this or any other point - I don't see him giving up anything - but I do see him eventually being uncovered and I'm guessing that it will be Betty, not anyone from the agency, who finally turns him out.

I didn't really frame the question properly.  I understand Hilton's insistance on having the partners under contract.  What I'm hazy on is why the pressure to sign is coming from Bert and Roger, when it's the British that should be fidgety about it.  Bert and Roger have already made their fortunes by selling the company, so I have a hard time understanding why this was important enough to Cooper to blackmail Don.  Do Sterling/Cooper have an ownership stake in the British company?

They still get paid by the PP&L. They may have received a huge buyout, but they're still "employees", very highly paid employees I would imagine. They probably get bonuses, too, which would only get bigger if Hilton were to be landed.

I still can’t figure out or believe that the Brits didn’t make the firm’s top talent (who had 17% of the company) sign a contract as a term of the sale.  They would have foreseen a Hilton type showdown in the future with the prospect of losing talent breaking away.

They may have - for Bert and Roger as majority owners, which would help explain why they put the pressure on Don in the first place.  The Brits may have very well deemed the founding partners as being the most critical of key employees especially in a privately held company.  At the time of the sale, they may not have recognized Don's role as a key employee (I'd have to re-watch the sale scene at the end of Season Two but didn't he even arrive late?  And wasn't he largely ignored until he announced he did not have a contract?) You can bet your Zippo that Duck didn't spend a lot of time talking about Don's value to the firm during the "do diligence" phase.  Over time, their understanding of who contributed what changed - witness the "inadvertent" absence of Roger's name from the new org chart.

While the Brits may have acquired the firm because as Don put it, "we know something you don't", it is possible that that early in the game, they just didn't make the connection.  If ownership was used as an indicator, 12.5 percent is a minority share, especially if among them Roger, Bert and his sister retain the rest.  Were their percentages shared?  I can't remember.

I would agree with jkerouac59. It sounds exactly like Duck didn't "have all his ducks in a row." The Brits found out too late that the Talent wasn't under contract. They had already bought the firm during Dons absence, or were too deep into it to quit the sale. This was probably a huge contributing factor in Duck's inglorious outster.