Many business owners found out that they get themselves in trouble, because they don’t have a dependable business lawyer. Legal problems could occasionally happen and some of them could be disruptive enough. Although many business owners are experienced and savvy enough to avoid pitfalls, unexpected things could happen to them. We should consider whether we need to look for a new lawyer or we are happy enough with our present lawyer. It is important for us to be able to distinguish between business lawyer from commercial or corporate lawyer. In essence, business lawyer should become our confidante or quasi business partner. Business lawyer should become someone we can confide and help us solve problems. These lawyers should be able to understand us and help us to grow further.
It is a good idea for us to look for a new lawyer, if we are not happy with the current one. But, how can we find a dependable business lawyer. In general, we don’t really need a large legal firm to deal with our legal requirements. Small legal offices can be trustworthy enough to support our company in the market. Larger firms can be too expensive and they are consisted of many lawyers. It means that we may get less personalized legal services. Different lawyers can be assigned at different times, causing us to re-establish relationship. This isn’t the most efficient way in dealing with legal matters. Also, if we have minor legal requirements and we could pay up a limited amount of money, a junior associate can be assigned to our company.
Also, it is not a good idea to choose lawyers who only focus on billable hourly rate. Also, we shouldn’t make our decision strictly on cost, such as by choosing lawyers who charge $300 per hour, instead of $350 per hour. The most important thing is that we could gain the most value for our lawyer. It is actually possible that the lawyer who charges $300 per hour requires 20 hours to manage our legal issues, while the other lawyer requires only 10 hours. The more expensive and capable lawyer could provide better legal services for us. We should look for lawyers who are eager to build and maintain a relationship with us. In fact, lawyers should become our real best friend and also professional ally during more difficult times.
We should also consider the experience of our business lawyer. Professionals who have significant amount of experience could advise us on many things. In this case, we could see a big difference when working with a junior associate and those who have real practical experience. The business lawyer should also be able to provide us with fixed fee arrangement. It is a bad thing to start a legal-based relationship, without knowing how much our final bill will be. There are many factors that could be deal makers and deal breakers, when choosing for lawyers, so it’s important to choose carefully.
