When you’re laying a strong legal foundation for your business, it’s important that your attorney understands you, your business plan, and financials. Why? A business’ legal issues don’t exist in a vacuum; they’re impacted by everything from benchmarks to financing. If your attorney doesn’t have a strong overview of your business and a general understanding of where you stand financially, they may not be informed enough to give you competent legal advice. Without competent legal advice, businesses generally throw their sails to the wind…and the results can be catastrophic.
My Personal Founder Journey and Philosophy
I need to admit that in my years as a business founder, I hated talking to my attorney because it was expensive and I did not believe they had much empathy for me and my business. And without empathy there wasn’t any way for the attorney to advise me in the way that I needed.
When it comes to empathy, I believe in making a deep connection to each business client to discover what their true needs are in the short- and long-term. My policy is that any client can call me at any time to keep in touch about their business, usually at little to no cost.
What Do Business Attorneys Do?
Here are some things that I, as a business attorney, addressed just last week.
- Reviewed the finances and run rate of a $1 million business so that they could structure their business to be fair to the investors, incentivize employees, and reward the founders.
- Addressed the lack of a partnership agreement of a $3 million business where one partner is working nine-to-five and one is working around the clock.
- Helped a startup with a brand protection/trademark strategy by reviewing logos, taglines, and brand names.
- Analyzed a business’ financing to determine if a limited liability company is still an appropriate entity or should there be a conversion to a Delaware C-Corp.
- Crafted a brand clearance strategy for a Hong Kong based company and determined which products to register with U.S. Customs.
- Participated in an employment ramp-up plan focusing on differences in regulation in New York and Colorado.
A business attorney needs to know a lot about your business and have enough business experience to be empathetic to your needs. When you have that type of relationship from the start, your attorney can provide the type of advice that will protect you as your business grows and expands. You’re less likely to run into legal troubles in the future or overlook critical changes that need to be made to your business structure when you’re working with an informed attorney.
Remember, the best time to protect yourself from legal troubles is before you’ve been summoned to court. Work with an experienced and empathetic attorney who can spot trouble before it’s knocking on your door. Once you’re faced with a lawsuit, it will be significantly more expensive to resolve it than it would have been to prevent it.
If you are looking for empathetic legal support, please feel free to schedule an appointment with me.