I know, I know. You are a college-educated, technologically savvy Gen Y entrepreneur. All you need is your Mac book, an internet connection and your just a Google search away from handling all of your company’s legal needs, right?
Oh. So. Wrong!
Here’s four reasons why:
- Your Contract Drafting Skills Suck! I have clients who are amazing entrepreneurs running very successful businesses and yet have drafted the worst looking “contracts” I have ever seen and sent them to me in an email that says, “Is this okay?” No, it is not okay!! Attempting to customize a contract template will often fail to protect you and your business because you likely leave very important things out, you put non-important things in, you use unclear language and you do not know the law. Unless you are willing to take the time to think through all of the potential pitfalls that could arise and do the research to determine how to protect yourself against them, hire a lawyer to draft your contracts. Even if you draft your own contracts, be sure to at least have a lawyer review them so you are sure to be clear on what's in it and what's missing.
- You Need Legal Advice. Anyone can file the Articles of Organization to form an LLC. But how do you know that the LLC is the best entity for your business? Legal services involve more than just documents. Lawyers are trained to see the big picture not just the right now. Having a lawyer’s counsel to avoid unnecessary exposure to liability (i.e., to prevent you from getting screwed) and to advise you on best courses of action for success from a legal point of view is essential for all CEOs.
- You Probably Have Legal Problems That You Aren’t Even Aware Of. Your “simple” customer agreement, handshake deal with your interns or lack of privacy policy for your website may be exposing you to liability. Lawyers are trained to spot every issue that could possibly come up in your business. In fact, that is literally how we learned in law school. Law school exams are big long stories about Joe CEO and all the things going on in his business and to pass we had to spot every possible legal issue in the story. So, after three years of that, we’re really good at it. It’s a good idea to do an annual legal audit of your business with an attorney to determine and protect against all the potential “issues” in your business.
- Because You Can’t Afford To Offer Payoffs. Unlike Mark Zuckerberg you probably can’t afford to payoff your pissed off ex-partner or client who was harmed (physically or financially) by your product. So you can pay a lawyer now or pay a lawyer later. What I mean by that is having a lawyer handle your legal needs on the front end substantially reduces the likelihood that you will need them to handle a legal dispute on the backend. If you don’t, then you may wind up in court for something that could have been prevented by a contract. Any lawyer will tell you that their fees for providing legal advice and contract drafting are way, way cheaper then the fees you’ll pay for representation in a lawsuit.
But I Can’t Afford an Attorney!
Of course you can! In this new and improved Web 2.0 world licensed attorneys are implementing wallet friendly innovations to provide full legal services to clients on a budget (and who isn’t on a budget these days?). Flat fees, reasonable monthly retainers and online law offices are some of the innovative devices being employed. Everyone from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times is talking about how legal services are being offered online. And, no, we’re not talking about Legal Zoom or the like. These are real lawyers (not paralegals or other administrative staff) offering full service legal counsel (which means legal advice and customized document drafting not just fill-in contract templates) online.
So now you have no excuse. Keep your trusted legal counsel on speed dial and handle your business like the pro that you are!
This article was originally published on Under30CEO.
