When the word “lawyer” or “attorney” is mentioned, most business people either make a joke about how lawyers belong in hell, or complain about how their attorney recently overcharged them. As the head of operations for several companies, I had to deal with attorneys almost every day. I was also part of a law firm at one point in my career, so I have developed a very intimate and unique perspective of the inner workings of the legal industry.
So why am I writing this open letter to lawyers? Like many others, I have a love and hate relationship with attorneys. I don’t expect I can change much, since many bad practices become engrained during law school. But, us business people will always need lawyers, so I have a vested interest in helping attorneys understand our perspective.
95% of attorneys are guilty of almost every item on this list. My intent is to show you what you can do better. Let’s get started:
- We pay you for legal, not business, advice. Even if you have an MBA, you are not qualified to council us on business strategy. Unless you had extensive business experience before you went to law school, you are not capable of thinking like a businessperson. Your value is in figuring out how we CAN do what we want to do within the confines of the law. You should act like the safety net of a tightrope walker.
- Like doctors, you are a specialist and are not good at everything. If you don’t know how to approach a certain problem, please look for guidance from another attorney. The Socratic oath should be part of your Bar admittance.
- Hourly billing promotes YOUR inefficiency. Billing 15 minutes to listen to the voicemail we left you is ridiculous! At least do a mix of some per-project and some hourly billing. I personally refuse to work with any attorney who wants to do straight hourly billing. The internal structure and compensation practices of your law firm are not our problem.
- Be human. An obsession with billing every minute of your life has turned some of you into very unpleasant and fake people. Attaching “Esq” to your name should not turn you into a pompous a-hole. The biggest part of business development is building a relationship. We are not stupid, we know that lunch we just had with you will show up on our bill. Set yourself apart by genuinely getting interested in our businesses and what we are about. You just may build a business relationship with some longevity in it.
- Stop posturing. Through the years I have learned one thing about lawyers of both genders - the fancier the suit, the less experienced attorney and the bigger the BSer behind it. I know a worthless attorney who owns over 70 suits and has an ego the size to match. What a joke! Blowing a large amount of money on school, a wardrobe, and a car does not give you credibility. It may be OK in court, but in the business world, playing a poser does not work. Many of you are extremely smart. Skip the BS and titles and let your work shine!
- Give before you take! I realize your industry is full of rules and that you are scared of them, but grow a pair and genuinely share your expertise with the community. You will be surprised at how many new clients you will obtain this way. If you brag about your connections, make a connection or two as a sign of goodwill.
So dear attorneys, I don’t hate you. You are very valuable guns in my arsenal. I just want the experience of dealing with you to be less like the one I have with proctologists and more like the one I have with fellow business people.
1/14/10 Update: Scott Edward Walker from Walker Corporate Law Group posted a great article on Venture Hacks with his take on the issue – “Top 10 reasons why entrepreneurs hate lawyers“. Admission of a problem is the first step to curing it!
Note re. image credit: would love to track down who is the author of it to provide proper credit.
Hi, my name is Apolinaras Sinkevicius, but most call me Apollo. I am the guy who takes care of the day-to-day business and technology of rapidly growing companies. 12 years in managing the "nuts and bolts" of companies and being a steward of corporate cultures makes me a seasoned operations professional and right hand person to founders and CEOs.
I think the legal profession is one of two (along with medicine) in desperate need of new business models. There are some more innovative ones out there who charge a fixed fee per service for basic activities (patent filing, trademark search, etc.) but not enough to really call it a trend yet.
To me the more frustrating thing about attorney fees is their unpredictability. In business, not being able to accurately predict or control costs creates major issues; I'm sure that is especially true of start-ups. I try to minimize what I ask of lawyers.
Good feedback in general that needs to be heard by more members of our profession. I would take issue with the first bullet point for lawyers who have had experience as in-house counsel, at least at the executive level. Part of the General Counsel's job is to learn to live and breath the business (consumer Internet/social media in my case), and when you go back to private practice, that perspective can be brought to bear in ways that add value beyond vanilla legal services. Just my humble opinion.
@Antone, very good comment! I have not come in contact with any former GCs running their own practices. They are in a minority, when it comes to legal profession. But I am sure folks in large companies have a lot to say about their “legal” and how stifling that department is to innovation. Though in those case you can't blame them – regulations and compliance are hell at that level.
Antone I agree. As an in house lawyer I quickly learned that I contributed most value to a business when I became a business partner. Focussing on what the real risks were facing a business and addressing them with plain speaking solutions is worth more than giving technical legal pronouncements from an ivory tower. Lawyers experience and skills should bring an alternative perspective to business problems. Lawyers are usually involved at the start of business deals and also around for the bitter end. The analytical approach to problem solving should complement and support the creative visionaries on the team.
These are some great point of views… I'm an attorney in Mexico where hourly billing is far from being the trend… most clients down here won't accept that kind of billing.
Regarding the “business advice”, I worked at the Mexican subsidiary of a global company and understanding the business is very important and being able to provide legal advise that helps the business is, I think, much appreciated.
Great post!
The vast majority of my fellow business people will beg to differ. If we want business advice, we go to another experienced business person. Rarely, if ever, an attorney will be that person.
Unfortunately, many lawyers are not willing to hear the sentiment out there and do something about it. Status quo is so much more comfortable. Whole extremely inefficient system is at fault here too. There are way too many law schools and gross over-production of attorneys. Fortunately, this recession will thin those ranks, like it did for realtors and used car salesmen.
I am sure there will be nicely worded argument to my point after this. It is always easier to defend the status quo than to change anything. Those, who adapt to the client needs and change, will be luring away the clients from the old-school firms.
Funny you would mention, but over my career I have learned from my mentors and my own experience, that one of the best ways to kill a business deal or partnership is to allow lawyers in at any point but the final document review. “Bitter end” is also almost guaranteed with the over-lawyering and over-analyzing many so nicely provide.
If you build a relationship with your client/partner based on trust, hovering by the lawyer is not needed. Don't do business with a-holes and you will not need a lawyer.
Man I mention so much, my late father, built handful of companies on handshake agreements alone.
I truly understand your point of view… Lawyers are lawyers and business people know what they're doing… no doubt about it… now, in my personal experience, the business people I've worked with have appreciated the lawyers' opinion “with the business in mind”.
I've met people that say, “the lawyer said we can't do it” and it's like all doors have been closed! I believe our role should be to tell you guys how it could be done within the boundaries of the law, but for that, we lawyers need to understand the business and to make business oriented opinions.
Of course, the final business decision comes from you guys.
Regards.
No nicely worded arguments…..
You need to change your lawyer!
No nicely worded arguments…..
You need to change your lawyer!
Jo,
UK system is different than US (not telling you anything you don't know) and getting into lawschool in EU is extremely hard, compared to US.
No nicely worded arguments…..
You need to change your lawyer!
Jo,
UK system is different than US (not telling you anything you don't know) and getting into lawschool in EU is extremely hard, compared to US.
Ouch. Apollo, I respect your point of view and don't doubt that that's been your experience; unfortunately, what you describe is the business-as-usual nitpicky, needlessly adversarial, “overlawyering” approach that slows down transactions and costs clients unnecessary fees. Nevertheless, I've spent a lot of time and effort encouraging business execs to loop me in earlier in the deal process because I can add value by brainstorming with the client and clarifying points at the LOI or term sheet stage. This can help avoid problems down the line when the two sides think they've agreed on a particular deal point but in fact were coming at it from different perspectives and with different assumptions; if a dispute erupts when the final documents are being drafted, it can strain the business relationship and sometimes even jeopardize the whole deal.
Having served on the senior management team at a growth company, I try to take a different approach that I call “lean lawyering,” honing in on the points of real business risk and value — and leaving well enough alone in areas where more legal work doesn't generate demonstrable ROI. (To take one common example, I've never once had to litigate an NDA in 13+ years of representing tech and media companies — yet many big-company and law firm lawyers waste countless hours negotiating picayune points in NDAs as a matter of habit.) Many lawyers are scared to do this because of their risk-averse nature and fear of malpractice claims, but a little pragmatism can go a long way.
My two cents,
Antone