How to Talk to a Lawyer

The editor suggested I do a piece on how to deal with lawyers when seeking legal advice. Let’s get a couple of lawyer jokes out of the way first. There’s a rabbit and a possum lying dead in the middle of the road, how do you tell the difference? There are skid marks in front of the possum. Why don’t sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy. Good, let’s move on.

Given most of you are in business on your own account, you probably already have a lawyer and know how to talk to them. With some lawyers admittedly, this can be difficult as they appear to speak a different language. Not only that, but it’s hard to even know what they are saying, because everything is couched in alternatives and contingencies, ‘well Mr Riley, it’s possible that if x occurs, and if the circumstances are y, then you may want to consider z. Then again, you may not. And here’s your bill.’ Goddam it, you still haven’t told me told what I should do!

Then again, sometimes that’s your fault. And sometimes your expectations as to what your lawyer can do for you are unrealistic. Definitely, it is sometimes appropriate for a lawyer to take control of a situation and tell you what they think you should do. But only in respect of areas in which the lawyer has expertise – that is, legal matters. On the whole, people need to sort their own shit out. You can’t expect a lawyer to be a solution to your own indecisiveness. Most of the time, legal advice is about facilitating the client’s own decision making process. Lawyers are very good at sorting through stuff and identifying what is really relevant.

I find with some clients, just talking the issue through with them is sufficient. The process of the client explaining what has happened, and thinking about what to do, can be very valuable in its own right. It’s like I always say with agreements like property agreements (pre-nups) and shareholder agreements. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred those agreements will never ever be looked at again after they are signed and put in the safe. But that does not mean it was a waste of time and money putting it together in the first place. The process of putting the agreement together is what is valuable there. The requirement to think specifically and seriously about how this relationship is going to work and what happens if it doesn’t is very worthwhile in its own right.

Having said that, a key consideration to bear in mind when talking to a lawyer is that time is money. You are paying for them to talk to you. So the more concise you can be about summarising your situation and narrowing down just what you want out of the interaction, the cheaper it will be for you. If you come to a lawyer with a long confusing story that you have not really sorted out in your own head, without being sure just what it is that you are looking for – what outcome you have in mind – then that will cost you more (although as I noted above, it can be a valuable function of a lawyer to help you sort out what is important).

Another thing I will say is be absolutely up-front with all relevant information right from the start. Often clients will withhold important information because they feel it reflects badly on them, or weakens their position. That just holds us up from doing our job and makes it more expensive for you. Remember, everything you say to us is in confidence and we are morally agnostic. We don’t judge (at least not on the job). We just want the unadulterated truth. Yes, we can handle the truth!!

One final tip. When you want a lawyer to draft a document, it is hardly ever cheaper and more efficient for you to have a go first. No disrespect, but you don’t have a go at wiring the house and then get the sparky to come in just to finish it off. The reality is it will nearly always be cheaper for the lawyer to start from scratch with a clean sheet of paper and their own precedents, than to try and modify the document you got off the internet.

I would like to finish with the observation that although lawyers can seem expensive in a small business context, I am of the strong opinion that a good lawyer is a cost saving mechanism, because it is nearly always cheaper to get stuff sorted out from the start than to try and sort it out down the track when things go wrong.