Why to Hire a Lawyer and Why to Hire Earlier, Not Later
Blog By: Heather Harteis
After serving thousands of clients at our business and intellectual property law firm, we’ve all witnessed a few cautionary tales: moments when someone is in deep, and should have reached out sooner.
Here are 6 reasons why you should hire a lawyer sooner, and not wait.
#1 - Working without a contract via a handshake deal is risky
Sometimes the excitement of a new business deal can make you want to jump in immediately, and only afterwards you notice the quality of the water.
We’ve seen this mistake in several ways:
When a client is unhappy with a business’s service but the business doesn’t have a good contract to back them up
When two business partners disagree, and there is no operating agreement to navigate turbulent times or how to separate if one wants to leave the business
Read more about the importance of business partnership agreements here on the blog.
Business relationships with family and friends tend to start great, but do not end great
Sometimes one particular client is both hard to deal with and also generating a significant amount of income, which makes changing the relationship harder later on
#2 - Using a better contract will protect your money and time
Sometimes folks come to us after something has gone wrong with a signed contract. Maybe the client doesn't want to pay, maybe they want to get out of it, or maybe they are complaining about the services or products delivered. A good contract will create a pathway forward to resolve the issue.
We see it all the time: business owners using a template contract they found on the internet. However, these templates can be generic, written for another industry or state, and often don’t include key clauses to protect your business.
You can shortcut the headache by requesting a lawyer draft your contracts to cover you in the ways you want them to, including payment terms, dispute resolution terms, a force majeure clause, and more.
In another contract scenario, we occasionally hear stories when someone has already signed a contract, and did not have a lawyer review it first, and later regrets that they signed it. The time for negotiating terms had already closed. We’d love to help beforehand, when we can.
#3 - Getting your business set up correctly from the start will mitigate risk
Occasionally someone learns the hard way that a sole proprietorship without an entity does not protect you or your personal assets. If you are just starting out and turning a side hustle into a business, co-mingling financials between your business and your personal assets can have a level of risk beyond your comfort level. Talk to a lawyer about forming an LLC.
Read more about business bank accounts here on the blog:
#4 - No one is an expert at everything
You wouldn't elect to go with a pediatrician or your friend who plays a doctor on TV to perform brain surgery just because it's cheaper. Just because you or a smart friend can read documents or write them yourself, that doesn't mean you should. You can find all kinds of information on the internet… and some of it isn’t accurate, and not all of it applies to your situation. Something a lawyer once wrote that was then edited by AI is not going to produce something with your business in mind.
Read more about why you shouldn’t get legal advice from social media here on the blog.
#5 - Intellectual property can be tricky to register without legal guidance
In this case, we have seen a few different creative businesses that ran into complications when trying to register their intellectual property by themselves:
Having a published book with murky ownership due to not getting a contract drafted by a lawyer and signed before the book began
Learn more about the complexities of freelance writing and copyright ownership here on the blog.
A brand that received a cease and desist letter because they did not check if their business name was infringing on an already-existing trademark
#6 - We build relationships that provide peace of mind
Establish a relationship with a law firm with whom you trust with your business. Waiting until an emergency arises to find a lawyer will make a stressful situation even more stressful. This way when something happens, you know who to reach out to.
We’d love to connect with you about your business and intellectual property needs. Get in touch with us via our website anytime.