Chapter 8: Legal Counsel
When thinking about legal counsel, a lot of people start to get a headache. Lawyers can be expensive, annoying, and painfully necessary. Especially when first starting out, obtaining representation can be an easy afterthought for the budding entrepreneur. When talking about attorneys, let’s split up the circumstances into two categories:
General Counsel: this includes things like reviewing contracts and agreements, a legal opinion on a business decision, filing documents with state governments, etc.
Legal Defense: this refers to situational lawsuits where your company is defending itself (or going after somebody).
When you’re getting started, it doesn’t make sense to shell out the big bucks to retain some attorney for general counsel matters. Instead, there’s numerous services you can find online like LegalShield, which will pair you with a local law firm to provide adequate counsel for only $49/month. You can use them for reviewing and editing contracts, fielding phone calls, sending cease and desist letters, or just general legal advice. Especially in the early stages, it’s super helpful to have an attorney review a client contract for less than $50.
If somebody decides to sue your company, LegalShield will do their best to protect you, but you may want to consider forking over the cost to retain some top level attorneys. With a more prominent firm on retainer, you are able to build a close relationship with your representation, allowing them to gain a fuller picture of your business and the situation at hand.