Our Approach
Q. Do you do legal work other than franchising?
A. Absolutely. I organize corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships on a regular basis. One reason is that many new businesses need to organize better to limit the owners’ liability and to make a better impression on third parties. There are also good tax reasons, but I don’t give tax advice because that’s what accountants do.
I also am hired regularly by people who are either buying or selling an existing business and to handle employment contracts.
As my friends, clients and I grow older, I have expanded into forming living trusts and preparing wills. It has been very gratifying to see that my living trusts have helped people get through a very difficult time more smoothly and with much less expense. But you must plan ahead, which is hard to do where death is concerned.
My corporate experience was, after all, as “general counsel”, so I have experience in nearly all areas. If I don’t, I know who to call – one of my “Associates”. And they call me for business work.
Q. Why do you specialize in franchising?
A. Because of the people. My franchise clients are generally small business owners who either have a concept that want to share with others or who are looking for a concept which somebody has already developed. Both types are generally personable and like to work with other people. They appreciate the kind of assistance I provide in bringing them together.
Q. How do you bring them together?
A. I try to make my legal documents less “legal” and more “user friendly”. I want them to be easy to understand and focused on what is important rather than try to create a thick document that nobody understands. After I finished my legal training at a big firm in New York, I learned something from a hugely successfully Midwestern lawyer. He said that it was more important for a lawyer to bring people together than drive them apart. Long, wordy documents frighten people and can ruin deals. They don’t want a lawsuit; they want to do a deal. So do I.
Q. Don’t long documents protect people better?
A. Not necessarily. I think simplicity provides the easiest understanding. Drafting a contract is like telling a story. People are put off by long openings or disjointed explanations. The story has to flow from the beginning to the end. If so, everybody understands it and is happy with it. My experience has been that by adding words for clarification or making exceptions only creates ambiguities and blurs the object of the deal. When a problem does arise later, it is almost always one that nobody thought about before and should never have happened. Lawyers who try to “cover all the bases” with long and complicated documents can not think of everything.
Q. Don’t you want to be creative sometimes?
A. I have often thought up creative, new ideas on how to deal with a given situation, but after more carefully analysis, I have always ended up going back to the tried and true solutions which may not be imaginative but they work. If it works, don’t fix it.
Q. Is your first consultation free?
A. No, not if I am asked for legal advice. I don’t charge for meeting with somebody to get to know each other, but I typically charge $350 for an initial consultation where I review the client’s legal situation, provide my view of the legal issues and possible solutions and perhaps write a letter. I also review franchise agreements for potential franchisees for the same flat fee.
Q. Do you accept contingent fee cases?
A. No. I have tried it several times, but it is not good for the kind of law I practice. Contingency fees are actually the most costly way to employ a lawyer.