eclectic [i-klek-tik] (adj.)

Not following any one system, but selecting and using
what are considered the best elements of all systems.

If you’re a business owner/decision-maker, you need good legal advice – but how do you know whether an attorney truly understands your business, the industry within which you operate, your internal policies (and politics), as well as the unique business and regulatory risks you face? How do you know you’re dealing with an attorney who understands the day-to-day balancing act you face as you manage the bottom line, the competing needs of various departments (and personalities) within your company, as well as compliance with state and federal regulatory requirements?

There’s no easy answer, but a good starting point is an attorney who has an eclectic background, a background that provides the insight necessary to understand the everyday stressors that you face. An attorney who understands that risk can never be eliminated, but instead has to be managed intelligently – and always from a cost-benefit perspective.

As a former telemarketing program manager, online software salesman, consultant, general counsel, and attorney with small and large law firms, I’ve seen business from virtually every angle. I know that legal doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with marketing; I know that your salesmen may, on occasion, make promises that overstate your actual capabilities; I know that you’d like to implement a number of liability-reducing initiatives but the company can’t afford to do so; I know that you have outside attorneys who constantly miss the forest for the trees and then bill you for it; I know that you have deals that need to be concluded quickly that will go south if they’re “over-lawyered”; I know that you sometimes need to make important decisions, with insufficient information, and on a very short timeline.

Taking all this into account, my legal practice focuses on providing in-depth, detailed services to an exclusive, limited number of clients. Understanding a company’s unique culture takes time, as does gaining the trust of its key personnel. There’s no way this understanding and trust can develop without a commitment on my part – a commitment to knowing your business inside and out, its personalities and its strategies; a commitment to appreciating where you accept risk, and where you don’t; and finally, and perhaps most importantly, a commitment to being available when needed.