BUSINESS LAW

One question which I am often asked is what do lawyers know about business.  Surely lawyers know about the law.  That’s what they are trained to know about.  Business is different from the law.  The law is a dry academic subject learned by immersing ones self in crusty old books and ancient cases the detail of which is hardly scintillating conversation at the dinner table.  Business is about making money and is either a gift (if your one of the lucky Branson like few) or a skill learned from (often bitter) experience.  I am constantly reminded that, on the face of it, the two are incompatible.  Lawyers (I am told) are good at guiding business in the pursuit of profit but are largely reactive to the needs of business people and distant from the process of profit.  Lawyers are a necessary evil required to facilitate the process of business.

What this misconceived view misses is a fundamental point.  Lawyers too are in business and the success of their business is largely dependant on the success of their Clients businesses.  Lawyers are business people as well as academics.  Their fiscal objectives do not differ from other businesses in any industry.  They pursue profit and rewards like any other business person.

Good lawyers have a vested interest in the success of their Clients businesses and will strive to see that those business become or at least remain successful.  Lawyers in my view have a unique ability to see business in an objective way, removed from the daily slog involved in running that particular business, which in itself is often a bar, particularly in owner managed businesses, to the further development of that business.  Often they see businesses in a different and constructive way and can give advice on what they see as advantages or disadvantages to that particular business.

Lawyers also uniquely enjoy extensive commercial relationships with a vast array of other professional advisers such as accountants, financial advisers and insurance brokers with whom they interact and who often provide detailed (and free) advice on changes in other professional procedures which has a significant commercial value to any business.

I am reminded of an old adage that ‘its not what you know its who you know that’s important.’  Well for lawyers it’s a bit of both.  Lawyers need and do know the law.  They also know about business.  They are also (generally) connected in the locality they work within or within their particular area of expertise to more than likely every useful commercial contact a business will require. 

This sounds like management consultancy but it isn’t.  What price would any business put on a good accountant, insurance broker, banker, surveyor etc.  How much time would any business be prepared to invest on their own finding any one of the above and then developing a long and fruitful relationship with them.  A lot I suspect particularly for the right person in any such profession.

Just think of this.  A Lawyer (or any other professional person for that matter) is only as good as the people he or she recommends to their Clients.

Whatever your legal requirements, contact:

Sandersons Solicitors

17-19 Parliament Street

Hull

HU1 2BH

Tel:  01482 324662

Email:  enquiries@sandersonssolicitors.co.uk 

Source:  Commerce & Industry, May 2003