Smart Ways to Secure a Legal Practice
Yet paradoxically, corporate lawyers are educated to recognize risk, write safeguards of that risk, and predict future disputes. But lawyers often operate their practices with infinitesimal less structure than they would ever advise a client. The truth is uncomfortable but common: most risks faced by corporate lawyers do not arise from lack of legal knowledge. They arise from informal arrangements, unspoken expectations, and delayed discipline. The protection of a legal practice does not start with great complex compliance systems; it begins with small, consistent choices.
The following blog discusses some easy, practical ways to safeguard a business as a corporate lawyer without turning the everyday job into an exercise in paranoia.
1. Think of Your Business/Practice as a Client to be Protected
In reality, most in-house lawyers unconsciously distinguish between “client work” and “own work.” While the former acquires documentation, organization, and review schedules, the latter relies more on personal comfort. This is a problem. “Disputes tend to be more personal when one’s own practice is disorganized. A lack of boundaries occurs when the boundaries of one’s own practice are penetrated
The lawyer’s practice must, in these respects, be the same as all other ventures: have clear boundaries, clear costs, clear expectations. Even a simple letter of engagement communicates a professional tone and ensures there is no misunderstanding. It does not have to be threatening or lawyerlike — it simply has to be clear.
When you can begin treating your practice as a client, you can quit and start protecting.
2. Avoid Filling Knowledge Gaps with Familiar
One of the challenges many lawyers encounter is that no agreement, involving his or her personal acquaintance, can be put into a formal contract. Regular clients, friends, or those involved with him or her in a certain type of business are mainly relies on an oral contract. It appears extremely amicable, but may turn out rather vulnerable to interpretation.
In general, a dispute does not arise as the result of the bad faith action of the disputing parties. A dispute stems from a different recall of an understanding between the two parties. Agreements in formal terms do not denote a lack of trust. They represent common ground. “A quick email about scope or cost can save a lot of heartache down the line.” It is a guiding principle that would apply in-house with more junior lawyers or with consultants and co-defence counsel.
Therefore, where documentation exists, the debate will be professional, and not emotional.
3. Protect Your Time Before It Becomes Irretrievable
“The best thing about time is that it is a thing that cannot be replaced in a legal profession. It is considered that time is one thing that is commonly wasted by human beings more than anything else.”
The coverage calls, constantly looking at work in quick peeks for completion, along with unlimited revisions that might just erode one’s respect as a professional individual. This was definitely an experience that would instil frustration and perhaps even some level of anger at the client as partners with them that may have no idea of the violation of their own boundaries. This will guarantee the safety of both parties. Once the limits have been established, the clients will then be able to adjust within the limits. The vast majority of the clients will observe the limits if they are cool, consistent, and equitable.
Time discipline cannot be rigid; it is a matter of respect towards the value of oneself. “Time discipline” helps ensure correct use of times and enables a person to adhere to the
4. Protect Your Time before You Cannot Get It Back
That one thing which an attorney lacks all possible avenues for substitution is time. It is also perhaps the simplest thing which an attorney might possess in abundance, as well as dispense liberally whenever they desire. Unplanned calls, endless “quick views,” and unlimited revisions demean professional services. One ends up feeling frustrated, burned out, and resentful toward clients who may not even recognize when boundaries are being crossed.
It would be beneficial for all sides if there were clear communications with regard to both their availability and payment for services. Moreover, if goals are set earlier on, these would not be difficult for clients to comply with. People would not trespass boundaries if boundaries are set clearly and not unreasonable.
A strict time attitude does not mean restraint, does not mean limitation, but an understanding of the value of what you are doing.
5. Do Not Ignore Your Own Compliance Obligations
It’s rather ironic that attorneys will delay their own compliance. Taxes, registrations, renewals, and statutory filings are delayed because “nothing will happen.” This hypothesis bears risk because non-compliance attracts sanctions and attention that no lawyer wants to account for and explain away.
Keeping the simplest of compliance calendars, even when reminders are set months before, can go a long way in limiting risks. Assigning responsibilities regarding accounting and taxes can never be considered a loss of control; rather, it is the art of steering clear of trouble which can be prevented.
6. Document Advice – Even if it was Obvious to You
Usually disputes with a company don’t stem from the advice that one provided to the client. Instead, they’ll stem from what is provable. People also seem to forget verbal communications (especially fast-paced transactions where things happen quickly) and tend to reinterpret verbal advice over time. When bad things happen as a result of business decisions, people tend to remember only parts of their conversations with their lawyers.
Following up with a short email summarizing the pieces of advice given to the client, the lawyer’s assumptions, and the limitations of that advice will protect both of them. This email can show whether the lawyer’s initial response was preliminary or final, conditional, or the conclusion of the matter.
Written documentation is not an indication of defensive lawyering but rather an indication of responsible lawyering.
7. Treat Confidentiality Seriously
Corporate attorneys often work with sensitive data about businesses and clients daily, quite often without realizing how easily they share that data with others. Most of the time confidential information is shared over texting and other messaging services, unsecured drives and shared computer passwords, thus increasing the potential for the same data being exposed.
Data breaches may not always cause a problem, but can frequently lead to loss of information due to a lost phone or intern accessing too much data.
A little discipline with password protection, control over access, and confidentiality is all it takes to protect sensitive company and client information. This does not take any special technology, but rather, requires doing good habits! Trust in a person is created not only through the advice given to the person, but by how securely they handle confidential information.
8. Choose Your Clients with the Same Redirecting Process as You Do Your Hiring Process
One of the most important lessons to learn as a lawyer is that not every client is a good client. Some clients consistently take longer than expected to pay their bills, disregard your recommendations, or create extra work for you when you have already spent time explaining everything related to your cases. Other clients blame you when the results of the case are not what they expected. Eventually, it becomes draining to work on these types of cases, based on the energy spent to generate revenue for Associated Legal Professionals.
Disengagement is not a failure but rather a way to preserve your practices and are often a sign of healthy relationship-building. Building a successful practice requires establishing aligned expectations with your clients rather than continually needing to renegotiate.
9. Use Your Legal Professional Image as a Risk Management Tool
Your professional reputation is an invisible shield that protects you from disputes and conflicts with clients and creates a foundation for solid referrals due to the increased number of happy clients. A lawyer’s reputation is based on consistently communicating with his/her clients, delivering on-time for his/her clients, and following ethical guidelines.
Reputation-building shouldn’t be done overnight by making promises you cannot keep, or under-delivering. If you cannot deliver again, don’t promise to be able to. And the decisions to compromise on short-term goals may result in significantly more challenging issues in the future.
10. Use Insurance as a Safety Net, Not as a Replacement for Due Diligence
Indemnity insurance is a type of insurance that you usually have when something goes wrong. Although indemnity insurance is not meant to replace due diligence, it will cushion your financial fall-in the event that you are involved in a dispute with a client.
The added layer of security that insurance offers (to lawyers who provide counsel to clients engaged in high-value transactions or regulatory compliance) gives you the freedom to practice without fear. The purpose of risk management is not to expect failure but rather to have a plan in place to deal with the uncertainty.
11. Audit Yourself Before You Are Audited
At least once every few months, it is a good idea to step back from your daily activities and take a look at what is going well and what is not going as planned. By analysing the types of clients you have, how they pay you, how much work you are doing, how much pressure you feel, and what happens repeatedly, you will start to see patterns. Auditing yourself helps you identify potential problems before they grow into large-scale issues. It gives you the opportunity to change courses while you still have options available.
The strongest and most resilient practices are not perfect, but they are self-aware.
Concluding Thoughts: Protection is a Practice, Not A Reaction.
To protect one’s law firm does not require fear & being over controlling. It requires the individual to have self-awareness, be clear about their motives, and be consistent in their daily actions. Your law firm is not solely a means to an end (income). It is a representation of who you are, and it has taken many years to create. Therefore, it would not be considered selfish or paranoid to protect it. The average corporate attorney understands their own risks probably the best of all professions; therefore, applying that understanding to themselves could be the best professional decision that they will ever make.