By bbr

Heather Wright and Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk

Trying to decide if and when your small business needs a lawyer, how to choose one and how to avoid common mistakes made by many small business owners can all feel like tricky (and expensive!) waters to navigate.

Bonnie and Atlanta Business Radio co-host, Stone Payton, sat down with Heather Wright, founding partner of The Wright Attorneys law firm, for another round of “Atlanta’s Most Trusted Advisors” to find out the answers to these questions. Heather practices general civil law with a heavy concentration on small businesses to help owners with corporate representation along with consulting, commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution. She also happens to be a black belt, and her karate discipline has taught her a lot about when not to fight and how to look for a better strategy to achieve your desired outcome.

If you own a small business of any kind, issues are going to come up that need legal attention…and not just things like (God forbid) lawsuits. Seemingly innocuous procedures like contracts with clients, hiring employees, non-disclosure agreements and the like will all benefit from having sound guidance from the start. Bonnie knows this firsthand, as Heather is the chosen attorney for bbr marketing. Here’s why.

When do you need to obtain a lawyer for your business? (Trust us; you do need one.)

Bonnie: The goal is to not need an attorney very often, but if I’m ever in a situation where I do, I can sleep at night. And I think that’s where a lot of business owners kind of cut corners and [figure], “You know, if I ever need an attorney, I’ll find one.” And, generally, if you’re ever in that sort of situation, finding one is a challenge and especially finding the right fit. And then you’re kind of over a barrel, and it’s not necessarily the best situation to be in. So when should small business owners think about hiring an attorney?

Heather: I often talk to people as they’re starting their business. Certainly, as you mentioned, if they have an emergency situation or someone is threatening to sue them, it would be smart to get some information and talk to an attorney about what the claims could be. But when a small business is getting started, depending on the type of business, there are so many things that could affect the small business. How they will structure themselves to begin with, whether they’ll be an LLC or an Inc. and what kind of contracts they need.

So, a lot of times, I get one or the other: “I’m starting a business; what do I do?” or “I just got served with this lawsuit; what do I do?” Shop for a lawyer early on, when you’re not in an emergency.

Bonnie: Most people, when they’re starting a business, are not necessarily flush with a lot of cash. I can talk from experience on that level.

Heather: Well, certainly attorneys are not cheap. That’s for sure. And it’s the concept of your grandmother telling you an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. I think a lot of times, people are very intimidated by lawyers. They’re very intimidated by the cost of attorneys. There are a lot of affordable, decent lawyers in and around Metro Atlanta. A lot of times, for startups, I budget certain things and flat-rate certain things, depending on what they are. And I think a lot of business lawyers do that. Seek the advice, and just suck it up and pay the money. Trust me. I’m just telling you, it costs people so much more money not to get help.

How do you find the right lawyer for your small business and its issues?

Heather: You’re trying to develop a relationship that works for you. The person needs to have your mindset. You’ve got to remember, lawyers are selling a product too, and you need to be a wise consumer when you’re buying that product. But I think a lot of it is personality-driven. You’ve got to have somebody you trust. Most of my business clients that I’ve had for a long time actually have my cell phone number; I can be driving to court and get a call like, “Hey, I’m about to do X.” And we talk through it. We develop a strategy in 15 minutes that probably saved them – I don’t wanna sound like GEICO – but 15 minutes can save you $15,000.

I think one of the reasons that I’ve been very successful in my own practice, which I’ve had almost 11 years, is that I’m really honest with clients right from the start. They know I’m competent, but they also know I’m personable. And lawyers can be really intimidating to “regular people.” I’m walking through whatever the storm is with the client. I’m not leaving until we get a resolution. And if I don’t have the resources, I know lawyers who do.

Bonnie: I have to agree with that, being that we’re in the business of helping lawyers market themselves. That’s one of the things we are always telling our clients: it really does come down to the personality of the attorney, whether you’re going to get hired or not and whether it’s a good fit. And communicating that in your marketing, in your bio on your website and various things like that is so important.

What are the top mistakes made by small business owners (besides not having an attorney)?

Not expecting or knowing how to deal with disputes of any type.

Heather: Stuff is gonna happen, and you need to know how to deal with that. And if your personality is to either avoid it or to just fight back vigorously, then you might need somebody that can deal with it on a little more intellectual level and have some compassion and talk you through it. I see that mistake a lot.

Going to court when it’s unnecessary or unfruitful.

Heather: If you can’t ever collect, you’ve got to think strategically as a business owner. You can’t just run to court over everything. Because if you’re doing that in business, if you’re a small business, you’re gonna go out of business.

I think one of the things I learned from martial arts was it’s kinda like, “Man, I could fight you, but I don’t want to. Let’s figure it out,” which is why I love ADR (alternate dispute resolution) and mediation. You’ve got a better process. There are times to fight and times not to. And in hiring the right lawyer, you’ve got to have somebody that has good judgment [about] when that is. (Listen to the full show to get a lot more detail on the definitions and benefits of arbitration and mediation.)

Going the internet route or a cheap referral from a cocktail party.

Heather: I get the question about LegalZoom and the internet all the time. And I can tell you that some of the worst contracts I’ve ever seen in my life are when people go out on the internet, and they pull from this contract and that contract, and it’s what I call the “Frankencontract.” The problem is that regular people who haven’t had the experience of having their brain completely remodeled in law school don’t understand what those words mean. And instead of paying a lawyer $1,500 to draft your NDA and maybe a non-compete with your employee, or to review a contract you have with a vendor, when you end up in a lawsuit because they’re not paying you and you don’t have $6,000, you’ll think that $1,500 was pretty cheap.

When you deal with people on the internet, you don’t know that those are the lawyers that are actually doing the work; they could be outsourced to any country in the world. I like doing business with people whose hands I’ve shaken, and I can look in the eye, and I can go to their offices, and I can have recourse if something goes wrong.

You also don’t want, “Well, I was at a cocktail party, and I know that you told me this about my issue, but my cousin’s lawyer’s sister’s kid is in law school, and he said that you don’t know what you’re talking about.” But he doesn’t know all the facts, right? It’s like listening to people who heard something on the news. If you don’t know all the facts, you don’t know what’s going on, so it’s hard to have a really accurate opinion about something.

We’ll say it again: find the right attorney for your business before you ever need one.

Having the right-fit lawyer from the startup phase through the life of your business can prevent a whole host of issues and, therefore, a whole lot of wasted dollars you could be using somewhere else in your business (not to mention saving your sleep and sanity). It doesn’t mean you’re expecting things to go wrong…it just means you’re savvy enough to get help in an area that isn’t your forte, just as your own clients do when they come to your business. 

You can find Heather Wright in her office in the Resurgens building in Buckhead. Just follow the sound of the MARTA train, as it runs right underneath her office (don’t worry, all conversations are easily heard). If you can’t already tell, she’s easy to talk to and is ready to help you out with any questions you might have. You can also reach her at 404-924-2858 or at www.thewrightattorneys.net.