There is an advantage to having and using your own form contracts. Once you learn and become at ease with the terms of your own form, you will not have to analyze new proposed contracts from others with whom you do business to the extent your form is used. In addition, by using your own form contract as a starting point, you will often have a greater degree of control over the contents of the final agreement.

Selecting a Lawyer

The process of selecting a lawyer can be difficult. When a firm decides to hire a lawyer, either because it suddenly has a need or, preferably, because it is planning ahead, it is faced with a variety of choices. For some reason, it can be difficult to find a good lawyer who fits your needs. While there are many different contexts in which a professional services firm can benefit from the services of a lawyer (including those most typical circumstances discussed earlier), it can sometimes be difficult to expend the time and effort the firm would like to spend to make a good choice. Also, legal matters can be complex, and it can be a chore to dig in and understand what your firm needs. Nevertheless, a good attorney can significantly benefit your firm. Lawyers can be valuable advisors for overall company business in addition to driving resolution of strictly legal matters.

Ultimately, the choice of a legal advisor can rest on any number of factors, depending on the needs and preferences of the firm. In this section, we survey some of the major points you may want to consider in choosing legal services.

Establishing Selection Criteria

The first step in selecting a lawyer is to determine what characteristics in a lawyer are important to the firm. In this part of the chapter, we discuss some of the issues you may want to consider in determining what factors you will use in the selection process.

Lawyer versus Law Firm and the Primary Legal Contact* One

issue that should be considered is whether to choose a large law firm or a smaller firm or sole practitioner. Often it is a good idea to focus, at least initially, on finding a good lawyer rather than a good law firm because in large law firms, as in other types of service businesses, the quality of the individual service provider varies, regardless of the quality of the overall firm. Additionally, it is useful to establish a relationship with a primary legal contact to help you work through issues. Even if the firm is outstanding, if your relationship with your primary contact is poor, you will most likely be dissatisfied. Accordingly, it is important to find a lawyer who is a good fit from a variety of standpoints, including among other things, skill-set, experience, knowledge, and personality.

Generalist versus Specialist. Another issue to consider is whether to select a generalist or a specialist. Often an attorney with extensive specialized knowledge in a particular area can seem to be an attractive choice. In the course of business, however, a professional services provider is likely to encounter a wide range of legal issues. Thus, if you attempt to select a specialist for each issue that arises, you may end up with a large number of lawyers working on narrow, discrete items. In many cases, it may instead be preferable to select as your primary legal contact a strong generalist with good business sense. If you choose the path of the generalist, it is important to determine that he or she understands his or her weaknesses and blind-spots and understands when and how to call in an expert (or, put another way, a specialist). Further, the generalist should have an advantage if he or she has a broad range of quality legal contacts with specialized expertise.

Assessing Fit. You will also be well served to consider whether a lawyer is a good fit for your particular firm. First, in assessing your candidates, it is imperative that you are comfortable that the lawyer has sufficient legal knowledge in the relevant areas. If a lawyer is not knowledgeable enough to complete (or appropriately delegate) the given set of tasks at hand at a high-quality level, that lawyer should not be doing the work.

Additionally, determine whether the lawyer has the desired general skills. For example, some lawyers (like some people) may be most skilled at negotiating, while others may be most comfortable doing research. Similarly, some may have stronger business skills than others. You should try to find a lawyer whose strengths meet your needs.

Another useful determinant of fit is how well the attorney understands your business. This measure is useful for two reasons. First, a lawyer who understands your business is more likely to recommend decisions in a manner supporting your business objectives. Second, the level of understanding a lawyer presents regarding your business can potentially serve as a measure for the level of client service you will receive. You may want to try to determine whether the lawyer has taken the time and made the effort to understand your firm. The answer to this question may yield a clue about the kind of service you can expect from that lawyer.

Yet another factor to consider is cultural fit. As most professional services providers know, cultural fit can be an important element of a successful relationship. This is especially so when selecting an important, sensitive position such as a lawyer. If the attorney moves too slowly for you or, on the other side, does not seem detailed enough for you, or seems to focus too much or not enough on business matters (as opposed to technical legal matters), you may become dissatisfied. This may not indicate a weakness on the part of either the lawyer (or law firm) or you as much as a different cultural orientation.

You also should consider what size law firm you want to work with. You will have to determine how much big firm bureaucracy you can tolerate and

balance that against how complete a solution you would like to have in one place. Larger law firms are, by their nature, more bureaucratic and, therefore, potentially less responsive than smaller firms. For example, it may be more difficult to persuade a larger firm to show flexibility on fees because the lawyer may have more procedures to go through before he or she can agree to a billing approach that is outside standard firm guidelines. This is not necessarily a negative characteristic of large firms, but rather an observation on organization size. And this principle may apply to firms of any type, not just law firms. On the other hand, a larger firm may be more likely to be able to provide a more comprehensive solution to your legal issues. You may decide the reduced complexity and increased consistency provided by a larger firm outweighs the disadvantages.

It is also worth noting that these needs may vary over time. As a firm grows and its business and staff change, its legal needs and requirements change as well. As with any service provider or vendor, the legal relationship should be reviewed from time to time to ensure that it has remained productive and appropriate.

Conducting the Selection Process

Once you have determined what criteria matter to your firm, you will have to go through the actual process of engaging an attorney. The lawyer you hire will probably play an important role for your company, so the process you use should reflect that. This section provides a few suggestions you may find useful when conducting your selection process.

Treat the Process as If Hiring an Employee. The process of hiring a lawyer should share many of the steps most firms use to hire senior employees. Ideas you may find helpful include:

Review each candidates resume and track record.

Check references. Good sources of references may include current or former employers and clients.

Conduct a diligent interview process. Too often lawyers get off easy in an interview process with prospective clients because of their unique (and sometimes intimidating) knowledge; do not hesitate to ask lawyers the tough questions.

Do independent research of the lawyer or firm. Two places to start are the firms web site and the legal resource site Martindale-Hubbell (www.martindale.com).

Gather Candidates from a Variety of Sources. As you consider which lawyer or firm to engage, try to take the time to consider a variety of candidates. Candidates may come from many sources. One good