Comments on: Can your lawyer destroy a good business deal?

By: Kellen

Kellen — Thu, 23 May 2019 09:39:19 +0000

No, that not a true lawyer can destroy the business deal.As per legal terms lawyer will appoint as a legal adviser who gives you advice and explain long terms benefits before signing any deals. Lawyer’s main role is to check the long terms compatibility of a company or business if any company doesn’t match their expectancy then they can stop you there after all the final decision in company CEO and MD. So we can’t say that lawyers can destroy the business deal.It will really help the people looking to hire a top lawyer attorney.

By: Steve Giddens

Steve Giddens — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:52:44 +0000

My horror story. After cutting a big licensing deal which would have double our revenue and tripled our profits, our in-house corporate attorney (we were a subsidiary company) decided to red-line the potential partners licensing agreement taking it from a seven page document to a twenty page agreement. On a conference call the potential partner they were so upset with the over zealous re-write by our attorney they told me never to call them. Despite my efforts, we never communicated again. The attorney won the battle but lost the war. He did not protect us, he undermined us.

By: Michael O'Daniel

Michael O'Daniel — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 18:07:36 +0000

Re Barry Yarkoni’s comment, this story has become the stuff of legend and there are probably several versions. My understanding is that IBM did approach DR and was either told “we’re not interested” or DR didn’t show up for a scheduled meeting (two different versions right there… )

Too bad, because I was a CRM user / devotee and they were one step away from having WYSIWYG — one can only imagine how the digital world would have turned out if DR had been able to move forward on this opportunity.

By: Peter Cowen

Peter Cowen — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 03:44:06 +0000

Excellent wisdom. Early in my career I was a co-founder where conditions were put in place by the investor to take control if certain performance conditions were not met that we learned was later their true intent. It as a tantalizing deal that ended badly. A painful experience where we wish we had smarter and shrewder legal representation on our side!

By: Berni Jubb

Berni Jubb — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 05:15:25 +0000

An area ripe for some AI intervention :-)) Berni

By: Dave Berkus

Dave Berkus — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 16:35:10 +0000

In reply to Tom Lamb. Good one, Tom! There are always two sides to a controversial subject. Well said. Dave

By: Tom Lamb

Tom Lamb — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 16:26:24 +0000

As an ex-Wall Street lawyer (and three-time CEO), I take a different view. I will not work with a lawyer who says she/he can’t answer a question because it is a “business decision”.
There are some sorts of “business decisions” for which I really do want to know my lawyer’s opinion, such as the “business decision” to assume legal risk. The ultimate decisions belong to me and my board, but if my lawyer has seen this issue 10 times before, why wouldn’t I want/demand to know what he thinks? Of course I don’t ask my lawyer for his opinion on actual deal terms (e.g. consideration, quantitative metrics, financial/accounting decisions, personnel decisions, etc.) – that is the job of my deal team and me.
As for Dave’s example, the lawyer may have been part of the problem, but in my opinion, the real culprit was the BD person who lacked the spine/tenure/experience to stand up to him. Perhaps the BD person did not believe in the deal enough to cross the lawyer – or more importantly, the General Counsel – the lawyer’s real client.
Or maybe the deal was not important enough at the time for the company to divert from its playbook. Most companies have an unwritten playbook of terms that they absolutely hold fast on – guarded vigilantly by the GC and typically generated, for better or worse, from years of transactions, trial and error. Companies will divert from the playbook, but it takes advocacy and persuasiveness from the deal team to make that happen.

By: Michael O'Daniel

Michael O'Daniel — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 08:31:18 +0000

The answer is yes. All I needed to read was the subject line.

By: Arthur Lipper

Arthur Lipper — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 02:41:44 +0000

Attorneys are precedent driven and therefore trained to look backwards for assurance of correctness. They are good at
assessing that which has occurred and terrible at prediction, except as relating to that which has happened previously in similar cases.

Similarly, physicians and engineers, who are educated based on what has worked, are so aware of the penalties for making decisions based on other than that which has worked in the past that they have a natural bias for the more secure which limits creativity.

The issue is can creativity be taught or encouraged in professions where being wrong can cost lives and be severely penalized?

By: William D. Volk

William D. Volk — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 02:35:53 +0000

Hell Yes.

Saw a 7+ million $$$ deal (that I bought in) killed by the lawyer the CEO bought in … during 2012.

Have the Lawyer(s) look over the deal, but DON’T have them in the meetings.