Finding an attorney who can give you trusted legal counsel is crucial. The challenge is finding the right attorney, one that is competent, affable, and affordable.
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Competence should be the first standard to consider. Below are the top three items when considering competence and how Greg Levinson of Levinson Law exceedingly satisfies each one:
- Experience – 20+ years of experience, incorporating over 2500 businesses.
- Knowledge – Not only a practitioner, but also an adjunct professor of law and Lewis & Clark Law School.
- Ability to communicate legal concepts – Well reviewed as a professor of law and on Google and Yelp.
From entity formation to succession planning, every business is usually faced with a timeline. Working with an attorney that recognizes timeliness often makes for a better attorney-client relationship. Also, having a good network of other business and other practice area attorneys is valuable: a divorce attorney cannot handle your criminal cases and an insurance attorney may not be the best one to advise you on your real estate issues. Therefore, finding a business attorney who can help refer you to other attorneys can be helpful – see my tab on referralship™.
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An attorney may be competent, but if they do not have good character then the relationship will soon sour. By no means a comprehensive list, here are a few items when determining an attorney character:
- Thoughtfulness
- Ease of communication
- Willingness to understand your specific concerns.
- Problem solving
- How big is their ego – will it get in the way of a successful transaction?
- The size of the firm may also drive billing practices. A one or two-person firm typically has lower overhead than a twenty-five-person firm and may not bill for all of the copying and mailing expenses. The price of the attorney may include administrative assistant help. Typically, the more senior the attorney, the higher the cost will be on an hourly basis. Remember also, at mid-to large firms, attorneys get evaluated by the number of billable hours they bill. They track every phone call and email and bill for every minute of their time.
At Levinson Law, most billing is on a flat-fee basis, which the client is apprised of at the beginning of each transaction. Levinson Law = competent, affable, and affordable legal counsel for your business needs.
