If you were not able to join us for August’s breakfast with John Schnackel, you missed a fantastic 5-sided explanation as to why you should strongly consider calling a lawyer… before you actually need to call a lawyer.

John’s considerations for entrepreneurs, as they analyze legal risk, fall into the following five categories:

1. Business Entity
2. Founding Partners
3. Raising Capital
4. Human Resources
5. Intellectual Property

John was even generous enough to supply attendees with a handout containing a legal check-up for our businesses.

An interesting conversation arose surrounding two important items: independent attorneys and human resources.

John facilitated an interesting discussion on the key differences between independent attorneys, and those working with a larger firm. A few of the many specific issues to be questioning as an entrepreneur included:

• What percentage of the practice is in business law?
• Is the specialty primarily transactional or litigation?
• Has the attorney ever worked in a “real” business?
• Is the attorney familiar with your industry?

For more information on the possible advantages to an entrepreneur of independent council over lawyers attached to larger firms, you can refer to why entrepreneurs should love their independent attorneys.

On the topic of human resources, some interesting points were covered, with the promise that even more would be covered at our next breakfast, with Scott Buchannon, CEO of Human Resources, Inc.