Vet Your Lawyer

Here’s the first of five installments by Prof. Goossen that the University was kind enough to let me share with you.
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by Richard J. Goossen
Entrepreneurs will have disputes, misunderstandings, and miscommunications with suppliers, customers, and employees at various stages in the growth of their enterprise. The skill of entrepreneurs in resolving differences will affect the heart of the enterprise — the net income — the bottom line.
One way to settle differences is to adopt a law-focused approach, relying on the legal process as the primary means to resolve disputes. An alternative is to employ a business-focused approach, which addresses a dispute in line with the strategic objectives of a company. The legal process in this approach is one of several factors — not the only one — for the entrepreneur to consider in seeking a comprehensive solution. I believe that entrepreneurs will improve the profitability of their business by using a business-focused approach to resolve differences.
To use a business-focused approach, an entrepreneur must understand and manage four components of the legal process — the law, the legal subculture, lawyers, and litigation. Managing the legal process is of greater concern to entrepreneurs than to other business operators. They have scarcer resources and a fragile administrative infrastructure that is less able to withstand a significant drain on human or financial resources.
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About the Author
Richard J. Goossen is an Assistant Professor at the School of Business, Trinity Western University, Langley, B.C., Canada. He earned a B.A. from Simon Fraser University, an LL.B. from McGill and an LL.M. from Columbia University. Professor Goossen is also CEO of M & A Capital Corp., which provides corporate finance advisory services to high-growth firms.
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Minnesota Journal of Business Law and Entrepreneurship, University of Minnesota Law School. ©2009 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. Used By Permission.