Vet Your Lawyer

Kaplan concludes his thoughtful and professorial discussion about relations and negotiations, focusing on selection criteria and the costs of litigation.

[audio http://vetyourlawyer.com/files/2009/04/kaplan-2.mp3]

In this, part one of the third and final interview with experts on negotiation, Kaplan, author of The Executive Guide to Managing Disputes and a professor of Negotiation at George Washington University Law School as well as an attorney in private practice, sets out the need for the prospective client to have his or her own goals clear before meeting with lawyers.

“May you have a lawsuit in which you know you are right” – Proverb

[audio http://vetyourlawyer.com/files/2009/04/kaplan-1.mp3]

Gary Kaplan

An interview with Albert Rizzo on working with your attorney in the negotiation setting, and in particular some realities that the client should be prepared for, like bringing emotional baggage to the matter may end up costing you money.

[audio http://vetyourlawyer.com/files/2009/04/albert-rizzo.mp3]

Albert Rizzo, New York Commercial Attorney

Jeff is a professional software negotiator and author of the Software Licensing Handbook. He says there are 5 skills to any negotiation, including with your negotiator, and offers a critique of lawyers as negotiators.

[audio http://vetyourlawyer.com/files/2009/04/jeff-gordon.mp3]

Jeffrey I. Gordon

Yet another reason, if one were needed, to Vet Your Lawyer:

“Others are encouraging staff members to brush off their legal tomes and bone up on the bankruptcy code. But unlike redeploying a banker from kowtowing to private equity barons to revamping their busted companies, learning the intricacies of Chapter 11 is akin to learning a new language.”

via Breakingviews.com – Lack of Mergers Idling Lawyers – NYTimes.com.

What a great post by Kevin Quinley, Senior Vice President, Medmarc Insurance Group. He lays it all out for you.

By the time you evaluate a lawyer as good or bad by watching her in trial, it may be too late. Another evaluation problem is the fact that some lawyers come across as great in a conference room, but morph into wimps at trial. Others might come across as Caspar Milquetoast in person dealing with the client, but turn into a pit-bull inside the courtroom. The risk manager cannot always draw reliable conclusions about how a lawyer will project to a jury based on phone calls or in-person meetings.

I couldn’t agree more, and that’s all the more reason why you need to do the work of carefully choosing your representation ahead of time based on solid, objective criteria.