What Are Legal Services?
A key component of any business plan or action plan is an analysis of the legal issues you or your business may be subject to. Without a full understanding of the legal framework that governs your interactions, it is impossible to make an informed decision. For larger businesses, there is typically an internal legal team that can provide an answer. However, for small to mid-sized businesses, it’s oftentimes a better solution to hire an attorney to assist you.
Legal services make up a big portion of a lawyer’s job, making it hard to define what they all are. Essentially, legal services are the professional services lawyers and their firms provide to help with legal matters . These can include both transactional services (consulting and document preparation), and litigation services (representation and arbitration of disputes). While there are the services that come to mind when you call a lawyer (litigation, estate planning, etc.), there are also wide variety of duties beyond that. There are six legal services that a law firm can provide to its clients: Of course, there are many nuances and specialities involved in each one and the field of legal services is constantly changing. Still, this is a good overview of what a legal services contract may lay out. Legal services can seem intimidating, but they are no more than tools to help you deal with the uncertainty that life brings.
Cost Savings and Financial Gains
The first benefit that often comes to mind when considering the use of legal services for individuals or businesses is the prevention of potential lawsuits. Far too often, a business waits until it is in the process of being sued before it thinks of calling in a legal team to help. Prevention is much more cost efficient than litigation and can help to avoid problems before they begin. By retaining a reputable and experienced law firm, you gain the ability to identify possible problem areas before they become legal issues that cost your business time and money. Those engaged in international business often find themselves in a position that may be avoided with careful planning and expert legal advice. A fee for a retainer is far less expensive than you may pay in fines and penalties or the cost of litigation as a result of your company not following local or state laws. When businesses assume that they are legally sound and neglect to use the expertise of a legal professional, they often discover, too late, that they are in violation of laws. The expenses involved in fines, litigation and other issues can be avoided or managed if the business has an attorney with knowledge in the area of law relevant to your company.
Knowledge and Expertise
Aside from the fact that these professionals have accumulated far more knowledge than the lay person, they also generally have ample field experience. It is through this experience that they can discern when a seemingly over-analyzed situation may be missing the mark. When dealing with legal issues, knowledge without experience is potentially more dangerous when you are in desperate need of legal counsel. Not only does your attorney have access to databases of contact information and legal resources that you will never have, they also have an innate understanding of how the law applies to various situations. Your lawyer will know which state laws may impact you, or even when different route could be traveled to avoid a lengthy court process.
In addition, legal professionals can inform you of deadlines and follow up with other players related to your case. If you have, for example, missed a deadline, your attorney will know what can be done to fix the situation while you would not. Furthermore, law firms generally handle a high volume of contracts and cases. In doing so, they can find a solution quickly or recognize a need for more time if the procedure is atypical.
Risk Mitigation and Legal Safeguarding
Achieving this can be invaluable in preventing misunderstandings, future disputes, and unnecessary costs down the line. When handled correctly from the outset, transactions have a greater chance of success.
Particularly for businesses, which are exposed to significant risks, effective legal services can mean the difference between earning profit or suffering losses. Businesses are required by law to obtain legal documents such as incorporation and shareholder agreements, employment contracts, and other legal documentation, and there are very real risks if the contracts fail to adequately describe the terms and conditions of an arrangement so that the deal is closed fairly and equitably. For example, improperly drawn up incorporation and partnership documents can lead to disagreements and disputes over business profits, decision-making authority, appointment and removal of officers/directors, transfer of shares, and many other things. If a business does not properly address these issues, it might open itself to the risk of protracted, costly litigation.
Similarly, employees constantly face risks from complex statutory schemes governing the employer-employee relationship, from wrongful termination to occupational health and safety obligations to union representation and activities. Employers are open to potential liabilities for failing to comply with these schemes.
The effective use of legal services can prevent businesses from being backed into a corner and forced to react to situations that can dramatically affect their effectiveness and profitability. Most lawyers offer free initial consultations, so that clients can develop a sense of what the value of their expert legal advice will be.
Time-Saving Benefits
Efficient time management is crucial to the success of both individuals and businesses. For both, legal issues can be an unwelcome distraction that pulls them away from their areas of expertise — their jobs or industries — on time-consuming, expensive detours. Reliance upon legal services frees individuals and business owners from the basic tasks required in any real property, trusts and estate or business formation and operation . Instead of having to confront the basic transactional elements of an acquisition, sale, lease or contract, outside counsel provides the extra hours needed to tend critically to the business activities that create value. Depending upon the legal relationship, assistance may include all or part of the following: All of these services free the individual or business from having to spend precious hours on complex issues. They are vital elements in a successful business or individual plan.
Tailored Legal Planning
Legal services offer clients the promise of a legal strategy that is realistic, executable, and most important of all, tailored to meet their needs. Most legal services operate on the belief that not every person wanting to hire them needs the same approach. Solutions vary based on a person’s unique situation. Implementing a cookie-cutter solution for all clients doesn’t allow clients to make the most of their legal spend. A personalized legal strategy allows you and your lawyer to examine your goals and choose paths to help reach them as efficiently and economically as possible.
Your lawyer has seen thousands of situations, but they have probably never seen yours. That makes identifying the starting point in your journey the most challenging of all. Guidance from a lawyer provides the perspective necessary to pick the best path forward – perhaps one they have traveled before with other clients. The ability of legal services to offer advice that represents your best interest and start you on the most promising path is the biggest advantage of engaging a lawyer for your legal matter.
Peace of Mind and Stress-Alleviation
Utilizing legal services also ensures peace of mind. A client who has a professional going over the terms of a contract will breathe easy knowing that their interests will be safeguarded. People are naturally anxious about their rights and obligations and knowing that they have the best possible representation available to them is paramount.
The American Bar Association Journal discusses the anxiety frequently experienced by clients when they meet their lawyer for the first time. "Almost universally, they’re scared," says Lawrence Fox of Drinker Biddle & Reath in Philadelphia . "They’re scared of me because I might bite them, or, worse yet, I might not be able to help them."
Fox also goes on to remark that this fear can ruin good lawyers because clients are less inclined to share information if they are scared of their lawyer, and that decreases a lawyer’s ability to help the client. It is wise for clients to disclose all information pertaining to their case to their lawyer, especially information favorable to the client. For example, a client who withholds a witness because they believe the witness will not help their case, is actually hurting their chances of winning the case.
