Why is legal stuff seen as a necessary evil?

It’s 3 am in the City of London. 

I’m 23, I’m in an ill-fitting green suit (like that’s a good look to someone from the Emerald Isle), and I’ve been mainlining coffee for the last 18 hours.

The deal we’ve been negotiating has finally closed. After months and months of work. And after one final marathon meeting in a seemingly fancy, but actually rather soul-destroying, meeting room. 

All the lawyers in the room look ecstatically pleased with themselves (including me, despite my tiny, administrative role as a trainee solicitor).  There is immediate talk about which London restaurant should host the completion dinner.

But then I notice the clients, on both sides. None of them look particularly happy. They look pleased enough, but not happy. 

Come to think of it, they’d not been looking particularly happy for a good few hours. Instead they’d mostly looked disinterested, preoccupied, impatient, a little lost.

And when I look at them properly now, they seem more relieved and weary than anything.

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It took me a wee while to realise the full importance of that moment, but that was one of the first signs I had that lawyers do not necessarily see things in the same way their clients see them.  One of the first signs I had that a deal or agreement is just one piece of the picture, and that some of those other pieces are much more critical to long-term success on the ground.

Realisations like that across my 25 year legal career play a large part in why I’m now writing this newsletter.

“The Collaborative Legal Way” is all about helping you turn legal stuff from a necessary evil into a strategic accelerator of growth.

So you get more effective, faster, cheaper results from your legal stuff.  So you steal a march on your competitors.  And so your business goes further, faster for longer. 

We’re starting with the Relationship First Law Operating System, the core steps to take you off the beaten ‘legal combat’ track so collaboration and long-term relationships can drive your business’ success, instead of combat and self-interest holding you back.

It will require some bravery to go where most don’t.

But with “The Collaborative Legal Way”, you’ll see how that bravery can take your business to new heights, and you’ll understand how to take full advantage of your courage.

I’m excited to walk alongside you on that journey.

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Before we head off though, its worth checking in on why this path makes sense.

The clients in my story clearly weren’t happy. But what exactly annoys people about the way “law” is currently practiced?  

I’ve been asking people for their biggest headaches with today’s legal system. And two key themes keep coming up:

· First, the way in which legal stuff is handled: everything feels unfamiliar. Careful, considered and deliberate. Formal, stiff and guarded. And as a result, things all too easily become abrasive and difficult. No matter how many times you go through the process.

· Second, how legal stuff takes so long to get sorted: it’s an ever-shifting blancmange of varying demands and never-ending issues, with lawyers and clients finding more and more things that need to be “sorted out”. You almost wonder whether all that complexity is really necessary.

Neither of those were a surprise to me. I’ve seen them come up many, many times across many, many businesses. 

But that doesn’t mean it was any less disheartening to still hear them from founders and CEOs.  If clients have disgruntled and unhappy with those things for some time, you’d have thought that their “trusted advisors” would have eradicated them by now. But it seems not.

And, sadly, that has led businesses to see and accept legal as a necessary evil. 

Its frankly depressing how business leaders have become conditioned to see the slow, expensive, adversarial way of “lawyering” as being not just normal, but the way things are. 

Yet I know that slow, expensive and adversarial is most definitely not “the way things are” with legal things. Abrasive, time-consuming, stressful legal stuff is a choice. Combative law is a choice.  

And those choices are led by the lawyers who work within the current system. Lawyers who profit from that system.

But that means there’s a huge opportunity here.

Because if something is a choice, that means that different ways can be taken.

And given that its business leaders who pay the lawyers’ bills, its you that has the power to demand a different way. As long as you’re prepared to go against the grain and be brave enough to lead, not follow.

That different way to legal is what this newsletter is all about.  That’s the journey we’re going to take together.

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We’ll deep dive into the first step – finding the mindset – next week.  And then we’ll go through one step at time, week by week.

Subject-wise, we’ll start with agreements and contracts, before moving to disagreements and disputes, and then looking at protecting your business (stuff like IP, compliance and risk management). 

At every step, you’ll find a surprising amount of opportunity to do things better, faster and cheaper by focussing on people and collaboration. Rather than on “the law”, legal systems and combat.

Before then though, if you’ve got any queries or concerns (or if you’d just like to say hi), I’d love to hear from you. All you need to do is hit ‘reply’.

Looking forward to walking the Collaborative Legal Way with you. Lets go turn that necessary legal evil into a strategic growth driver.

Andrew

PS: I’ve built something to help businesses that don’t have an in-house lawyer avoid making an expensive mistake (in terms of either fees or consequences) in that crucial early stage just after something legal hits your desk. But I need to people to test it. If you’d be up for that, then give this wee link a click.