What do good records look like? My law firm is primarily a transactional law firm. We work with clients on putting together deals or transactions, and documenting them. We will discuss points related to a transactional matter.
#1 Start by looking at your historical records. What shape are your historical records in? Have you gone through and made sure that everything is correct? All pieces are there? All relevant documents are there? You’d be surprised how much attorney time is spent cleaning up historical records. For any prior transactions you’ve engaged in, make sure you have the records for them organized and complete.
#2 The current transaction should only contain relevant documentation. Make sure you weed out unrelated documents your attorney doesn’t need to review. Otherwise, your attorney will spend a lot of valuable time digging through your papers. Again, you’d be surprised how much time is spent reinventing the wheel. We want to try to minimize the amount of time spent in an attorney law office, because that’s going to help keep your overall cost down.
#3 Are the objectives clearly defined? When working on your upcoming transaction, you want the attorney to be focused on relevant issues. This means you should have a real conversation in the beginning, talking about what needs to be accomplished and why. That way the attorney is only focusing on those parts of the files and records, which are relevant to the process that you need.
What’s been your experience with putting records together to work with an attorney? Are you well organized? What could you do better? How can you work to keep your costs down in the future? Join us in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.
This posting is intended to be a tool to familiarize readers with some of the issues discussed herein. This is not meant to be a comprehensive discussion and additional details should be discussed with your attorneys, accountants, consultants, bankers and other business planners who can provide advice for your circumstances. This article should not be treated as legal advice to any person or entity. Freeimages.com/Photographer Marcelo Rubinstein.
About the Author
Shawn McBride — R. Shawn McBride is the Managing Member of The R. Shawn McBride Law Firm, PLLC. Shawn works successful, private business owners in their growth and missions to make a company that stands the test of time. You can reach R. Shawn McBride at [email protected] or 407-517-0064.
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