National Clothesline

There are way too many lawyers. I recently talked at a convention of construction companies, and over half the speakers were lawyers. Yesterday, I read a local business magazine that had several articles written by lawyers, including one that the law firm paid to have in the publication. I know that because the article had “ADVERTISEMENT” written across the top.

The paid article, to the extent it was

understandable, was dead wrong. The legal advice being given was incorrect, and the legal principles being cited were not accurate. At that same convention I mentioned earlier, I sat in on a session about immigration law, and I heard advice that was just simply stupid. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when one of my clients got up and said “that’s not what our lawyer tells us to do.”

Because there are too many lawyers, there is not enough business to go around. That is one of the reasons why lawyers give speeches, “write columns for industry newspapers like National Clothesline,” and pay to have articles appear in magazines. Pure and simple marketing.

Most lawyers believe that they can generate interest in their services if they convince business people, though speeches and articles, that they know more than the lawyers those businesspeople currently use.

One way of doing that is to confuse and scare. I could say: “You are putting your business at risk if you do not keep your personnel records in asbestos file folders and retain them for 25 years. ”

That sounds scary and authoritative, but it is absolutely ridiculous. There are no legal requirements for fireproofing records, and very few personnel records need to be retained more than five years. Yes, there are exceptions, which your lawyer knows.

Unfortunately, there are businesspeople who try to save money by following advice they receive during legal marketing campaigns, without doing anything to verify that it is good advice. They may try to verify the advice by talking to their corporate lawyer or their accountant, but most times those lawyers and accountants will be reluctant to go against those other “experts.” After all, would they be writing articles and making speeches if they were not experts? The reality is that they would.

So, how do businesspeople evaluate the advice they receive by way of newspaper, magazine, television show, $200 seminar, or other marketing devices used by lawyers like me? For example, I have given many tips in this column over the years, and I am sure some of them have been followed. Is that a good idea or a bad idea? I would like to think that my ideas are always sound, but my ideas in a column such as this are not always specific. What works for a drycleaner might not work for a plumbing company.

The best thing you can do is ask two questions: “Does the suggestion work for my particular business? Does the advice make sense?” Sometimes these questions will actually be one and the same. If the answer to either question is “no,” then you have to pay an attorney — preferably a competent one — to advise you whether there is a good legal reason for taking the actions suggested.

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, for example, if you have a “perfect attendance bonus,” you cannot count leave days off under the Act to disqualify an employee from the bonus. I can cite Department of Labor regulations that say just that. Illogical, but true. But not everything is that clear cut.

Many years ago, I had a new client come to me with a problem. He owned a unionized factory, and the president and vice president of the local union were production workers at the plant. Both were caught by the state police selling supplies that had clearly come from the factory. The client ’s corporate lawyer had told him not to fire these two employees until they had been convicted because it was against the law to fire people because of their union affiliation. True, but union affiliation was irrelevant. The client came to me one month later, frustrated by the situation.

I started by saying to the new client: “I can’t believe you let some lawyer talk you into keeping two thieves working for your company. ” He did not like my blunt statement, but he agreed. We fired the employees shortly after that without any liability to the company. If only he had questioned his corporate lawyer ’s advice as not making sense or not being good business judgment, he might have avoided 30 days of misery watching two thieves come into the factory each day as if they had gotten away with the crime.

My advice is to question what you read, question what you hear, and question what your lawyer says if your instinct says that the advice is wrong. Be especially wary of lawyers trying to get your business. If the lawyer already has your business, ask enough questions until you are comfortable that what he or she is advising is logical, required, and good business judgment.

It is OK to disagree with a lawyer, or to disagree with this column for that matter. If you have a lawyer that understands that he is supposed to help your business, not hinder it, you are way ahead of the game.