Why You Should Hire A Lawyer for Your Public Health Consulting Business
Today’s guest post is written by Michele S. Perlstein, JD, MPH, Attorney, Greater Good Legal.
Don't take short cuts - Find a good business lawyer.
Working as a consultant generally means that you are working on your own or in a small group at the most. One of the main concerns of any small business or entrepreneur when getting started is how to protect yourself and your business from legal liability as much as possible. On the one hand, no one ever wants to leave themselves open to a lawsuit. On the other hand, as a small business you probably don't have a lot of money to spend on attorney's fees. Let's face it, lawyers are not known to be inexpensive. Therefore, you may be tempted to use an online service like a Legal Zoom for any standard contracts and documents you may need for your business. The pros of a service like this are that it is inexpensive, quick, and will give you a standard legally binding document. These services make it very easy for anyone to plug in their information and get a basic legal document in return. While this may seem like a good way to get started in the short term, in the long run it is not in your best interests to continue to do this.
Establish a relationship with a lawyer that will build on itself long term.
Let's say you have your first client and you want to send them a basic consultant contract that sets forth the general understanding between you. While an online service like Legal Zoom will give you a standard generic document that will generally cover basic provisions of a contract, such a document will not be tailored to your specific needs. This is especially true if you work in an industry or area like healthcare for example where there may be business secrets involved or if you're working with certain public health data or information that is highly sensitive and needs to be kept confidential. That is why you are better off finding an attorney who you can work with over the long term as you build your business and who will come to know your specific needs and concerns.
Moreover, as your business grows, chances are that your needs will change over time. For instance, you might need to bring on employees, or if you get more long-term clients, it might be better for you to use a retainer agreement with them rather than a shorter term contract. An attorney that has become familiar with you and your business can help determine the best way to proceed.
Engaging a lawyer at the outset that will get to know you personally has several benefits. First of all, they will learn about you and your business and will therefore be able to craft a document that is specific to you. Attorneys are also trained to read legal documents with a more critical eye to what is best for you. The attorney becomes your advocate. In addition, you begin to establish a relationship with your attorney that will build on itself and hopefully last a long time. The more they get to know about you and your business, the better they will be able to advise you and protect your legal interests. For instance, there may come a time when you will have a client who is delinquent or refuses to pay an invoice. You can call on your attorney to advocate on your behalf in this situation. You simply will not be able to get that kind of personal attention from an online service.
Probably the biggest reason for hiring an attorney is that lawyers have had years of training to know what to look for when reviewing contracts and other legal documents that you may need. You can't get that with an online service. Some red flags lawyers should readily identify include:
Any obligations that are too open ended, such as being required to provide your service without any real end date.
Intellectual property concerns regarding who owns the content of a finished product or training that you have developed during the course of your consulting relationship.
If you are a consultant who works with clients that are giving you sensitive or confidential information, they may want to try and limit you from working with other clients in the same field. This is known as a restrictive covenant and it may prove very limiting as you try to build up your business and gain new clients.
Do your research and ask for referrals.
So, right about now you are probably thinking, “Lawyers are expensive! I run a small business and I don't have a lot of money to spend on this right now.” My response to this is to relax and breathe. Yes, this can be a big cost, especially for a new or small business. But it doesn't have to be something that breaks the bank. There are many lawyers out there who provide their services for a reasonable fee. In fact, many of them are solos or small business owners just like you and understand what it is like to run a small consulting business. Take your time and ask around. As with anything, do your research. Some good resources for finding a small business attorney include:
Asking others in your small business networking groups who their lawyers are or who they recommend.
Your local Chamber of Commerce and local county Bar Association are also great places to look and they usually have lawyer referral services that you can use.
Often times a local public library will hold great business programs, as will your local SCORE organization, so keep an eye out for those as well. All of these places can give you referrals for affordable professionals that specialize in small businesses.
If necessary, you can use an online service to create some standard contracts to get yourself started while you take some time to find a small business attorney who you connect with and who has reasonable rates.
While legal fees will vary by geographic location or the type of work involved, there are attorneys and firms out there who post their rates for certain services up front so you can get an idea of how much it will likely cost you. For instance, at Greater Good Legal we do this very thing. We charge $300 for a simple operating agreement for an LLC and $600 for a for profit LLC formation.
With that in mind, it is a good idea to allow for a certain amount of legal costs in your budget every year. I recommend that a new consultant budget $800 to $1,500 in the first year for a few hours of an attorney's time to draft initial consulting operations and contract agreements.
If you are still concerned about cost, then try to look at it from another angle. You can't afford not to.
You do not want to take the cheaper way out and use an online service only to find out later that you have opened yourself to liability because of something that was overlooked or that the online service did not cover in your agreement. If that should happen, you stand to lose a lot more money and the costs could be way more significant. This is not to say that by hiring an attorney to handle all your legal needs that you will never be sued or be liable for something, it just significantly reduces the chances that that will happen.
Isn't that worth it?
About Michele:
Michele has both a JD and a Master’s in Public Health and has spent the past 25 years working with non-profit organizations in one way or another. She is passionate about working with people and with organizations that are actively involved in making a real impact in the communities they serve.
Michele began her legal career practicing health care law where her clients were mainly hospitals and other charitable institutions. During this time, much of her work involved drafting legal documents for hospitals and other charitable institutions and exempt organizations, including for example HIPAA confidentiality forms, policies and procedures in emergency care and general patient quality of care matters, and practitioner contracts. Michele has also advised hospitals on compliance issues concerning HIPAA, Medicare/Medicaid fraud and abuse, and reimbursement and billing matters.
Michele has extensive experience in the operations and funding of nonprofit organizations and charitable institutions, including grant writing and grant review work. She is currently conducting grant research and writing for the American Red Cross of Southeastern PA. In addition, Michele has served on nonprofit boards where she has held various leadership positions, which often involved developing, drafting and implementing various policies, bylaws, and standards of practice for the organization.
Michele holds a BA in English Literature from Brandeis University and a JD with a concentration in Health Law from Boston University School of Law. She also earned a Masters in Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health. She is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and in the States of New Jersey and New York.
Michele has joined the legal team of Greater Good Legal LLC. Greater Good provides legal counsel that builds communities by delivering affordable legal services to not-for-profits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals with disabilities and their families. The for-profit firm uses technology and streamlined processes to deliver efficient and cost-effective services throughout Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit the Greater Good Legal website. You can also check out Michele's profile on LinkedIn.