Your Lawyer is a Trusted Teammate in Building Your Game Plan

Often the targets of a host of very funny and clever jokes, and routinely occupying a space near or
below used car salesmen on a chart of our society’s most beloved professionals, lawyers have been on the defense for years. Like contractors, a few bad apples can taint the entire lot.

But as living, breathing human beings, we are sympathetic to the sour circumstances of life, and
the plight of the citizens caught up in those circumstances, that undoubtedly can lead to the
involvement of lawyers. Too often, we are seen either as an instrument of or active participants in
a system that only breaks down or destroys things – businesses, marriages, liberty –sometimes at
frightening costs.

When given the chance, though, lawyers can be vital partners on the road to short- and long-term
success in building up businesses and the professionals that run them. In fact, as lawyers who took an oath to protect the public and the interests of justice alike, we would much rather occupy a role as part of the solution than be perceived as part of the problem.

Against that backdrop, here are some practical things that your lawyer wants to tell you but perhaps never has shared.

1. An hour’s worth of time and legal fee on the front end of an idea or project can save
hundreds of hours’ worth of time and treasure in hindsight. When given the chance, lawyers
can identify potential pitfalls, make minor – or major – changes to a contract that add
further protections, suggest a business term or negotiation tactic, and offer other similar
value to any client, whether contractor, subcontractor, materialman, developer, or other
industry professional. And we can often turn something around for you in mere hours or
days, allowing you to keep your project on the track to fruition.

2. The lawyer-client relationship works only with mutual trust, and that trust is, like the oil in
an engine, a necessity. Lawyers poke, prod, and question clients not for some sinister
motive but because we have not lived, breathed, and tasted the problem like you have. We
must ascertain the facts – from the seemingly innocuous to the grandiose – in order to
appreciate the varying interests, diagnose a problem, and propose potential solutions. The
information that your lawyer will share and the guidance he or she will provide is only as
good as the trust placed in the lawyer by the free exchange of information and ideas.

3. Although it is possible to craft a solid, capable, and substantially ironclad contract in only
a couple of pages of printed text, many contracts of that length simply do not go far enough
to protect your interests in this litigious society of ours. Simple, yet powerful additions to
a short contract include such things as an indemnity and hold harmless provision that can
help curtail liability if things go sideways. And it can be done without incurring tremendous
legal fees and without turning your couple page contract into a hundred page monstrosity.

4. Litigators are an exceptional resource with legal and practical advice for construction
industry businesses of all shapes, sizes, and sectors, and for the professionals that run them.
This is in large part because we draw upon years of experience handling complex disputes
involving competing interests, whether through trial or settlement. We can harness that vast
array of litigation knowledge and ammunition for clients by crafting common sense
solutions to problems, even on issues below the surface that may not be readily apparent
in the early stages of a project.

As you balance the competing challenges of unpredictable costs, staffing uncertainties, and
narrowing margins in our fast changing business climate, protecting and preserving what you have worked long and hard to build and sustain is as important as ever. By trusting and, yes, paying your lawyer to provide advice and counsel early on in a project’s life, even if simply on targeted issues, you can open the door to valuable insight on a host of legal and practical ideas. And you can help immunize yourself and your business from years of conflict down the road so that your principal focus can be on growing your business and building a happy life for your family.

D. Michael Arendall is a real estate and commercial litigator here at Zinzow Law. Zinzow Law represents clients in construction, real estate, corporate, and appellate matters. For more information, email Michael at [email protected].