Yesterday I told you why you’re going to need an attorney one day. If you missed it, check it out HERE. Today, I want to help give you a few tips to select the attorney that’s the best fit for you. If you’ve ever stayed up late at night watching antenna TV (No? Just me?), then you’ve heard the phrase, “You should not choose an attorney based on advertising alone.”

True! Don’t google an attorney and pick the one at the top. That doesn’t mean an attorney is the right fit for you or your budget.

It does mean the attorney has great search engine optimization. That’s all. 

When looking for an attorney, here are a few tips: 

  1. Do some research. Find an attorney that specializes in business and contracts. Usually one who is specific to family law is not familiar enough with business operations and contracts to represent you against someone who specializes in that.
  2. Make sure the attorney you select has experience. Is the person known for being unusually aggressive in cases, or is he/she someone who thinks settling matters outside of court is typically the best course of action? 
  3. Expect great communication and don’t settle for anything less. It’s important that your attorney know quite a bit about your business. Be honest. Don’t hide things you may have done in the past because you just didn’t know better. It’s important they know everything so they can represent you accurately. Also, be thorough but brief. It’s important to get to know your attorney and lay out your expectations clearly to ensure it will be a good fit. Remember though – they charge by the hour, so keep the funny stories about what the tinies said last night to yourself.
  4. Find someone who is detailed. While we need to keep it brief, a great attorney needs to be able to ask you the questions that matter. When I say be brief, I don’t mean withhold information. I simply mean to provide all the details in a concise, but thorough manner. A great attorney will be reading contracts, leases and other documents. You need someone who will catch things. You don’t want to clean up a mess an attorney should have reasonably caught.
  5. Look locally. If you’re in a super small town, there may not be a lot of options. I always recommend looking for someone local if that is an option though. My attorney knows my business very well because we live in a small enough town that he sees our marketing, he sees us at events and he would definitely reach out to me if he heard I was doing something illegal on accident. 

No one expects you to know the law, but for that reason – you need an attorney who does. Finding an attorney isn’t going to be free. In fact, you’ll likely have to pay a retainer when you find one. That just means you’re paying them in advance for work they will eventually do on your behalf. That’s reasonable. Whatever you do – just don’t wait until you’re in a pickle before heading to Google to look for an attorney. You may be stressed, panicked and in a rush. That’s never the time to make an important decision. 

If you found this helpful and you’d like my tips on finding a banker or CPA, let me know so I can add them in que for future weeks!