All Posts: ‘Lawyers’
Back to New York City: How I Came Full Circle
by Scott Edward Walker on February 2nd, 2011
Background
As I have previously discussed, I began my legal career as a corporate associate at two major law firms in New York City. After nearly eight years, however, I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life helping entrepreneurs (like my father) — not executing large, complex transactions for multi-national corporations and private equity funds.
I also saw a big problem in the legal marketplace: entrepreneurs and their companies were paying a small fortune to have their legal work done by junior associates getting on-the-job training; or, put another way, the big-firm template just didn’t work for entrepreneurs. (I discuss this issue in detail in the video on our home page.)
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Tags: corporate law, corporate law group, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, New York City, NYC tech, startup
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Lawyers | 2 Comments »
What’s It Like Working at a Major New York City Law Firm?
by Scott Edward Walker on January 26th, 2011
Introduction
About once a week, I receive an email or phone call from a law school student asking for career advice and specifically inquiring what it’s like working at a major New York City law firm (as I did for nearly eight years). I discuss below the good, the bad and the ugly.
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Tags: associate, corporate law, law firm, Lawyers, New York, New York City
Posted in Lawyers | No Comments »
Dear Entrepreneurs: Choose Your Own Legal Counsel
by Scott Edward Walker on September 8th, 2010
Introduction
The purpose of this post is expand upon my answer to the question on Quora:
“What should you do as a startup when a Bay Area VC insists that you use their expensive legal counsel?”
Mark Suster, a VC at GRP Partners, has also written and spoken about how he likes to “share” his legal counsel with the startup in which he is investing. My advice to entrepreneurs is clear: push back hard on this issue and choose your own strong, independent legal counsel – i.e., a law firm that’s going to work hard to protect you and watch your back.
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Tags: conflicts of interest, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, ethics, investment banker, investors, legal counsel, M&A, startup, term sheet, vc
Posted in Lawyers, Startup Issues | 4 Comments »
It’s Time to Destroy the Billable Hour
by Scott Edward Walker on March 10th, 2010
The Market Problem
As I tweeted a couple of days ago, I recently received three telephone calls over a three-day period from entrepreneurs looking for a new law firm because of the excessive fees of their current law firm. Two of the three entrepreneurs advised me that they were reluctant to even call their lawyers with a question because of the fees. I thought to myself: I get it! 15 minutes = $125-175 for most partners (and those phone calls add up).
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Tags: associate, billable hour, entrepreneurs, fixed fee, fixed fees, law firm, Lawyers, partner
Posted in Lawyers | 6 Comments »
Behind The Big Law-Firm Curtain: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
by Scott Edward Walker on October 27th, 2009
I’ve been doing deals as a corporate attorney for over 15 years now, including nearly 8 years in the trenches at two big law firms in New York City. Accordingly, I thought it would be helpful for entrepreneurs if I briefly peel back the curtain of the big law firm and explain how these firms work (i.e., the good, the bad, the ugly) so that entrepreneurs can make an informed decision as to whether it makes sense to be working with a big law firm with respect to a particular corporate project. Obviously, some of this is a bit self-serving, but entrepreneurs need to understand that the assumption “the bigger, the better” — i.e., the bigger the law firm, the better the representation — is not necessarily the case. The video version of this post is set forth directly below.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcty5PrNaxs
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Tags: acquisitions, big law firms, corporate project, entrepreneurs, law firm, legal fees
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Lawyers, Videos | 6 Comments »