Learn To Love Your Lawyer

When it comes to attorneys, even the smartest business owners screw up. It doesn’t have to be that way — if you follow Inc.’s plan for managing your lawyer.

From: Inc. Magazine, December 2004 | Page 90 By: Mark Obbie Illustrations by: Peter Hoey

Manny Balani doesn’t hate lawyers. He just wishes they knew their place. The attorneys he’s encountered tend to think that their $500-an-hour expertise is essential at all times. But Balani, the 29-year-old founder and CEO of Governors Distributors, a cigar distributorship in Miami, prefers to think of lawyers as the heavy-duty jigsaw you keep in the back of your garage — "The tool," he says, "that cost you an arm and a leg but you use only once a year." When Balani reaches for that expensive piece of machinery, he wants it to work.

For the full story: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20041201/love-your-lawyer.html