> And once you're using a lawyer, that lawyer will naturally be inclined to try to turn the negotiation into a gravy train.
So negotiate a fixed fee, with a bonus for the deal closing. Or find a lawyer that you trust to not run up the clock. There are a lot of things you can do as the client to guard against that sort of behavior.
> Here is another exercise. The next time you see the need to mediate between "big egos on the business side", think carefully about how those egos got unhappy in the first place. I'll give you even odds that the issue they got upset over is one that was introduced by a lawyer.
People get mad at their dentists for telling them to floss, but that doesn't mean anything by itself. The business people on a deal are optimistic--they think the deal will go well and is a good idea, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. Lawyers are pessimists. They want to hedge against all the ways the deal can go wrong. They don't have a personal investment in the deal that can cloud their judgment of all of the ways it could blow up.
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> And once you're using a lawyer, that lawyer will naturally be inclined to try to turn the negotiation into a gravy train.
So negotiate a fixed fee, with a bonus for the deal closing. Or find a lawyer that you trust to not run up the clock. There are a lot of things you can do as the client to guard against that sort of behavior.
> Here is another exercise. The next time you see the need to mediate between "big egos on the business side", think carefully about how those egos got unhappy in the first place. I'll give you even odds that the issue they got upset over is one that was introduced by a lawyer.
People get mad at their dentists for telling them to floss, but that doesn't mean anything by itself. The business people on a deal are optimistic--they think the deal will go well and is a good idea, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. Lawyers are pessimists. They want to hedge against all the ways the deal can go wrong. They don't have a personal investment in the deal that can cloud their judgment of all of the ways it could blow up.