OldSchool AG

<rant>

I hate corporate attorneys.

</rant>

Cruzad3r

wat happen now?

XCLR8TT

Shakespear had it right "First kill all the lawyers...."

brillianTTdc

Hey! s'okay, I hate a lot of us too. What's up?

OldSchool AG

a client's attorney who has to give the "OK" on contracts. This attorney has brought the process to a screeching halt first by being completely MIA for nearly 60 days, and now by making every issue a show stopper, including business (i.e. non legal) issues, which were agreed to by the business team, and of course, are not the area of expertise of the attorney (telecom).

All the while, the client thinks she walks on water. Never mind the fact that her delays have cost them several hundred thousand $.

Probably important to point out that I'm a neutral 3rd party-- I.e. I'm not selling something to the client -- I am their consultant, working on their team to get these contracts done. In other words, I don't stand to gain by them sealing the deals.

maaliish

Sometimes thats just the way it is. It has to be done though. A good corporate lawyer should get into the business model of the case in order to provide best advice to the client. There where many things which we didn't cover in the contract which where brought up to us by the legal team. AND they wouldn't have been able to do so unless they really tried to understand the business side. I know its a pain, but its something that has to be done.

OldSchool AG

what best business practices are around telecom. our company has thousands of collective telecom industry years' experience.

we covered the bases from a business perspective, now the lawyer is just wasting billable hours. in some cases recommending changes that weaken the client's leverage down the road. i'm not sure if it's a time waster or just a pride thing -- i.e. here comes this slick consultant treading on my turf.

this project is nearing a year too. end is in sight, but the lawyer wants to play games. example:

ME: Can you help me understand the need for a 5 year limitation in article 5?

Client Attorney: Can you just give me the phone number to the vendor's attorney so I can call her and discuss? We'll work it out faster that way. (i.e. refuses to answer my question)

I have explained time and again that the vendor will not allow their attorney to speak directly to clients without the business and sales team's participation. And my recommendation to my client is to have their business team involved in all such conversations. Lawyers don't make business decisions. Same principle as having IT dictate to users the business requirements. Bad practice.

maaliish

BUT some business decisions are not legally sound and some contracts and agreements do not fully protect the "purchaser". For example, there are guidelines and standards when it comes to signing agreements relevant to sales of the software. Business people just want to buy the product and will usually not think about things such as warranty, liability, etc.. Lawyers take standard agreements (in the area of the agreement in question) which list ALL points relevant to the agreement and then advice the client of some missing "features" of the deal. This is done because these standard agreements took years to polish out and include all the missing bits. Addition of these bits often has impact on the business decisions associated with the product. Just as IT often re-engineers the business process when creating a software solution. The problem is that this process can seem overly intrusive and thats where skills of professional really speak for themselves. Sounds to me like the legal team you're forced to work with isn't making this any easier. Communication is key and they seem to be lacking it.

OldSchool AG

as part of the procurement process. This client has two attorneys working with me. One is fine, no problems. This one has some other agenda that I can't quite figure out.

You gotta understand -- this is what I do for a living day in / day out. I'm not questioning WHY use an attorney. It's not an option -- their expertise is invaluable. HOWEVER, I'm ranting that I don't like most of them that I have to deal with.

Now that I think about it, she reviewed our consulting contract, so she knows how much we're making (in fact she tried to convince the business team to pay us less, after we'd agreed on price). Perhaps she's a bit jealous? =)

maaliish

lol yeah sounds like she's a bit nutz. Maybe she really wants to trade jobs with you ;-) ?