When should you call your lawyer? That’s an easy one.
Recently, a client came to us with a new consumer product design that they’d commissioned; they thought it looked similar to another product already in market. They were concerned it might infringe the other company’s rights. They did the obvious thing and called their lawyer. But in this case, they could have called even sooner. That’s because the client hadn’t reached out when they engaged with the designer. So the client had much less recourse to remedy the infringing deliverable they’d received than if the client had negotiated a simple, effective service agreement that required the designer to create something that didn’t obviously resemble a competitor.
Usually, these issues arise because a client perceives an activity as bearing minimal risk. But a good lawyer is able to quickly assess whether that’s accurate or if there exists some hidden exposure. For instance, a different client sought to obtain shipping insurance for their direct to consumer products. Because they pay a fixed monthly fee for their day-to-day work, they send to us what might otherwise seem like mundane activity. When we reviewed the policy, its standard terms excluded the type of goods the client was sending, so the client would have been paying for coverage that didn’t insure a single shipment they made.
We strive to create smart billing solutions to allow our clients to feel comfortable reaching out early and often. It helps our clients become more successful and enables us to provide more valuable counsel.