While I breath, I hope - but while I conduct business, I plan.

“Dum Spiro Spero”  is a Latin phrase attributed to Cicero.  It is also my family motto.  It means “While I breath, I hope.”  Emblazoned beneath a profile of a stag, the phrase forms part of our family crest. 

The stag is often associated with spiritual beings and was incorporated into the personal badge of King Richard II of England as a symbol of purity, a symbol of Christ, a symbol of the source of all hope.  Thus, it appears that, both in word and depiction, hope is the enduring theme of my family iconography.

Hope is a wonderful virtue, it talks of persistence, of a yearning for something better, of the driving force which moves us to persevere and whispers that there is something more; an unattained goal; something for which we should strive.  As such, hope can be seen as the cardinal virtue of entrepreneurs and business builders of all stripes.   It is something we should nurture, follow and cultivate. 

But hope is not a strategy.   Nor is it a tactic.  Hope will not move a business forward.  Hope will not grow the bottom line; and hope will not develop the business nor provide you the life- style, fulfilment and peace of mind that you seek.  Yet, hope is precisely the guiding force behind the approach that too many businesses take toward their use of legal services.

First, they hope that their business forms, formation documents, and partnership agreements are sufficient to provide protection from liability; They hope that the contracts, leases and other agreements will serve their interests; they hope that their business practices and HR policies will not expose them to law suits; they hope that they have sufficient insurance; they hope that the network of regulatory and tax requirements will not form a web in which they will be ensnared. They hope that those generic, on-line forms they downloaded will be sufficient.  And, when a crisis arises and they do hire a lawyer, they hope that they will be able to afford the hourly rate bill and they hope that their interactions with the lawyer will not be too disruptive to their business practice and not be too onerous on their time and other resources.

Again, hope is not a strategy.  Hope is a wish, a desire.  For hope to be realized, a strategy and plan must be in place.

Wise and successful businesses often integrate legal counsel into their business planning.  This allows the attorney to become one with the culture of the business and internalize the goals, strategies and tactics of the business so that the attorney can provide advice and counsel which is interwoven with the core mission of the business.  This, in turn, allows legal concerns to be mitigated, avoided or leveraged to the advantage of the business; and, when crises do arise, it means that they can be managed with minimal disruption, cost and concern.

This is a sensible business strategy which, despite common misconceptions, is not reserved solely for the mega corporations with their in-house legal departments.  To the contrary, it is a strategy that can be adopted by businesses of all sizes through the use of out-sourced general counsel agreements with a trusted legal advisor and counselor.

Hope is what keeps us going in hard times.  Intentional planning based upon the sound advice of trusted advisors is what keeps us from the hard times.  The investment in ongoing, legal advice and counsel which is integrated with our business planning is well worth it when hope is simply not enough.