Getting More Bang for Your Legal Buck

Operating a successful restaurant, let alone a portfolio of restaurants, is one of the most challenging businesses in the market. A restaurant’s legal counsel can be a key advisor and ally in positioning the business for growth while helping minimize risk. But many owners are understandably intimidated by the unpredictability of the legal industry’s ubiquitous billable hour pricing model. Though many attorneys are slowly beginning to offer alternative and more flexible pricing, uncertainty about costs has a chilling effect on conversations between owners and their attorneys, leading to legally vulnerable restaurants and underutilized attorneys who could otherwise provide valuable counsel in an ever-changing industry. 

Here are three tips on how restaurants can get the most from their attorneys:

1. Establish a Relationship

Though it sounds trite, the first step in a beneficial attorney-client relationship is establishing rapport in the first place. Restaurant owners should seek out attorneys based on the suggestions of others in their personal and professional networks. But don’t just make a commitment to the first attorney you meet. Date around. If you don’t enjoy your attorney’s company over coffee or lunch, you will hesitate to seek their advice. In addition to competence, it is perfectly reasonable to let personality drive your decision about which attorney to hire. Choose an attorney you will enjoy working with. Is your prospective attorney already a customer? Are they excited about your business or new concept? The ideal attorney is one familiar with your business and one who believes in it. Attorneys knowledgeable of your strengths and weaknesses can help you be your best self and thus help grow your business.

Most attorneys have a focus area of legal practice or even a specialty (for example, employment law or criminal defense). But this does not mean you have to hire a “restaurant attorney” nor does it mean you have to hire multiple attorneys – one for each type of legal concern you might ever have. If you establish a meaningful relationship with your attorney, she or he can serve as your business’s “general counsel.” Many attorneys can provide useful advice on a variety of topics relevant to your restaurant. When appropriate, your general counsel can help you decide to hire another attorney with specific expertise in a certain area of the law.  While that may sound like more legal spend, your general counsel can help you stay within budget when the need for a specialist arises and be a useful translator of legalese by skipping over advice and services your business does not need.

2. Use as a Sounding Board

Most restaurant owners only think to hire an attorney when something goes wrong. However, attorneys can provide value to clients in the strategic planning stages of a business, especially a restaurant. A restaurant is a combination of disciplines and skills, and no one is an expert on every subject. Your general counsel can be your sounding board on almost any topic since their legal education trains them to analyze situations from different perspectives, ask questions, and navigate around risks.

Experienced restauranteurs often know their local regulations as well as any attorney. That said, having two sets of eyes on a task is always better than one. For example, perhaps the local health department or fire inspector has recently changed a longstanding city ordinance applicable to your restaurant. You can talk through the implications of such a change with your general counsel. They can help you remain in compliance and maybe save you money in the process.

Are you thinking of opening a new location? Your general counsel can walk through the cost benefit analysis of a particular site and how it might meet your goals. They may be able to negotiate a lease with the landlord or review financing options with your lender. Perhaps you are considering bringing on a new business partner? Your general counsel can help you evaluate prospective investors and draft a partnership agreement to address tricky situations in advance, which leads to the final tip. 

3. Put It in Writing

If you have an established restaurant, you might wonder how general counsel can help your business at this later stage. But even the most successful restaurants have pain points and as an owner you are often in the weeds, prioritizing the most urgent issue from one day to the next. Your general counsel can be your ace in the hole, someone working in the background on big picture concepts that improve future operations. 

Few business transactions these days are done by a handshake. Even low value exchanges of goods or services have an underlying contract (or terms and conditions on a website). And because restaurant owners are so busy, they often gloss over these documents without considering the potential impact on their business. Your general counsel can read your contracts for you and deliver the information and perspective you care most about by summarizing, explaining, revising, or even handling negotiation while keeping you in budget. 

Maybe you are dealing with a challenging employee for the first time (or twentieth time)? You can use your general counsel as a sounding board for difficult conversations, as mentioned above, but also the two of you can work together to create written policies so the next time you have a tough employment matter, you can follow a recipe and feel confident you are taking appropriate steps to follow the law and maybe avoid a lawsuit. Many business owners find comfort in something as simple as a checklist for complicated but foreseeable situations.

Does your restaurant have a dish that has gone viral? Your business’s answer to the Cronut®? You can protect the name by trademark. Have you developed unique food preparation methods or equipment? You can protect them as a trade secret or perhaps pursue a patent. Your general counsel can help.

Hiring an attorney to advise your business does not have to be intimidating or expensive. In fact, the best attorney-client relationships are often quite the opposite. Candid conversations lead to authentic collaboration which can provide significant value and protection for your restaurant.