I studied History in college and for a brief second considered law school. This entitles me to feel like I know a lot about stuff when I actually know very little. After years of pretending it's finally time to come clean.
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I feel like I can understand most of what I read in legal documents (not counting user agreements), but there's always a fair amount of time spent Googling terms like "force majeure" and "indemnification." Since I can't understand all of what I read, I should probably stop acting like I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings.
"What's say you and I go toe-to-toe on Bird Law and see who comes out the victor?"
"What's say you and I go toe-to-toe on Bird Law and see who comes out the victor?"
I've read more than once that a good attorney is extremely valuable to a small design business. Even with all the free resources online, I'm finding this to be true.
<aside> 📕 Speaking of reading, the *FABAS* book by Amy and Jen Hood is proving itself to be one of the greatest investments of my life. They write a tiny bit about legal stuff (mostly sharing contract sample links and suggesting you find a good lawyer), but even broader ideas about pricing, presenting and networking have changed the way I do business altogether. The Hoods are great and I can't recommend the book enough.
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It helps that my best friend is an attorney who remembers a little bit about contracts. That got me pretty far and I was even able to draw up my own contract and use it for half a dozen projects.
A few months ago, a design contact casually mentioned that there was a clause in his contract that enabled his studio to retain the rights to any work discarded by a client. That stuck with me.
I've been in situations before when I wished that I could keep some of the work that I was delivering to a client because they (1) didn't love it and wouldn't use it much or at all and (2) I thought it had legs beyond the scope of what I was delivering. I'd been digging for gold and accidentally found silver, too. A clause that secured my rights to discarded work sounded pretty awesome to me.
So after thinking about it a few times, and not really understanding how to incorporate something like that in my existing contract, I reached back out to my contact and asked if they could share more information with me about that clause. Not only did they give me some insight regarding how that specific clause was worded, but I also found out his lawyer specialized in Business Law and Intellectual Property. He passed along the firm's contact info and I made an appointment.
We took a look at my existing contract during a free consult. That alone was eye-opening enough for me to recognize the flaws in my then-current services agreement. We actually ended up scrapping my contract altogether because it left out a few key elements.
<aside> 📄 In addition to adding that IP clause I was interested in, we also simplified the contract. One of the fears I've had is that my contract is unnecessarily wordy and might scare off clients. By establishing the contract and placing a Statement of Work at the end of the agreement, the document is streamlined. It also means that I can hand over a new SOW to a repeat client and they won't have to resign the initial agreement.
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For a very reasonable fee (more than $400 and less than $600 😏 ) I was able to get a brand new contract written up, tailored to me and my business. The peace of mind is great, but just as cool to me (a pretend law man) is understanding my contract, which honestly I couldn't say about the previous version.
I'm much more confident in my new agreement and have no doubt this investment could end up saving my butt someday.
If you need a good Design/Business attorney, give Blake a call.