He concluded that start-up entrepreneurs spend only 20 percent of their time working on their product or service. They spend the rest of their time contending with legal and business obstacles, such as finding strategic partners, searching for executives and writing shareholder agreements. As a result, entrepreneurs might be able to get their companies off the ground more quickly. There is no time to waste. If you sit on it, this stuff makes you late.
Somebody is out there, doing it better.
The Washington State Bar Association has named Seattle attorney Tom Fain chairman of a new committee that will study some of the thorniest ethical issues facing the legal profession. The 15-member committee will hold its first meeting Sept. 8. At the top of the committee's agenda is the controversial concept of multidisciplinary practices, in which attorneys become business partners with nonlawyers, such as accountants. The American Bar Association last month rejected the notion, but the debate lives on with state bar associations. Fain's committee also will examine multijurisdictional practices, in which attorneys practice law in more than one state.