The Importance of Titles and Legal Counsel

Greetings from the CEO. And the vice president. And the secretary. I'm quite important. As is Jason. He is not only the CTO, but also the president and treasurer. But we're not just going crazy with all these titles. Turns out, they all exist for a reason. Secretary is more than just a consolation prize for Hilary Clinton. In our company, it's the only person, besides the president, who can call a board of directors meeting. It was all in our corporate bylaws -- and I learned this while meeting with our excellent legal counsel.

One of the first things Jerry Goldman, Esq. did as our counsel was rip up pages from our beautifully-organized, Legal Zoom-prepared corporation book, all while saying "we'll need to redo this." You see, while affordable and perfect for us as a consulting company, Legal Zoom was not quite the best resource when creating a company that aspires to scale up to something of great value.

A good attorney does more than just destroy your pretty, but pretty useless, paperwork. He, or she, also (ideally) creates new, lasting documents, procedures and protections. He also shows you how to quickly put together and use your corporate seal.

Now, I have a great advantage from many just getting started with a business. In case it wasn't obvious enough by the name, our corporate attorney is also one of Maisie's favorite babysitters and is someone that has been advising me for 30 years. Except, while I knew he was a lawyer, for the majority of my life, I just thought his life was like one long episode of Law & Order. This may have been influenced by the fact that one of his court appearances I sat in on was the defense of a drug dealer who was brought down by the markings on his product. His other major case is against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. So you see why I was confused by his skills in setting up a company. I discovered he does this all the time. He has whole drafts of Terms and Conditions documents for startups.

I learned I just need to listen more. And better. For someone who prides herself on being an excellent conversationalist, this business launch has taught me a great deal about asking the right questions and listening to their answers. There may be great resources -- advisors, collaborations, etc., around you to help you avoid missteps like just using a template Non-Disclosure Agreement from Google and can bestow upon you fancy titles. Even if that's not the case, you can finally learn what your parents actually do.

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