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how many extra lights does d.light have to sell every time I email our lawyers
When will we democratizing law (or at least make it affordable)? What if the language of law was more accessible for every person - whether they are drafting a will, signing a housing lease, making a distributor contract, or incorporating a new social enterprise? I am spending a lot of time these days (and its distracting me from my mission!) getting d.light's various subsidiaries set-up properly. I would love to find resources that can put the maze of legal templates, case-studies, distributor and rep office contracts, and other legal matters into an intelligible and readily accessible format (google please help!!!) and for FREE.
The global world is amazing. I just got back from a trip into rural Uttar Pradesh, India, and I’m amazed to see how computers, internet, and cell phones are flourishing despite the absence of reliable electricity, and furthermore how these instruments are truly democratizing the flow of information! Its getting harder and harder to pull one over on anybody these days – even if they are semi-literate and live in an unelectrified village. AND, its getting easy and easy for people to do business and improve their lives.
That said, I am beginning to think that the legal profession is one of the last big barriers to democratizing business and allowing small and micro entrepreneurs to play on a level field with the corporates. I would never have thought that over the last month I would spend 50% of my time dealing with legal and bureaucratic issues, nor, that one of d.light’s biggest expenses in the past few months would be legal. Ouch! Every time I get another monstrous bill, I keep asking myself, 'what is going on' – and 'why is it costing literally thousands and thousands of dollars to complete this paperwork, especially when that money could better be put into manufacturing lights and delivered into the hands of families?'
I was brainstorming with my friend Jeff Gupta-Smith, about how the legal profession is structured in such a way that ordinary people like ourselves are intimidated, scared, and unsure in making our own legal documents. However, for the most part – all those documents are fairly simple/standard, except that so much weight is put on saying things in just the right manner (and unintelligible form) – that it becomes almost impossible for somebody without extensive training to feel confident. It seems that we/lawyers/systems of justice have created a legal forms that generates billions of dollars of value (mostly for itself) essentially propogating a language that is indicepherable to the masses. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could do a revision of the legal language (just like every other language) and make it accessible to all? I'm dreaming of a day when anybody can go on-line, regardless of the language they speak or how fluently, and get access to great legal templates, and file and share all these docs/forms for free and instantly. It can't be that hard...
On a more personal level, I can't stand distracting myself with legal details, and I want to rush out and build a great business. Neverthess I am stuck. So I am wondering if anybody has any suggestions as to when in a companies growth they need to worry about legal, and how important is it to set a company and legal foundation up perfectly from the get-go? I ask and am simultaneously empathisizing will all who have passed before me in setting up global entities.
boilerplates are definitely GOOD
great pt. i wonder if skoll or another organization might post the top 25 most useful legal documents or something for all start-ups to get access to? [or would that create legal liability??] i do like your approach. we used to do that A LOT until the issues got way out of our hands.. still i find that just sending in my 1st draft version.. usually costs a bundle before we get the final version out!
law is your friend
Your rant on law and the legal profession seems straight out of your MBA program. B-school types just want to do the deal. And for the most part, that makes sense. 99% of the deals go just fine, and everyone is happy. It's the 1% that you hire your lawyer to protect you from. No reason to fret about setting up those subsidiaries properly, right? Unless you care about limited liability. But that's not a trivial thing--insulating your assets from the rightful claims of your creditors. Right? The law doesn't--and probably shouldn't--treat it as trivial. Your interests aren't--and shouldn't be--the only ones that count.
As a matter of full disclosure, I have to say that I am a lawyer--and worse! I am a law professor, so I am actually a part of the machine that (gasp!) produces more lawyers. Pleaase feel free to discount (or credit) my comments by whatever factor you deem appropriate.
On other countries, "lumping it" is a fairly common form of dispute resolution. Law doesn't protect people very well in many parts of the world. Law can be "easy," but it may fail to account for all the interests that should matter; the powerful oppress the weak.
No doubt, much of law and legal practice is indecipherable to the lay person. But that doesn't distinguish law from many professions. Not just medicine or accounting or investment banking. But construction and architecture and music and design. Every profession--even social entrepreneurship--has a vocabulary that separates insiders from outsiders. All the professions have incentives to create barriers to entry--licensing laws and fees, periodic certification requirements, and the like. As for law, over time it seems to me that international competition will commoditize many areas of law, as has happened with accounting and many parts of finance.
Try looking from the other end of the telescope. All kinds of regulations protect you from adulterated food, fraudulent advertising, overreaching insurance companies, excessive force by police. Imagine the griping by the regulated. They don't like law much either.
Law is your friend. Maybe not a close friend, but one that is often there for you even without your knowing or appreciation.
what I left out
Hi Professor.
what i left out is that my sister is a lawyer and many great friends. indeed our legal counsel has been EXCEPTIONALLY helpful in many issues from setting up board participation to investment decisions to structuring. I think my frustration stems from the fact that the majority (80%) of the legal issues I deal with I would consider mundane or fairly straight forward. however - this 80% still needs to be vetted by lawyers (at quite some cost) just in case and seems like it could easily be streamlined and made accessible to all. I completely agree and should have stated it more clearly - that many other issues are way over my head and need very serious legal expertise. and i don't mind paying for those. I was a bit all encompassing in that blog - glad your commented.
tis rather unfortunate
you're definitely correct that the legal profession does make a living off of information disparity, it's difficult for start ups to get a leg up (and good night's sleep) without having proper legal strings tied up.
there's sites like scribd and docstock that have a myriad of these forms but there's no "digg" style rating system for them, which would be difficult to set up - who would moderate what determines a good or poor form.
I feel it's because the law is a black and white issue but it's application exists purely in gray.
What I did was: get standard boilerplate by copying/rewriting it from elsewhere, a "best effort" to ensure your rights and those of others are protected. spoke with several lawyers - use them for their 1st free appointment where they go over possible gotchas. If they're not too glaring, then proceed.
this of course depends on your type of business - in your case it's a bit more hairy, as you're transacting across international lines.
best of luck!