Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Things your lawyer won't tell you

openforum.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 33 posts

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#21

Post by joshu »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #18

If you are looking for a start-up lawyer, I would highly recommend my lawyer - George Grellas: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grellas I have had none of the problems listed on this form. I don't get sneakily billed or over-billed, I get personal attention from two lawyers (including George whose name is on the door), and I get what appears to be very sound legal advice. I have had two friends hire lawyers to set…

I've been thinking about talking to him about backup counsel (my current lawyer, whom I love, is sometimes on the other side of deals from me) mostly on the strength of his commentary here. Good marketing!

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#22

Post by argv_empty »

dschobel wrote: post #19
wglb wrote: post #16

This is really not a useful article. All of my experience with lawyers has been contrary to what is shown here.

The article was completely worthless. It's a revelation tantamount to "unethical experts have the ability to abuse their clients' trust".

I would say it's more like "unethical experts have the ability to abuse their clients' trust in the following ways: _____."

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#23

Post by ibsulon »

idoh wrote: post #13
WarDekar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because engineers don't go to an extra 3-4 years of school and go into 200k of debt to get there. Someone has to prop up the "higher" education system.

Law School programs are all 3 years. Graduating with 200K of debt is really unusual.

Count the undergraduate costs as well. It's certainly possible to do it on the cheap, but those eight clubs, 4.0, and volunteer work that help you make it into a top 10 school likely means you're not working with the lowly peons, especially if you're a product of the Ivy system.

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#24

Post by andrewljohnson »

joshu wrote: post #21
andrewljohnson wrote: post #18

If you are looking for a start-up lawyer, I would highly recommend my lawyer - George Grellas: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grellas I have had none of the problems listed on this form. I don't get sneakily billed or over-billed, I get personal attention from two lawyers (including George whose name is on the door), and I get what appears to be very sound legal advice. I have had two friends hire lawyers to set…

I've been thinking about talking to him about backup counsel (my current lawyer, whom I love, is sometimes on the other side of deals from me) mostly on the strength of his commentary here. Good marketing!

Talk to him for sure! He'll certainly meet with you for free, and he's just down the road from MV (in Cupertino).

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#25

Post by yason »

wglb wrote: post #16

This is really not a useful article. All of my experience with lawyers has been contrary to what is shown here.

Well, the world is different for everyone. It might be that the author has too consistently had experiences like those described in the article, and is therefore propelled to dissect the "tricks" and jot them down into an article.

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#26

Post by WarDekar »

ibsulon wrote: post #23
idoh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Law School programs are all 3 years. Graduating with 200K of debt is really unusual.

Count the undergraduate costs as well. It's certainly possible to do it on the cheap, but those eight clubs, 4.0, and volunteer work that help you make it into a top 10 school likely means you're not working with the lowly peons, especially if you're a product of the Ivy system.

Not to mention the cost of living in addition to law school itself. And don't forget a lot of the top law schools (you did go to a top law school to "guarantee" a top salary (or you know, a job) when you got out, right?) aren't exactly in the boondocks.

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#27

Post by idoh »

WarDekar wrote: post #26
ibsulon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Count the undergraduate costs as well. It's certainly possible to do it on the cheap, but those eight clubs, 4.0, and volunteer work that help you make it into a top 10 school likely means you're not working with the lowly peons, especially if you're a product of the Ivy system.

Not to mention the cost of living in addition to law school itself. And don't forget a lot of the top law schools (you did go to a top law school to "guarantee" a top salary (or you know, a job ) when you got out, right?) aren't exactly in the boondocks.

I don't want to belabor the point but it goes against evidence. For what it's worth I went to law school and graduated with less than 100K in debt, as did most of my peers. And this number is also in line with national averages if you cared to look it up.

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#29

Post by Confusion »

It's the same problem that haunts the software industry. It's hard for people outside the industry to judge the quality of people in the industry and as a result, they choose their partners based on everything but the thing that matters: the quality of their work. As a result, they pay $200 an hour for 'software consultants' that wouldn't recognize a memory leak if their life dependended on it. As a further result, the industry doesn't even try to compete based on quality.

Re: Things your lawyer won't tell you

#30

Post by abalashov »

abalashov wrote: post #11

While certainly interesting, not all the things the author paints here as sordid, unethical business practices actually are, at least to the extent that's intersubjective. If you're doing a startup, you may want to take some lessons from the eons of microeconomics and management wisdom condensed into some of these things instead of cheering at the burning effigy of the man with the briefcase. It's a much more pithy,…

Oogali posted a response to my post on his Tumblr blog. I feel that in many respects it is an orthogonal and/or supplementary response rather than a diametrical rebuttal, but all the same, it is quite a good one:

http://pseudonym.tumblr.com/post/408523735/abalashov-a-rebut...

Post reply on HN