Andy Gilman, a renowned English crisis management consultant said in one of his classes; The secret of crisis management is not good vs bad, it is preventing the bad from getting worse. This is what the art of good lawyering stands for.
The phrase “I will sue you” has been hackneyed. People think rushing to court or threatening to sue somebody is a status symbol, or shouting at the slightest grievance, “I will report you to my lawyer” will make colleagues or friends dread them.
The paradox is that lawyers, even courts, always advise individuals to avoid court rooms as much as they can. They should always look for a way to settle disputes, especially civil cases out of court because court cases ruin friendships, it ruins relationships, it ruins families and the process of getting justices from courts in most cases takes a lot of time and it is highly expensive.
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This is the reason for the provision of alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) in most legal systems of the world. It is statutory mandated that before a lawyer approaches the court for a civil matter on behalf of a client he should first advise the client for alternative means of settling the dispute out of court. Lawyers are expected to first do all they can to settle disputes or come into negotiations with both parties, it is only when the negotiations fail that the lawyers can approach the court and file the proceedings.
People do not know that the job of a lawyer is more of prevention of (legal) crisis on behalf of his client rather than management of crisis. Even some lawyers (especially litigation lawyers) really don’t grasp the concept that the art of lawyering is crisis prevention rather than managing crisis when the crisis has taken place. A good doctor will always advise a patient on what to do so not to fall sick rather than waiting for the patient to fall sick so he can treat him; hence the old saying “prevention is better than cure”.
This is the reason you need to consult a lawyer before going into any transaction. What the lawyer is trained for is to make sure that the transaction is (legally) watertight in your favor so there will be no loopholes in the transactions that would create legal problems for you in the nearest future.This is the art of prevention of legal crisis for the client rather than managing the crisis when it has occurred.
It is actually insane and stupid for you to engage in a transaction that worth millions or that would worth a lot and you want to do it yourself without engaging the services of a lawyer because you don’t want to pay the lawyer the percentage fee or you want to keep the money you ought to have paid the lawyer for yourself and you are thinking it’s a smart move. That’s penny wise, pound foolish because when legal issues arises out of that transaction you are going to spend more, much above what you should have paid a lawyer, hence the reason why the lawyer is there to prevent the legal crisis and it make sure it never occur because it is better than managing the crisis for you.