Hartley Bernstein’s three essential qualities of a corporate lawyer

Hi, I am Hartley Bernstein. I am a corporate lawyer. I have been practicing for nearly half-a-century. I studied law at Columbia University and New York School of Law during the 1970s. I have worked at Yale. I have an experience of representing more than 100 corporate clients. In this post, I am going to share with you three essential qualities that businesses hunting a corporate lawyer should look for.

(a) Wise

A good lawyer understands the difference between their client’s wants and needs. He or she is an attentive listener. He or she pays attention when their client is speaking. Then they analyze it dispassionately, from the perspective of a lawyer, and use cold logic to dissect what the client wants and what the client’s business really needs. A good lawyer makes their client aware of this difference.

(b) Creative

A corporate lawyer is creative. He or she does not say, “No, there is no way it can be done.”  He or she focuses comes up with creative ways to make things possible. There is nothing that cannot be done. It takes ingenuity, intelligence, and creativity to figure out how to do a task. Creative corporate lawyer are aware of it, and they focus their time on solving a problem; than grumbling about how hard it is.

(c ) Empathy

An experienced corporate lawyer is emphatic. He brings legal perspective on table. At the same time, he understands that the client is looking at things from a business perspective. An experienced and good corporate lawyer carefully evaluates both perspectives to find a solution that offers the best legal results for their clients; without making an adverse impact on business.

The right corporate lawyer for your company is the one who is wise, creative, and emphatic.