I didn’t appreciate our legal system until my company got sued

It’s a funny story now that I’d be happy to tell you over a beer – but at the time it was scary. I was afraid that we would lose our company, but I was even more afraid that I would lose my house and somehow put my family’s future in jeopardy. Neither of those things happened, and in many ways this is a result of how our legal system is structured.

Believe it or not, the United States is a still an incredibly great place to start a company. It’s easy and inexpensive to do so legally, and doing that creates a separation between you and your company. If you’re thoughtful about a few key things when you’re starting your company, you’ll save time and money and stress down the road.

But lawyers cost money, so startups avoid them

So for this episode I asked Joe Morrison – one of the best startup lawyers in Ann Arbor – what advice he would give a new entrepreneur that he met at a cocktail party. Off the record. Friend to friend. 

Joe represents early and high-growth companies in an outside general counsel capacity. He focuses on technology-enabled emerging companies and the venture capital firms that invest in them. In Ann Arbor he’s known as a very approachable resource with a ton of reps under his belt. Rather than overwhelm you with how smart he is, he does a great job of simplifying things that can easily become complex.

Joe and I recorded this story at the Bodman offices in downtown Ann Arbor.