Page 11 - Tree Line - North Carolina Forestry Association - Fourth Quarter 2020

How to
Avoid Hiring
a Litigation
Attorney
HINT: You don’t even have to take your shoes off
BY S. TODD ADAMS
One summer afternoon in my early years of practice, my receptionist came into my office and alerted me to
a walk-in client who was waiting in the lobby to see me. “But Mr. Adams” she
said, “he isn’t wearing any shoes.”
Now, practicing law in a small town,
you see a lot of things, but to this day,
this remains the only time someone
has shown up barefoot to make an appointment. As I entered the lobby, I recognized the shoeless gentleman. He was from my hometown and went by the name “Funk”; to this day, I am uncertain as to whether that nickname had anything to do with his feet, but at the time, I certainly didn’t want to find out. The dialogue went something like this:
Me: “Funk, you gotta put your shoes on, buddy.”
Funk: “Are you gonna kick me out?”
Me: “I am going to have to ask you to leave if you don’t put on your shoes. We have to respect other clients.”
Funk: “That is what I was hoping you would say. I didn’t want to be here in the first place.”
Pretty soon, I discovered that I wasn’t going to be much help to Funk anyway. Funk didn’t want to be in my office because he was in a legal dispute and was forced by his partners to hire an attorney. Funk misunderstood that he didn’t need to hire just any attorney, especially me, a transactional attorney. What Funk needed was a litigation attorney, also known as
a litigator (as well as several other names you have heard in lawyer jokes!).
Avoiding a Litigator
Transactional attorneys generally provide legal advice to clients in a business transaction, often advising on contracts, assisting with due diligence and facilitating the closing of a deal. Transactional attorneys make deals happen, which makes clients happy. When transactional attorneys meet with clients, we shake hands, pat folks on the back and kiss an occasional baby.
Litigators, on the other hand, represent clients in disputes. Often, these disputes occur over a transaction that has gone wrong and normally with the opposing side also represented by an attorney. If the dispute can’t be settled, the matter often ends up in a lawsuit, which may result in a trial. Lawsuits are costly, lengthy, and the emotional strain exerted on the parties over the life of the dispute is an enormous burden.
The objective of this article is to outline some practical tips for landowners and forestry-related businesses and organizations to prevent being forced to visit a litigator.
ncforestry.org / FOURTH QUARTER 2020 9