Preventive Law: A View from the Big Guys

If you look around this blog you will find several posts on preventive law (like here and here and here) and this another. The Wired GC writes about a new agreement between the British firm Eversheds and its client Tyco under the headline Tyco and Eversheds, version 2.0.

There are some new wrinkles and Tyco-driven metrics as well:

Of equal significance, the new phase of the engagement provides Eversheds with substantial bonus incentives to meet pre-specified client satisfaction and diversity targets and achieve proactive litigation avoidance - in other words, promoting and encouraging behaviours that are counter-cultural at many traditional law firms.

What I see here is an agreement promoting preventive law over litigation. The original post takes a different slant towards this agreement - one more appropriate to that blog being about the relationship between corporate general counsel and their outside lawyers.

Which leaves me still seeking a answer to an old question: why do most businesses avoid seeking preventive measures for their potential legal problems? I disagree with the implication that law firms and lawyers oppose preventive law. I still believe that most lawyers will jump at providing preventive services if business clients ask for these services.

Here some suggestions for an Indiana business interested in what preventive law can do for them:

1. Talk to your lawyer and find out what they can or cannot do for the business in preventing legal problems.
2. If you do not have a lawyer, then read the articles I linked to above and give me a call.