Starting a business is an adventure not many care to take. Over the past year or so one of the most critical things we have been told to build a solid business is "Get a lawyer." From a business standpoint it makes perfect sense to have a lawyer feed you the legal jargon via layman's terms. This was something we did mid-way through the initial development of BSMG earlier this year. After reading several business development books we felt like we had all of our bases covered regarding the protection of our investment, BSMG. But for us we felt like the only way to guarantee the legitimacy of what we were doing was to consult an Entertainment Lawyer. After all was said and done with our Entertainment Lawyer, we found out that we were on the right track. Having a legal professionals confirmation makes sleeping at night a bit easier.
Reading the Music Licensing book I ran across a couple of pages discussing the benefits of having an Entertainment Lawyer represent you in more ways than one. A lawyers role is always from a legal perspective in the capacity of protecting your investment. From what I've read, a good Entertainment Lawyer can facilitate the scoring of TV, film, soundtrack, and even commercial placements. When a lawyer works within the context of client representation, their presence has a certain appeal for all parties involved with a negotiation. Having a lawyer allows you to accept or deny a deal with confidence knowing the legal expectations were understood with insight and experience. Like most, our understanding of a lawyer's role was to represent you in court and take all your money. Fortunately, we were wrong.
When developing BSMG our initial thoughts were that we would have to negotiate our business deals and later consult a lawyer to confirm our assumptions on legalities. There is a feeling of satisfaction knowing that you have a wider range of support than initially expected. In this case, it would be the support of an Entertainment Lawyer. Not to be fooled, these legal services are not free and in many cases an Entertainment Lawyer would not utilize there time supporting a start-up company such as ours. However, now understanding the diverse roles a lawyer can play we have the insight to get to the next level of a successful and well supported business.
There are all types of client/attorney agreements that can be made between the two as far as services and fees. Typically, like any other profession, if you pay them they will work. It's just a matter of how much they "require," and how much you can comfortably afford. The best thing to do is a Google search on local Entertainment Lawyers and see what pop's up. Always, and we mean always, ask for references and look at online reviews. This could potentially save you a massive headache down the road.
Last item, always ask if the first consult is free. Some lawyers are willing to give you as much time as you need during the first consult in order to get you back the second. Create a basic list of legal questions you need answered and fire at will.
Check out a more specific breakdown of what service an Entertainment Lawyer can provide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_law
We hope you learned something in this blog, we certainly did.
Have a great night
BSMG Staff
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