“…but that’s not what ships were made for.” I recently sat in on a meeting with a company at a crossroads. The two founders had been friends since high school and, usually, they agreed right out of the gate on… Read More
Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
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The Enemy of the Good
Spouses can help you with many things, but only siblings can go way back into your past and remind you of the times when you really screwed up. My sister, who works with me as both a practicing attorney and our… Read More
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The Question of Transferable Value
As a business attorney, one of my most important jobs is to guide clients in the execution of their exit strategy. Long ago, however, I realized that attorneys engaged to assist in this regard are like flowers at a funeral –… Read More
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Deliver Good News Fast, and Bad News Faster
By Michael Lentz, Wagonheim Law Attorney Just over a week ago, Bobby Petrino (the head football coach at the University of Arkansas) was injured in a motorcycle accident. Petrino initially reported that he had been alone in the accident, and that… Read More
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Is IBM Stuck in a Hazard at the Masters?
In two days, the world’s best golfers will tee off at Augusta National Golf Club for this year’s iteration of the Masters. Augusta is the toniest of tony country clubs; extremely expensive and equally selective. It’s also a place steeped in… Read More
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Strength at the Broken Places
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” So wrote Ernest Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms. I think businesses are like that, too. Scan down the membership list of your trade association or take a moment… Read More
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The Benefits of a Flashy Thingy
Yesterday, a client asked me for a neuralizer. Of course, he didn’t call it that. (And why can’t they ever use its correct name?) He used the term Will Smith tagged it with in Men in Black – the “flashy thingy.” By either term,… Read More
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The Luxury of Long Term Thinking
In the early nineteenth century, around 4,000 Quaker families ran 74 Quaker British banks and more than 200 Quaker companies. As Deborah Cadbury writes in her book Chocolate Wars: “For the Quaker capitalists of the nineteenth century, the idea that wealth-creation… Read More
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Iron Fist in a Latex Glove
By Michael Lentz, Wagonheim Law Attorney As a business lawyer with cerebral palsy who generally uses a wheelchair to get around, I can see both sides of the “reasonable accommodation” for disabilities debate in a way that few people can…. Read More
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Knowing When to Say “No”
In all my years of practice, I have never once regretted turning down a prospective client. I have, however, found myself living with the regret of having accepted a client or a case I never should have taken. Now, you… Read More