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This week, Interise alumni are engaging in Ask an Expert: Law in Small Business, learning from the Baltimore program instructor Nicole Cober, Esquire. Small business owners often think needing an attorney means their business is in trouble, but Cober wants to break this stereotype and show that it is important to have an attorney before something goes wrong. She is discussing what small business owners should seek counsel for, as well as best practices for communicating effectively with counsel, how to hire, and when small business owners need full time staff within their counsel.

What Business Owners Are Asking about Legal Matters

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“So much of small business touches areas of the law that are relevant to compliance. Whether it be employees that you hire, marketing and advertising laws, regulatory issues, or real estate. Think of an attorney as an advisor or counselor. A wise business owner wants to be proactive in putting a lawyer on their team before they need a lawyer on their team.

I’d encourage business owners to stop thinking of only needing a lawyer after your in trouble, but thinking of them as an advisor at the beginning of a decision-making process. You will save a lot of money, time and heartache working with a lawyer in a “counselor” role rather than a litigation role.” – Nicole Cober, Esquire.

Interise’s Ask an Expert series is facilitated by the Interise Continual Engagement program and occurs every month for an entire week. Continual Engagement refers to the programs and resources that Interise offers to alumni of the StreetWise ‘MBA’TM curriculum. It is also a way that Interise works to support partners’ organizational capacity – they can implement programs or best practices from the Interise Continual Engagement team, or gain inspiration to create something that works best for their respective community.

For more, check out Interise’s StreetWise ‘MBA’TM, a game changing capacity-building program recognized by the World Bank and the US Federal Reserve.