1. A lawyer can become a true business partner – if you know how to structure and handle the relationship.

2. By getting the attorney-client relationship right. You’ll become a smarter consumer of legal services, have a healthier, more productive relationship with your attorney – and begin your climb out of lawyer hell.

3. Before you can learn to love your lawyer, you have to find one. And that’s where many people make their first mistake. Too often, entrepreneurs find their lawyers through personal connections – old college chums, brothers-in-law, board members’ golfing partners.

4. By letting your lawyer set the terms unilaterally is almost certain to end with hard feelings. Let’s say you’ve found an experienced lawyer with loads of small-client sensitivity. Now it’s time to lay down the rules. It’s not as simple as it sounds. Most attorneys will simply hand you a boilerplate retention agreement to sign. DON’T! Letting your lawyer set the terms of the relationship unilaterally is almost certain to end badly, with hard feelings and lots of zeroes on the check to write at the end of the case.

5. You’ll love your attorney-client relationship once you align your attorney’s interests with your own (and that’s a challenge hahaha!) –to make sure your lawyer understands your priorities and what, exactly, you expect.