Lawyer Helps Businesses Save Money on Legal Fees?

Attorney Stephen Furnari created an online free mini course that he calls "7 Deadly Mistakes That Cost Entrepreneurs Thousands." It is designed to help business owners detect and avoid common legal mistakes so they can be more successful in business.

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 22, 2006 -- Lawyers who help businesses are common. But a lawyer who wants to help businesses save money on legal fees? It seems almost counter-intuitive.

Stephen Furnari is a business organization lawyer in New York who is doing just that. Furnari created an online mini course that he calls "7 Deadly Mistakes That Cost Entrepreneurs Thousands." It is designed to help business owners detect and avoid common legal mistakes so they can be more successful in business. Furnari currently offers the e-course for free through his firm’s website, at .

“In the excitement of running their companies, business owners frequently make critical legal mistakes that can derail their companies or cost them thousands of dollars to fix,” says Furnari. “Often, these problems could have easily been avoided with minimal investment when they organized their businesses, or before mistakes became major problems. My job as a corporate attorney is to make sure my clients do everything they can to minimize the risks that are within their control and to avoid conflicts that can land them in litigation, or worse. In the long run, clients save money on legal fees.”

Furnari created the course after one of his clients made what he considers an “all too common mistake.” Recently, Furnari’s firm helped a business owner get out of a bad situation with a partner. The client had no partnership agreement and litigation was required to resolve the problem. “Though we eventually negotiated a favorable settlement for our client, the resolution cost him a five figure sum that was considerably more expensive than the preparation of a good partnership agreement when they started doing business.” Just how expensive? According to Furnari, the cost to fix basic legal problems can be up to 20 times more expensive than doing things right from the beginning.

Not surprisingly, the first session of Furnari’s e-course addresses business partners’ failure to document rights and responsibilities. Subsequent sessions range in topic from common intellectual property mistakes to pitfalls related to raising investment capital.

The e-course is also getting positive feedback from non-legal professionals who provide services to businesses. “The course teaches professionals how to spot legal ‘landmines’, which they can then help clients avoid. Clients save money, and the professional becomes a more valuable asset to their client.”

Furnari knows all about the correlation between minimizing controllable risk and success in business. Says Furnari, “I began my law firm in 2002 on a shoestring budget and any one of these mistakes would have shut my business down. I think most entrepreneurs are in a similar situation.”

About Stephen Furnari and Furnari Levine LLP
Stephen Furnari is a corporate and securities attorney with Furnari Levine LLP (). He teaches entrepreneurs how to protect their assets and keep more of the money they make by avoiding costly legal mistakes. He also helps young and growing companies develop funding strategies that enable them to raise more investment money, faster and with greater success so they can focus more time on growing their businesses and accomplishing their financial goals.

Furnari Levine LLP is a place where entrepreneurs, growing companies and the investors who fund them can find sophisticated legal representation by lawyers who are also entrepreneurs.

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