To take three random examples:-
acquiring something: you're thinking of buying, leasing, hiring, receiving something of value. I'll do deep due diligence on relevant things and people; arrange and coordinate inspections, authentications, examinations, evaluations, valuations, insurance (brokers, insurers, claims handlers), transport, delivery, examination, receipt, after-sales recourse, documentation, etc. (I never handle any transaction money)
transferring something: you're thinking of selling, leasing, licensing, lending, donating, gifting something of value. I'll assist on the whole process on the lines of the above
'Do I really need a lawyer?' Here you find yourself in an intricate situation where you think, suppose or assume that you might want or need a lawyer. Not so fast!
Unless you're fully and firmly in control of that — presumably serious, technical — situation comprehensively from the outset, you are putting yourself, your affairs and your wallet at multiple risk most reprehensibly.
It will not do to strut around looking for a lawyer and expect, invite, permit or hire him to dictate to you what you want or ordain for you what you need. Before you throw yourself at a lawyer, you simply must master your own situation for yourself. You must do the dictating.
Such mastery, which must at all times be on a continuing real-time basis, requires detailed data-dependent analyses, examinations, assessments, simulations, timelines, flowcharts, costings, gross valuing and net valuing per issue and overall. Then you can rationally assess and determine exactly who and what you do and don't want and need, and draft the detailed technical job description.
If you don't dominate your own situation on these lines, you are at risk of being eaten alive on all sides, and rightly so.
This business of taking the trouble to fully grasp your own case, hopelessly neglected, misunderstood and mismanaged, is a big deal. I have a book on it in the works: Get A Grip On Your Own Lawyer. It takes you through the whole process from your initial egomanic fantasy of hiring a lawyer to then sensibly, rationally analysing your own situation — the very first step — to then slamming the door in the lawyer's face on your way out when, having been recklessly hired, he then screws you (and on that subject, I have another book, Lawyer Rackets: see the about me page).
You don't have to do any of this on your own. Consider retaining a neutral, independent, loyal, detached, retired-lawyer problem-solver like MrRigorous.pro to help you with every general and technical step, including that essential repeated step back to assess the whole thing in perspective.
Some thinking on two hypothetical examples:-
AN ART TRANSACTION: Let's say you want to privately buy an outstanding painting you have set your heart on — maybe of a rainy evening in Paris by Edouard Cortès (1882-1969), or a Renoir (1841-1919).
Art, like other precious objects, can be a dangerous proposition and must be approached cautiously.
Provenance cannot be vouchsafed just because your seller bought it at an allegedly reputable auction house: the seller at that auction might have stolen the picture and then consigned it to a 'darling' luvvie on the take at the auctioneer.
Before you commit yourself to buying or not buying anything, you bring me in to provide a Mr Rigorous.pro package. I'm going to do deep due diligence on everything to do with this picture and on the relevant financial and other circumstances of a relevant number of generations of sellers, such as (to take a few examples):-
is it authentic
was the previously used art expert authentic or was he another phony on the take
let's now find the best appraisers who have written books about the artist and are used by the best galleries and the toniest collectors
forget about value, let's investigate prices, especially if it's a private sale
why is the seller selling
why is the proposed sale private
is it worth you exploring buying, and then buying, title or other insurance before you buy
let's find the best possible broker and the best policy from the most appropriate insurer
let's investigate the broker's record, the insurer's claims handling and claims paying record etc.
let's put a few sensible precautions in place in case the seller turns out to be a fraud and the picture is problematic
let's find insurance for your custody of the picture
let's find some classy wallpaper and picture lights
let's get the picture copied and put the original in the safe, etc etc.
Every penny, every detail of the exercise is managed minutely. You know everything in real time.
AN INHERITANCE SITUATION: Let's say you're an heir of a fondly remembered friend now dead. One of your co-heirs is a rogue — your dead friend's business colleague — in league with the executor. The executor is a piously corrupt lawyer criminal who has infiltrated the estate by concealing her criminal past and lying about her competence, expertise, experience and intentions.
An executor of this estate is under a duty to expertly conduct and conclude all the testator's unfinished front-office business, which includes pursuing the rogue co-heir for massive theft of your dead friend's assets and cash, and only you know about all that
Being idiopathically criminal, and in a criminal conspiracy with the rogue, naturally she does all she can to exclude, discard and discredit you as her sole source of information against the rogue co-heir (who revealed himself to the executor early on by agreeing to give her a cut of the estate if she would look the other way, which pleased her immensely because she's already a pristine criminal sociopath)
Let's say all this is set in a jurisdiction where litigation against a criminal executor and a criminal co-heir is prohibitively expensive and surreally speculative, where judges are corrupt, where court rules positively invite criminal applications to the court, and where the court is more likely to side with a deadbeat executor shyster who happens to be a lawyer than with an anxious uniquely informed innocent lay heir (and your own calamitous lawyers)
Before you do anything, you bring me in to provide a Mr Rigorous.pro package. I'm going to go to town on everyone and everything
I'll be looking into and digging up stuff about every mortal detail of the entire affair, with a view to exposing and pursuing the rogue and the executor, and recovering the stolen assets, and setting things right. This might involve a number of steps and stages.
I'll handle the whole thing for you, including the most intrusive inquiry into the background and foreground of lawyers who might or might not be suitable to handle specific particular legal points for you. Every penny, every detail of the exercise is managed minutely. You know everything in real time.
For example (at the risk of repetition):-
deep due diligence: say you have rationally formed the rational conviction that you simply must hire a lawyer (you might be right, or not). You might come a cropper even on a relatively simple legal situation: lawyers are not what they used to be (if they ever were). Or you seek a decent accountant, financial planner or asset manager. Or you're thinking of buying — investing in — something apparently genuine that seems to you to apparently be of real net value. You might have heard of due diligence. I doubt you have come across Mr Rigorous's deep due diligence. (I will give you data, tools and techniques to help you make genuinely informed decisions, incuding in relation to what we know we don't know, and then it's up to you: I will never make decisions for you, recommend any service provider or transaction, or concur in your decision to hire anyone or transact anything.)
investigations: say you have an ongoing situation of some kind, and want to get to the bottom of what's really going on, wherever in the world (with some obvious exceptions). If within my capabilities, I can handle that
reports: give me the data, and I'll deconstruct, reconstruct, examine, analyse, evaluate and value any situation of any kind within my capabilities. I will deliver periodic and final reports, and work with and make presentations to lawyers, accountants, auditors, private investigators, law enforcement, judges etc
monitoring: any relationship, any situation, any problem, any affairs or state of affairs: if it's within my range, I'll keep a watchful eye on it for you
translating, decoding, deciphering: we've all been subjected to gudda, jargon and gibberish from idiot lawyers who cannot or will not express themselves clearly. Often their nonsense is deliberate, to conceal ignorance, incompetence, dysfunction and criminality. I can help you cut to the chase. I absolutely will not tolerate any nonsense from any lawyer in relation to anything.
regular reviews: we can convene periodically — say, once a month — and chew over every atom of your relevant business for good order, including the activities (and billing) of service providers such as lawyers, accountants, fund managers etc.
intermediary: talking and making detailed presentations to individuals (eg lawyers, creditors, debtors, family members) or groups (eg family, heirs) with whom you (for whatever reason) would rather not or cannot deal directly; expounding, advocating and negotiating points on your behalf; eliciting their positions, situations and concerns. This might sometimes amount to informal conciliation, reconciliation or mediation in relation to problems more human than legal. (I'm no accredited mediator. It would just be calm, approachable, rational, tactful no-nonsense MrRigorous.pro at work on your behalf.) As anyone who knows me will tell you, I know how to talk — generally and technically — to receptive people of diverse types. As the case requires, I can be charming, and I can be robust.