What to Consider Before Hiring General Counsel

Attorneys have to deal with a litany of issues where business operations are concerned, and what your company needs is a team that knows a little about what might seem like an impossibly broad amount of hospitality law, employment law, and a great deal more. One person may not be able to cover as much as the job might take, but here are some factors you would be smart to consider prior to adding to your team of lawyers.

How well can they explain risk?

Being proactive is essential where lawyering is concerned. Attorneys have to think about and deal with a great deal of issues, and acting quickly can mitigate a bit of the risk involved with daily operations. That could be anything from lawsuits, which you would expect, to something like insurance issues after a spill or weather emergency.

You need an attorney who comes in for an interview with at least a cursory idea of the issues that might impact your business. If you have possible issues that might be tied to weather or something else relatively unique, it may be better to consider hiring someone who is local or native to the area, since they may be familiar with the law and history that could help lessen that learning curve a bit.

What factors might be unique to your sector of hospitality or your region?

Think about the ways that issues outside of your control could put your business in harm’s way. If you’re hiring immigrants on a work visa, the ideal candidate should be aware of how the country is handling that work visa and that might impact your workforce.

Perhaps he cannot vocalize all of the granular details, but that at least could mean the candidate is thinking already about where his expertise might aid a business. In Florida, one of the chief concerns could be how the hotel system deals with its insurance folks in the event of some catastrophe.

What do you already have in-house?

A large enough business will have a team of lawyers who deal with any number of issues. If that’s the case, it’s common that one attorney might have expertise in one place, while another member of the team has expertise elsewhere.

If you pay attention, there’s a chance to bring an area of expertise that you didn’t have before via a new candidate. One person doesn’t have to know everything, and a team can help hold each other up if one is faltering.

Does this candidate have any experience with students?

If your hotel is close to a law school, or if it has some connections with one, there may be a chance to give students a chance to work at your business during the academic year. Not only is it a good way to find good, cheap talent to help, but finding an attorney when you need one might be easier once that student graduates.

Having a connection with a local institution can also help bringing business in a litany of ways, which is smart whether you get the cheap student labor or not.