A lawyer is a wordsmith who answers complicated questions with diligence and ease.


That is a sutra that just came to me.
I have made a one-hour, exploratory consult available (click on initial consult). The hour helps me explore whether I want to represent the client, and helps the client get to know me as well. We canvass the situation and assess whether a full-blown legal consultation will be helpful.
Sometimes people ask about an hourly rate, but many times these one-hour consults come after someone has paid tens of thousands of dollars for some educational holistic health training, certification, or presumed credential. And in the one hour, after they have spent years and drained their bank accounts, our assessment may result in a complete change of mind on their part about the proposed business model or even the business itself. To simplify, think of getting a green, yellow, or red light. Amplify this with all the legal caveats, disclaimers, cautions, and assessed risks.
Today somebody asked, “do I need the full hour if I have but two questions?” A good lawyer would answer that it depends on the questions. But I had a little fun with this. Because if the question is, “what is the good,” that entangled philosophers for centuries. It took Plato a few hundred pages to answer the question, “what is the just society?” And that’s only five words. Or, “what is love?”
It’s all about complexity really. What a good professional does–an attorney, an architect, an engineer, a plumber–is help the layperson assess the level of complexity, and then tackle the problem in the most effective, efficient, and cost-effective fashion. That’s what you’re looking for when evaluating an attorney or any professional. And an initial consult is a good way to do it (understand the term “good” without reference to philosophical analysis). What may seem like two little questions may open up a lot more; on the other hand, a seasoned professional knows when a question is just a toss-away that can easily be framed and addressed.
Michael H. Cohen is a California lawyer, New York attorney, Massachusetts lawyer, and Washington, D.C. lawyer and providing business legal advice to entrepreneurs, and health care law advice to businesses and clinicians in the wellness industry. He represents individual entrepreneurs whose businesses are taking off vertically. He also advises medical spas and integrative medicine clinics, physicians, chiropractors, naturopathic physicians, massage therapists, energy healers, nutritionists and herbalists and others, as well as companies with new technologies including quantum, resonance, and other bio-energy devices. He is also known as a spiritual lawyer, because of his interest in numerous alternative medicine modalities, and in advising entrepreneurs and businesses with legal advice that is grounded yet intuitive. Read the Entrepreneur’s Legal Toolkit for legal issues affecting small, medium, and emerging businesses. To speak with a lawyer about health care law issues pertaining to complementary and alternative medicine, or to consult a business lawyer about legal issues for entrepreneurs and new enterprises that are organizing or seeking investors, contact the Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen today.