What A Lawyer Can and Can’t Do For You and Your Business
Or, how attorneys are like TikTok filters
In the seven years I spent representing the Crown and individual clients as a lawyer in Canada, I ran headlong into several common misunderstandings about what exactly I could and couldn’t do as counsel. And while I spent my time in criminal law handling the prosecution and defense of criminal charges, the lessons I learned are applicable to all kinds of lawyer-client relationships, including those between your company and your lawyer and those that arise from routine (or exceptional) business transactions.
So, without further ado, here are four of the things a lawyer cannot do for you and your business — and one thing they can.
A lawyer can’t lie for you or your business
The notion that a lawyer can lie for their clients is, in my experience, the single most common misconception about my former profession. In reality, a lawyer is strictly prohibited from misrepresenting the truth, about their client or about any other matter, before any tribunal or court and in communications to any involved party.
That means that a lawyer can’t misrepresent the nature or quality of your business during a contract negotiation. A lawyer can’t use an affirmative…
