Akron/Cleveland Partner John Hill recently appeared on the Greater Akron Chamber's "Dreamers Drivers Doers" podcast, where he discussed common legal missteps that businesses make as they grow.
On the episode, titled "Top 5 Legal Risks Growing Companies Overlook," Mr. Hill engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with Greater Akron Chamber CEO and President Steve Millard.
Mr. Hill and Mr. Millard discussed how companies have been grappling with how best to use evolving artificial intelligence technology. While AI is a useful tool, one misstep that many companies make is over-relying on the technology to make complex business judgments, Mr. Hill observed.
"I think there are things that AI is really good at and will probably get better at, like handling large data sets or spitting out a first draft of a lease or another contract. I think that is going to be good for clients and lawyers. That is going to save time and make things less expensive," he said. "Where I see people getting ahead of themselves and getting into trouble is thinking that AI can do the 'next thing': not just that it can spit out the first draft of the contract, but that it can make strategic decisions for you, or make judgments or analysis. It's not good at that, and I don't think it's ever going to be good at that."
However, Mr. Hill later added that business leaders who choose to ignore AI do so at their peril.
"I was around when we put computers on our desks for the first time, and when we started using email. I remember the older generation at that point said, 'I don't understand it, I'm not interested, I'll just keep writing letters,'" Mr. Hill said. "At my age now, at this stage of my career, it would be easy to do that with AI, too, but I don't think we can afford to do it. I think this is going to transformational in some ways, as much if not more than computers, email, the Internet. Right now, it's a bit of the Wild West out there.
Another misstep that business leaders make is not taking the time to fully understand governance documents when they first launch their businesses, Mr. Hill said. It is critical for the partners in a business to comprehend these documents, even if they don't anticipate ever having major disagreements down the road, he said.
"Your lawyer should be talking to you at the beginning about the bad-case scenario if you two start fighting," Mr. Hill said.
Mr. Hill recommended that business leaders meet with their lawyers at least once per year to discuss their businesses' growth.
"What you should do is, once a year or once every 18 months, go out to lunch with your lawyer and talk to them and do a bit of an audit," he said. "Plug them into the growth you've had. The point is this: spend $1,500 today to avoid $15,000 or $50,000 after the problem develops.
Mr. Hill also emphasized the importance of business leaders doing diligence on lawyers they engage to handle their litigation work, as there is a significant difference between "litigators" and "trial lawyers."
"Find yourself a trial lawyer and ask that question, 'have you tried cases? How often do you go to court? Because there are a lot of people out there who are litigators and what they do is they take your case, they throw thousands and thousands of hours at it, and they send you $400,000, $500,000, $600,000 worth of bills, and then when it's time to go to trial, they come to you and say, 'this is a worrisome case, and it would probably be smart to settle it,'" he said. "This part of my profession bothers me and has always bothered me. What I would tell the clients is, take control of that relationship. Ask hard questions of your litigation attorney. 'Do we have to do this by the billable hour? Can we do it on some other kind of fee? What are we spending time on? What's our plan for the case?' Et cetera."
"With these bet-the-company cases, you are betting the company, not only on whether you win or lose but sometimes on what it costs to get there," Mr. Hill added.
Mr. Hill is a partner in the Akron and Cleveland offices of Lewis Brisbois and co-chair of the firm's Complex Business & Commercial Litigation Practice. Mr. Hill is known for his uncommon level of jury trial experience for a commercial litigator. He has tried dozens of complex cases to jury verdicts, involving claims of fraud, fiduciary duty, business interference and breach of contract, among other issues. He has served as a "last minute" trial consultant to lawyers and their clients.
Listen to the full episode of "Dreamers Drivers Doers" here.