[Attorney Jaffe]

In the old days, we business lawyers would get a call from a promising entreprenuer when they got to the stage in their start-up when they were ready to lease a brick-and-mortar storefront. When we got that call, we would not only talk about the lease, but introduce the potential client to all the other items that belonged on their new business checklist; business organization (i.e. LLC), sales tax, accounting issues, EIN's, and the list goes on.

In today's Internet world, entreprenuer's don't sign a lease, they buy a domain and a hosting site and their storefront is up and running quickly. However, because they don't need a lawyer to review a lease, they don't realize that they are starting a business without seeking legal representation. There are many items on the new business checklist they don't even know exist.

I get many calls every week from entrepreneurs who are starting an e-commerce site and who want me to help guide their steps. We discuss the domain, their hosting, their merchant account, the Privacy Policy, the TOS, and much more. Generally, these clients will spend less than $1,500 to set up their business and open their web site with sound legal advice.

I am surely not the only lawyer who understand's e-commerce, you have many to choose from. However, I am sure all of them would say that spending some money up front to do things right can save you many thousands of dollars if it is not done right.

[Herb ԿԬ]

not to mention the need to protect intellectual property. and what happens when a single proprietor dies suddenly leaving a valuable domain name and maybe a working ecommerce site.

[Mr. Sal]

Originally Posted by Attorney Jaffe

I get many calls every week from entrepreneurs who are starting an e-commerce site and who want me to help guide their steps. We discuss the domain, their hosting, their merchant account, the Privacy Policy, the TOS, and much more. Generally, these clients will spend less than $1,500 to set up their business and open their web site with sound legal advice.

I am surely not the only lawyer who understand's e-commerce, you have many to choose from. However, I am sure all of them would say that spending some money up front to do things right can save you many thousands of dollars if it is not done right.

Hi Andrew,

The way I see it, so far you're the only one e-commerce attorney posting on ABW and offereing free advice for people here...

(Lawyers jokes aside!)

I think you should be more active here, and take advantage of your free sig to promote your firm more oftem...

[gcarson]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sal

I think you should be more active here, and take advantage of your free sig to promote your firm more oftem...

Agreed. Finding an attorney who knows the IM world can sometimes be tough. Can't just go to anyone. Here's an idea for you that I've seen offered by others in your position (where you're the expert compared 99% of the readers) in other blogs / forums to build a solid reputation (and probably a decent flow of business). Perhaps offer a Q&A thread where you'll try to answer people's simple legal questions for a week.. with the standard legal disclaimers on the first post.