New York, NY business attorney Richard S. Green talks about some of the most common and avoidable legal mistakes businesses make. The discussion often begins with the issue of clients not consulting with lawyers early enough. An early consultation with a lawyer is akin to preventive medicine—it’s far better to address potential problems at the outset and understand the direction in which the case is headed than to deal with them later.

Clients can sometimes be overly optimistic about their expectations of counterparties. One of the toughest consequences clients face is overestimating the capabilities or performance of those counterparties. When the counterparty fails to meet expectations, clients often become disappointed and turn to lawyers, asking them to find a legal reason to address the issues they have encountered.