An Insider’s Guide on Hiring a Business Attorney Published

May 10, 2010 - PRLog -- Atlanta, GA – May 10, 2010. Ocelot Atlanta LLC is pleased to announce the publication of An Insider’s Guide on Hiring a Business Attorney (www.businessattorneyguide.com) by veteran Atlanta business litigator and business attorney John L. Watkins.  The book provides a step-by-step guide for business executives and owners to find, evaluate, interview and engage a business attorney. The book also covers the differences between large and small law firms, and issues pertaining to legal fees and alternative fee arrangements. The book also offers tips for working effectively with a business attorney.

Watkins explained that, “In practicing law for over 25 years, it has never ceased to surprise me how many legal issues could have been avoided entirely or minimized if a company had just involved a good business attorney earlier in the process. Many legal disasters are caused by companies trying to go it alone, relying on Internet forms, or trying to re-use legal documents without professional help. Then it dawned on me that many business owners and executives simply do not know how to look for a good business attorney. Sure, they may get a referral at a cocktail party, but that is hardly a reliable method for finding the right business attorney. In researching the available literature, I found nothing really addressing the issue of finding, evaluating, interviewing and hiring a business attorney. So, I wrote the book.”

The book explains that attorneys are not fungible, and simply because an attorney has passed a bar exam does not mean that he or she is capable of acting as a company’s primary business attorney. “If someone is going to be paying money – and sometimes a lot of money – for legal services,” Watkins explained, “it seems to me that some effort ought to be made to check out the lawyer’s background and qualifications. The book explains how to do that.”

Watkins currently practices at Chorey, Taylor & Feil in Buckhead and was previously a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. He has been named to the list of Georgia Super Lawyers for several years in business litigation and was one of the top 100 Georgia lawyers in the Super Lawyers nomination and review process in 2010. He is rated AV by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, its highest rating. He is rated 10.0 by AVVO.com, a lawyer ranking website, its highest rating. He graduated first in his class from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1982.

The Insider’s Guide is available on Amazon.com and through other outlets for a suggested price of $19.99. For more information, go to the book’s website, www.businessattorneyguide.com.

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Ocelot Atlanta is a small specialty publisher in Atlanta. It is the publisher of The Insider's Guide on Hiring a Business Attorney. The book's website can be found at http://www.businessattorneyguide.com