780 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 80 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2022
Although we have an enormous business here, we very rarely consult
lawyers. We only do so when there is really a legal difference or legal difficulty,
whilst it seems to me that you employ them practically in every
instance.
Lawyers are not business people, however large a lawyer’s experience
may be, in the conduct of business he is absolutely useless. A lawyer placed
at the head of a concern, would soon bring the business to rack and ruin.
He is not a creative genius, he is able to give his opinion, if a case is laid
before him, but to ask a lawyer to draw up a contract for you is a most foolish
thing to do, as this is bound to lead to trouble. Our custom here is to draw
up a contract before having seen the lawyer and then to ask him to put it in
a more legal shape. Such a contract is more likely to embody the spirit of
what has been agreed upon than one drawn up by the lawyer; to ask his
opinion as to what you should do or not do is the worst possible way of conducting
business, which should be kept as far as possible from the lawyers.
It seems to me from your letter as if the lawyers are a kind of department
to your business. Their idea that we should be inclined to give them a fixed
fee is absurd, but what astonishes me most is their proposal that you should
make an arrangement by which one member of their firm should give practically
his entire time to the conduct of our affairs. We would never think of
such an arrangement. We do not wish a lawyer to give his entire time to our
business. We have not got daily disputes, neither do we want to create them.
A lawyer is absolutely unfit as a businessman, he is to give us advice if trouble
arises and if you employ him, say 6 times a year, this can be considered
the average maximum. I do not think we employ a lawyer many more times
and our total lawyer’s bill here is considerably less than yours. Messrs. Rice
& Lyons’ statement that at the present time the daily routine business of
our Company consumes the time and efforts of one member of their firm,
is a revelation to me. How can you conduct business in such a way! I hate
to see a lawyer in our office, if I want him I go to his office and limit the conversation
to the shortest possible period. Allowing a lawyer to be practically
in daily touch with me, would certainly take 90% of my time which ought
to be devoted to money making and not to discussing legal squabbles or
legal phraseologies.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) H. W. A. Deterding