“Why don't you go to the doctor to have that checked?” my wife asked me one Saturday, when she saw some suspicious spot on my back.
“I've already tried several times to book an appointment with a dermatologist, but the first available slot I found is in about half a year,” I replied.
“So go to the family doctor to have a look at it,” she shot back.
“You already know the answer,” I said. “He'll tell me that a specialist doctor needs to look at it.”
That ended the discussion. And why am I writing about this? Because I remembered that conversation after a conversation I had this week with a potential client, Kobi.
Kobi wanted to buy an apartment abroad. He found an Israeli company that buys second-hand apartments in a European capital, renovates them for clients and then rents them out. He saw an apartment in a heritage building, with high ceilings and a small balcony overlooking a neighborhood park, which charmed him, and he decided to buy it. Since he understands he needs legal support, he did a Google search and came to us. He opened the conversation by stating that he wasn't sure at all why he was calling because he has a brother who is a lawyer, but he had read a bit online and my name popped up, so he was calling. Later in the conversation he explained to me that he intended to buy an apartment in a European country through an Israeli marketer.
Kobi did not ask legal questions, and most of the conversation revolved around the fee for the legal support. The amount I quoted sounded expensive to him. I tried to explain to Kobi that I deal with the sale and purchase of properties in the country where he intends to buy the apartment as a matter of routine. I know developers operating in the country, Israeli marketers operating in it, and also the company from which he intends to buy. But Kobi was only interested in the price.
“You're all lawyers, and there's no difference between one lawyer and another,” he told me at some point in the conversation, which led me to part ways with him.
As noted, this week Kobi called me again. I admit that at first I refused to take his call, and only after he tried several times did I agree to take it (deep inside I was still angry at Kobi and at his inability to understand that experience in my field matters).
The conversation this time was conducted in a different tone on Kobi's part. Since our last conversation he had tried to use the legal services of his brother to buy the apartment. Kobi's brother is a lawyer who works in real estate, but with no experience in real estate transactions abroad. It turns out that Kobi's brother presented demands that the company and its lawyers could not accept, whether concerning security or wording, such as the basic understanding that the agreement must be signed before a local notary to be valid, as is customary in many countries, or the demand to receive bank guarantees. Kobi shared with me his frustration and his discomfort at taking his brother out of the picture and transferring the handling of the apartment purchase to our office.
“You don't go to a dental hygienist to have a filling done,” I told him, “and you consult a cardiologist when you have heart problems and don't settle for the family doctor. It's exactly the same in our field. There is such a thing as focusing on a particular field and experience in it, and not every lawyer knows how to handle every legal matter.”
“So what do I do now?”
“The right way is to take the handling of the deal out of your brother's hands and pass it to someone who will know how to close the deal for you,” I replied. “I don't see another way. If you bring us in as an additional party it will only cause friction with your brother, between us and him and later also between you and him.”
Over the years I stopped trying to “educate” clients, because I understood that in the end they will learn it the hard way, and they probably need to go through the process. As in every field, experience in the specific field matters, and the price of the legal service is not everything, especially since experience shows that in the end relying on the services of a lawyer experienced in the field will save money and costs in the long run.
As lawyers who accompany international transactions, we have accumulated knowledge of what works and what doesn't, which security is customary in the different countries and what can and cannot be obtained from the developer/contractor. We know the mentality, including that of the lawyers in the countries where we operate, and we know how to raise arguments with them and which terms to use when we write an agreement or draft comments on an agreement. We have local offices/partners who can pick up the phone to the developer's/contractor's lawyer and speak to him in his language, and sometimes clarify points and/or disputes, which will save money or time.
The experience, the connections, the “political” ability and the familiarity with local rules - are worth more money! Just like a good mortgage consultant who knows whom to approach at which bank and which branch to increase your chance of getting a mortgage and getting better terms.
Kobi decided to keep the “peace at home” but came to a consultation meeting, and received a short, condensed lesson on how the apartment purchase process works in the specific country, in the hope that he would manage to steer his brother to finish the negotiations and buy the coveted apartment.
Stories are based on real situations, with identifying details changed. Not legal advice.
Translated from the Hebrew original. עברית