Phoenix Firm Offers Flat Fee Legal Services For Local First Members
Lindsay Leavitt of Gallagher & Kennedy
Lindsay Leavitt, an attorney at the Phoenix-based firm Gallagher & Kennedy, has spent years surrounded by small business owners. As a kid, his dad owned a forklift company. His wife has owned a couple of her own businesses. His brother is a small business owner.
And he has spent years representing small to mid-sized businesses when legal matters arise.
He appreciates the sacrifice, the drive and the stumbling blocks that come with entrepreneurship, which is one of the reasons he’s developed a new fee schedule specifically for Local First Arizona member businesses. He hopes his novel flat-fee approach, covering some of the most common legal issues locally-owned businesses face, makes legal representation accessible and transparent.
“I’ve grown up in that environment,” he said of the entrepreneurs in his immediate orbit. “I feel a special affinity and incentive to help small business owners get through what can be difficult legal issues as cost effectively as I possibly can.”
Some of the issues his new, Local First Arizona-specific fee schedule covers include the formation of a business entity for $550, reviews of commercial lease agreements for $950, or an employee severance agreement for $550 — among other high priority services. As a longtime business attorney, he’s often seen business owners come to him with issues after they become a problem.
He hopes that by setting services at a static fee more business owners will choose a proactive route to tackling legal issues before they escalate.
“The vast majority of disputes between businesses and their lawyers revolve around fees,” he said. “This approach would eliminate any uncertainty or surprise billing or sticker shock that a small business owner gets when they ask a lawyer a question and get a bill for $7,000. It’s very advantageous to a small business owner that has budgets and every penny counts.”
As the firm liaison for Local First Arizona, Leavitt is the person who hears first when a member is in need of legal representation. Most of the time, the need falls into one of a few common areas.
Entity formation and operating agreements.
Leavitt said many business owners aren’t sure how a corporate entity should be formed — if it should be a sole proprietorship or an LLC. And when business divorces occur, many owners don’t have an operating agreement to reference. One of Leavitt’s specialties is handling both of these issues.
“A lot of the time small business owners say, ‘An operating what?’ The only reason anyone looks at them is during a disagreement,” he said. “No business owner starts a business with ‘What happens if I fail?’ We’re all friends now. But when you start becoming successful or unsuccessful, that’s when an operating agreement comes into play.”
Employment issues.
Should an employee be classified as exempt or non-exempt? Should they be a W2 or a 1099 worker?
Leavitt said the most prevalent type of lawsuit in Arizona is unpaid wages, which can point back to the proper classification of an employee from the get-go. It’s why he offers to counsel small business owners on these types of questions.
“I try to do a lot of preventative consulting. Once your employee has already sued you, or the Department of Labor has audited you, it gets really expensive really quickly,” he said. “If they find that an employee has been misclassified, then you’re looking at back taxes and penalties. It can be a nightmare.”
Handbooks, protocols, intellectual property and agreements.
Leavitt said he often hears from employers when a human resources or EEOC issue comes up, and when they do, he asks the employer for their HR policies or employee handbook. Many times employers have neither or are missing some vital aspect they need.
If an investigation is initiated, the agency investigating will first ask for those items.
“A good employee handbook protects the employees and the employers,” he said. “If you don’t have one, you’re behind the 8-ball.”
Leavitt, who also handles trademarks and patents, said he often gets calls when leases or contracts are no longer working for an employer, and by then, he can only help the client within the constraints of the agreement they signed. An up-front review, before any agreement is finalized, offers protection down the road.
“It will be worth it,” he said. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
