I AM THE LAW - Do I Need a Lawyer?

Last week we talked about Agents, and asked ‘As an Independent Producer, Do I Need One?’ - so, today let’s ask the same of the Lawyers. Do I need a lawyer?

‘In the beginning there were lawyers. And it was good. And value for money’

At least that’s how the revised draft came back.

Of course, I hadn’t even asked for a revision, but the lawyer suggested the original was “far too open to broad interpretation” and this way at least the other side don’t get everything they want.

So, this is the main issue with the dark art of the lawyer. They have the capacity to manipulate reality in ways that you could never have even conceived of previously. They also have the capacity to talk out of their collective rear-ends.

Lawyers will all tell you that we all definitely need to hire one of them - mainly because they fill the world with incomprehensible documents which only lawyers can understand.

So for this reason alone, given that the UN haven’t yet passed the ‘Send All Lawyers off to Live in the Arctic - with no coats on’ Bill yet, I think it’s safe to say ‘YES, you need one’.

So that’s out of the way. That was easy. But, what do you need to know about lawyers?

Before you cry “you better be going somewhere with this, Councilor”, first let me tell you where a lawyer fits in the food-chain of my work as an independent producer, and what it is he does.

There are four areas where we work closely with our lawyer; 1) ‘Optioning’ material, (‘buying a book’ or arranging a co-production deal with other producers who have ideas we want to make), 2) Negotiating contracts with networks for shows we’ve sold, 3) Employment Contracts with cast and crew, and 4) General legal compliance issues for shows we make.

Stay with me - this really IS as genuinely brain-numbing as it sounds. But, stay with me, because this is VERY hard learned stuff which I hope will save you and give you more time to spend reading John Grisham books or watching Law and Order. And I promise I’ll put in a joke somewhere. Or a picture of Waldo.

So - how do we use a lawyer?

First, we’ll use our lawyer to secure the rights to the show we want to make. If it’s a show we’ve created in-house we wouldn’t bother him with this, but if we’re working with a producer who has come to us with a show we want to make, or if we want to get the rights to a book, or someone’s life, we’ll ask him to draw up and negotiate the contract. (More on Contracts next week… oooh goody!).

Before we’ve even started production on a show, before we’ve even shot the pitch tape, we’ll call our lawyer and tell him about the idea. We’ll tell him the areas we think will cause us problems in future, or need some more advice on. You don’t need to have spent any time at Harvard to know that getting it wrong at this stage can potentially kill your show’s chances of ever being sold to the risk averse networks - let alone getting your show actually made.

For instance, we have one show which deals in part with school-aged children. If we’re going to be taken seriously by a network when we pitch the show to them we need to show that we’re a responsible company, and we’re a team who know the terrible litigious future that lay in store should we screw up legally right at the start.

So, we need to know the current laws on putting these children on television, we need to know what legal deep water we’re getting into in terms of getting their releases signed (with divorced parents, or custody battles, what used to be simple release forms are fast become prime time-wasting country), and what extra bits of paperwork would be useful to make our case should anything ever go to court.

Also, we ask the lawyer to play devil’s advocate and give us a list of possible recriminations from the children, their families or schools should anyone take issue with how we portray the any of them in the show and we listen to his suggested ways out should it get that far. That way we can spout his answers when the network exec inevitably asks us these same questions in the pitch meeting. Yes, we get to sound smart. That’s worth his fee alone.

Essentially, we go in wide-eyed, full of optimism that we can and will find a way around any potential issues - but with the very grown up attitude that we must cover our asses.

If we’re casting a show we’ll ask him to take a look at our ‘standard’ Host Shopping Agreement, the one we use when signing up any potential hosts for any show, to see if it needs amending to cover this specific show.

Then, assuming the networks LOVE the idea, our agents will negotiate the broadstrokes of the deal with the network, then hand over the negotiations to the lawyer to work out the full, ’short and long form contract’ with the network’s business affairs department.

In short, I use my lawyer for anything that might one day cause me to go to prison.

It’s a well oiled machine.

But here are the spanners that frequently screw up that machine.

1) Lawyers are expensive. Yes, of course, they’ll save you money if it all goes to hell. But, just like my solar-powered jet-pack, while I bet it’ll save me super-amounts of cash in the long run, until then I’m forking out a LOT more money than I ever thought I would be. I’ve heard of producers paying around $400 for writing a single letter.  (To be fair, it was a whole 2 pages. Double spaced).

2) Lawyers are busy. Very busy, mainly on other people’s work - and the better the lawyer you get, the busier with other people’s stuff they’ll be.

3) Not only are busy lawyers less easy to pin down, but busy lawyers are often also not fully concentrating on your contract even when they’re looking right at it. They miss things. Even the best miss things in my experience.

So, here are the some things that I’ve picked up along the way to remove spanners or limit their damage.

First, find a lawyer who charges by commission, not by the hour. They’re out there, and if your lawyer agrees, you’ll know they’re invested in you and your future. That’s a great sign because it means they’re inent on keeping you OUT of prison. That’s a good thing. (Expect to pay somewhere in the region of a 3-5% fee. This will be on top of the 10% fee you’re paying your agent).

A lawyer might even agree a ‘buy out’ fee per project - a flat rate. I know this happens with feature films sometimes. But KNOW what you’re paying, don’t be shy. Ask, be clear. Get it in writing.

When you meet a lawyer you like, try to arrange a lunch or coffee date at least once a month - just 10 minutes of face time will keep you on their mind.

Know what really is important to you in any deal - make a 5 point list - give it to your lawyer BEFORE they start negotiating the contract. (We always assume that your lawyer understands innately what you want, but they won’t know unless you tell them).

Read EVERY line of EVERY contract. Make the time. Ask questions, look up strange Latin phrases on Wikipedia, most of them are up there. But, you’re just going to have to face it, if you’re in the business of working with the law, you’re going to have to brush up on your Jonny Cochran skills.

If you don’t like the look of something in the contract - ask to have it changed. That is, after all the whole point of this. Despite what you might end up telling people when you’re desperately trying to get them to sign something, there IS NO SUCH THING as a standard contract.

Keep tabs on your lawyer - send nicely worded update emails letting him know the status of your projects - which are in reality thinly veiled prompts to publicly remind him what he’s not yet done.

Be very open about tactics with your lawyer - try to make them see you and include you as part of the team. I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is for lawyers to go rogue, doing what they think is what you want - but which might be miles from what you really want. This also goes for your long term goals - giving your lawyer context REALLY helps them negotiate a contract.

For instance, telling your lawyer that your priority in the next six months is to sell a series to BRAVO will really help him know how easy to go on the Bravo business affairs people. If you tell your lawyer your priority in the next six months is to get the message out there that you’re a really expensive company who cost a lot of money to work with - you can see how the negotiating would be different. But all too often this simple idea is not thought of as relevant and weeks (I’m serious WEEKS) of time are wasted going down expensive wrong roads.

Don’t be scared to look stupid. It’s ok - you’re in TV, everyone thinks that already - what have you got to lose? Ask questions, go through the contract line by line if you have to, ask your lawyer to send you a one sheet ‘plain English’ summary, or ask his assistant to email you a glossary of terms they use a lot.

Don’t expect things to move fast. They really don’t. We just had a contract completely signed this week - four months after we’d shot the presentation tape, been paid for it and screened it to the board of the network, and almost eight months after the first handshake over the deal. Make a sock puppet, or write your Holiday cards rather than waste a second worrying about it getting done. There is NOTHING , NOTHING you can do to make people think you’re imporant. You’re not, (at least not when compared to who and whatelse they’re up to ).

I’ve been wracking my brain for a good funny anecdote about a lawyer, and I genuinely cannot think of one that I’m able to laugh at. A legal screw up at this early stage will leave you damaged, exposed and quite possibly horribly exploited. Being screwed will leave you bitter, or allow you to blame someone when your career falls apart… “If it wasn’t for that STINKING lawyer at Screwum-Bleedum-Cleenum and Leeve, I’d have sold Survivor first!”.

So, do your homework, keep good notes, file things neatly - keep everyone talking and above all - don’t be scared of lawyers. You need them. They need you. Like a lion tamer and his lions - when it works it all looks effortless and wonderful.

But get it wrong and you become just another unfortunate limbless lion tamer.