Episode 12: Business Attorney Blair Jackson of Jordan Law – Full Transcript

Blair Jackson 0:00
Sure, and if you don’t do it, and if you don’t have an attorney, craft that for you than a courts going to decide that for you. And as you and I know as veterans of the court system, sometimes we agree with their decisions. Sometimes we don’t

Narrator 0:16
picture a world where costs down, profits are up, and customers are clamoring at your door you’re listening to. Let’s get up to business from Jordan. Out interviews with business owners, service providers, and area experts can teach you how to create a world of success and profitability. If you’re looking for an attorney to assist in your business formation, employment agreements, or other legal business needs, contact Jordan law at 40790655 to nine You can also reach us on the web

Jordan law fl.com Jordan law, we protect you and your business.

Jordan Ostroff 1:12
Hello, and welcome to Let’s get up to business. Joining me today is a very special guest. Blair Jackson, one of our non Equity Partners here Jordan law. Please introduce yourself Blair.

Blair Jackson 1:24
Sure, Blair Jackson, been a practicing attorney here in Central Florida for 27 plus years. I’ve had the great honor of teaching at Barry law school, various courses, as well as Rollins college, Cromer School of Business, and UCF, primarily, business courses. So thanks for having me. Of course, happy to have you

Jordan Ostroff 1:45
at the firm and on the podcast. Thank you. So we actually started the first one, I sort of mock interviews myself, so it’s been, it’s a lot easier after we did that the one time to have somebody else come in and talk to good. So, um, I know you said, You’ve been an attorney for 27 tell everybody a little bit more about what kind of work you do.

Blair Jackson 2:03
Well, consistently, I’ve worked in the courtroom, I started at the public defender’s office, here in Orange County, and did everything from, you know, misdemeanors to felony work, I worked at various firms where I’ve done a lot of litigation work. And that’s where I learned to sort of, you know, add civil litigation and civil matters as arrows in my quiver, I guess, from a practice perspective. And, and I also had the opportunity to do a lot of transactional work, took all that and ran my own practice for a long period of time. Successful practice, but I was also teaching at the same time, and to be honest with you, I sort of appreciate the team approach, more than I do just, you know, being out on my own. And I like the idea of bouncing ideas off of people like yourself, and, and different things bullet at at our firm. So, um, you know, with that in mind, I very much wanted to be part of a good team. And obviously, very pleased to be here and working with all of you.

Jordan Ostroff 3:13
I appreciate that. So can you tell our listeners, what is the major areas of practice that you have here at Jordan law?

Blair Jackson 3:19
Yes, I’m handling, you know, primarily business litigation, as well as transactional work in starting a company, you know, filing articles of incorporation, or as an LLC, and putting together contracts for startup companies and existing companies, but also keeping a hand in, in the federal criminal defense primarily, but also, you know, crimes of a more serious nature, I suppose, primarily white collar crimes.

Jordan Ostroff 3:54
So he’s interesting to me, you know, when we first talked to people about doing the criminal and business stuff, everybody kind of look sideways. But now the longer we do it, the more we realize there’s a huge intersection between those two areas of law, fortunately, or unfortunately, I think

Blair Jackson 4:06
so too. Yeah, definitely. You have a lot of, you have a lot of situations where you don’t know if it’s a criminal matter or civil matter until you talk to the person. And it can sort of be a fine line really, when when you sort of take the facts apart on that.

Jordan Ostroff 4:22
So obviously, you know, our contact information is going to be 407-906-5529. That’s 407-906-5529. Our website is Jordan, la fl.com. That’s FL is in Florida. And Blair if somebody wants to get contact with you directly, what’s your email address,

Blair Jackson 4:40
email address at the firm is Blair, at Jordan law, FL. com. Or I can also be reached at BTJ at Blair Jackson law calm and happy to respond to other phone calls or emails.

Jordan Ostroff 4:57
Alright, so let’s get into the nitty gritty here, what we’re going to do, we’ll do kind of a brief overview of business law, we’ll walk through kind of the different stages that somebody could need some lawyer assistance and the help that we can add. And then I want to finish focusing on some, some targeted information, some of our FAQ that we’ve got from a lot of our business clients. Alright, so walk me through, I guess, the first time somebody can come to us would be before they’ve ever started a business. Right? Right. All right, and so walk me through kind of the benefit that we can provide to somebody at that stage?

Blair Jackson 5:29
Well, we certainly want to have an understanding of what type of business it is, because their needs will largely depend on or to a great extent will depend on what type of business they’re in. So is there some type of regulatory scheme that they have to be aware of, you know, things of that nature, I always ask them if they have a company name, because obviously, it’s important that they don’t have a name that somebody else already has proprietary interest in, want to find out the, the, you know, the amount of people, employees, other owners partners are going to be involved in the business, so I can help them figure out, which is the best corporate entity to work under. So it’s, you know, primarily, I want to find out everything I can about their business. So I can help shape it both from a, you know, a legal standpoint, in other words, just getting them Incorporated, getting their contracts together, and, and, you know, other documentation that’s important for them to be up and running. But also, you know, figuring out how best to serve them, to help them grow their business, and, you know, they’re, they’re different, you know, things in terms of documentation and so forth, that we would want to look at, to determine that. Are they a one person operation? Four or five people, you know, and and what type of business that are in.

Jordan Ostroff 6:59
And so we’re talking about what a half an hour to hour long conversation to kind of get that overview, and then you can do a more targeted proposal for

Blair Jackson 7:07
what other documents they may need or whatnot. Sure, you know, and a lot of people will come in, and they think that they can give you, you know, I’m only going to take 10 minutes of your time, but then I’m asking a lot of follow up questions, because I really want to find out, you know, the things that they are anticipating will make their business tick their concerns, and sometimes it takes a few probing questions on my part to to really get to that point.

Jordan Ostroff 7:32
Well, and I know, in the past, we’ve been able to help out, you know, when some people are missing, find out financial backing when they’re missing, you know, key players, we can always kind of put them in touch with some of our other referral sources to help them from that standpoint. Sure. So what are I mean, I guess, if somebody is catching you that quickly, they can’t really have made that many mistakes. But what are some of the issues or at least maybe the bad ideas that you’re most commonly seeing?

Blair Jackson 8:00
Well, it probably the one mistake, you know, even it’s great to speak to people that are not the subject of litigation already, or their company is and what I see a lot, and sometimes it’s a necessary evil, though, people have to sign personal guarantees, in order to to access loans, so they can have capital for their businesses. And oftentimes, you know, they’re, they’re not really vetting, or really scrutinizing the types of things that are required of them as personal guarantees. Because one of the big advantages to I’m one of the reasons why most people incorporate is because they want the protection of the limited liability, so that you, someone that sues them, can’t get a judgment and go into their personal bank account. But if you sign a personal guarantee, that that’s, you know, that’s going to happen regardless. So a lot of lending institutions, it would be who’s the person to really look at the personal guarantee contract, and making sure that they’re not getting themselves into, you know, a terrible situation from a legal and a financial perspective, by just signing on with the first you know, entity that’s promises them, you know, all kinds of money to seed money for them to start up their business. So

Jordan Ostroff 9:22
was being the personal guarantor, they’re not, they’re not losing the legal protection of the business in total, just for that specific

Blair Jackson 9:30
amount of money. That is correct. Yes, absolutely. So we incorporate them everything else is, you know, that we can shield them from liability, provided that they treat the company as a company, you can’t treat it as, you know, your own personal bank account, or your own personal piggy bank, you know, with regard to, you know, accounts receivable money coming in, and so forth. But, but I do think that the personal guarantee situation, that’s something that I’ve had to deal with on a number of occasions where persons come in, they’re like, I’m starting my business, and I got all this loan money, and then I’m looking at that, because of the default on that, there’s, there’s precious little that we can do to, to protect them. So um, you know, ideally, I’d like to see the person before they even think about how their financing is going to be constructed.

Jordan Ostroff 10:21
Alright, so we’ve got that, you know, we’ve got that about to the business owner, they haven’t signed a personal guarantee, they’ve sat down for the conversation, so walk me through some of the different corporate entities, corporate structures, legal companies that you can put together for them.

Blair Jackson 10:37
Sure. Well, the most standard one is a C Corp. And that that is best applicable. When you have you know, a certain amount of people, I think it’s over five, you know, five employees in the business. Even a lot of what you’re doing, when you’re trying to figure out, figuring out the correct entity is to make is making sure that you putting them in a good situation. From a tax perspective. I’m not a tax attorney, I work with other tax attorneys. But you know, in situations where you’re a sole practitioner, you’re a one man band kind of thing. Sometimes maybe an S corp is the best way to go, because you’re a corporation, but you’re being taxed as a sole proprietor. A lot of people like the flexibility that an LLC or a limited liability company provides. Because that way you can structure your business as you would like. And that’s really ideal for people that are maybe a two or three person business, that also provides favorable tax consequences, a C Corp that if you’re looking to really grow your business, that’s probably the best fit for you. But the tax consequences are a little little bit more severe. So I would tend to one person, I’m looking at an S corp, and all you have to do is make an election within 90 days of incorporating to do that. So it’s a relatively simple process. But it’s probably it’s very difficult for people to kind of do that on their own, I know that there’s a lot of, we see a lot of ads for you know, Legal Zoom and different, you know, businesses that can provide you the documentation to try and get it off the ground. But if you don’t have any attorney, you know, sort of that knows what they’re doing maybe guiding you in the right direction with regard to that, and taking into account the type of business you have, that I think you’re serve poorly by just saving money and filing your own documentation.

Jordan Ostroff 12:50
Alright, so let me jump in there for a second. So S corp and C Corp, that’s going to be a little bit separate from the legal entity, right?

Blair Jackson 12:58
Yes, yeah. It’s, well, that that is that that’s your corporate entity.

Jordan Ostroff 13:04
Okay. And so for an S corp, you’re going to get passed through taxation. For her C Corp, you’re going to tax it both the corporate level and the personal level. But the benefit, but C Corp has some benefits. In certain circumstances, there are certain types of businesses that have to do a C Corp. If you ever want to go sell stock, it has to be a C Corp. I mean, those sorts of things, right? That’s

Blair Jackson 13:23
exactly right. Yes,

Jordan Ostroff 13:24
then an LLC, or a limited partnership, or a general partnership, those are going to be separate from the C Corp or escort destinations.

Blair Jackson 13:34
Correct? Yes, and, you know, not a big fan, obviously, the general partnership, because, you know, you’re both tied together, you know, and without, you know, any liability protection. And, you know, the rules in the state of Florida and, and a lot of in a lot of states, their default provisions that set profits, losses, how capital is distributed for you, unless you have a partnership agreement, or these types of operating agreements. And so that’s one of the things that I definitely want to work on with my clients to make sure we have a nice tight operating agreement, whatever agreement is for whatever entity we’re setting up, and especially something that contemplates dissolution of the company, because, you know, as you probably know, most people can, and a lot of people come in and say, Well, I’m doing this with my friend, we’re buddies, we’re never going apart. It’s like a marriage, everything’s great. And we’re, you know, our and our company, everybody tries to be off, or most people try to be optimistic by nature, especially if you’re starting a business. And they never think of the the possibility they could lose money and have to dissolve the company, or maybe there’s a death, somebody dies, somebody leaves the company, for some reason. It’s really important, they have a dissolution provision in the agreement. So you know, the big picture is have very specific agreements. And I’m happy to put those together for people so that you don’t leave it to the state of Florida and the court system, to try and figure out what you intended to do if your business needed to be dissolved or separated or so forth.

Jordan Ostroff 15:22
So let me before we get into the kind of the dissolution stuff, let me finish up on the, you know, the choice of entity or whatnot. Sure. So when it goes through those different potentials, I mean, obviously, you can’t be a sole proprietorship with multiple people, we talked about the downside of a general partnership. But for the rest of them, we’re going to go through, you know, what the yearly filing fees are going to be? And what those sort of things are, we’re going to go through the differences in the legal protections for each, we’re going to kind of figure out what’s the best fit for each individual person, or each individual company, I guess, if it’s not just a person, right,

Blair Jackson 15:55
exactly. Right. Yes.

Jordan Ostroff 15:56
Okay. So once that’s important, we got the score for the sequel, we’ve got our limited liability partnership, we’ve got our LLC, we’ve got whatever it is, along those lines, the dissolution provisions, I mean, that’s really going to count when it’s multiple people, right? or multiple entities?

Blair Jackson 16:12
Yes. Well, yeah. And multiple means you have just more than one. So yeah, if you have more than one person in an LLC, or in a business, then there should be some sort of, you know, dissolution provision. And,

Jordan Ostroff 16:26
and a lot of times, we’ll also see multiple legal entities coming together to form another legal entity, a partnership of corporations or whatnot, if you will,

Blair Jackson 16:35
that is correct. Yes. Yeah.

Jordan Ostroff 16:36
So walk me through a little bit about the different dissolution provisions, because, like you said, I mean, I agree with you here. Having that stuff said at the beginning is the best that you can do. You don’t want to have to play catch up six months down the road, or God forbid, play catch up, when you’re already disciplined, you know, dissolving this company. So what are some of the key facts that factor into deciding how to dissolve the partnership if need be? Sure?

Blair Jackson 17:00
Well, and like I said, I think that’s all, you know, primarily comes out of the fact that people that start businesses are optimistic about it, and sometimes don’t even allow themselves to think that the business could fail, or something catastrophic is going to happen. So it’s understand it’s human nature. But what we want to look at is, number one, if you came in with something that you provided to the business, your contribution, how does that work when the businesses dissolved, but who, who ends up taking that capital, some of that money money that’s in reserve? You know, it could be furniture, at the business, any of those types of things? So who leaves with what that’s that’s definitely one issue that you want to look at, you know, are you how do you go about winding up the business. So, you know, will the business entity stay in place, and, you know, you’ll have a wind up provision that will be, you know, certain amount of time, so that you’re still making sure that vendors are getting paid, that other people aren’t put in harm’s way, and you’re not getting sued, as the business is winding up. So some very common sense sort of wind up procedures. And by wind up, I mean, you know, when you’ve decided that the business is going to dissolve, you’re not taking on any new business, but the business entity is still in place, you know, so, and then is sorting out profits and losses? You know, in many respects, a lot of people, you know, the way that I do things would be to work with the individual members, for example of an LLC that’s dissolving, and saying, Okay, well, you get a certain amount of profits, if there are profits to be had from the business. However, that’s offset against, you know, any, you know, debts or loans that you might owe the business. So common sense approach to that. The other thing that I know comes into play a lot, is, you know, what happens if you’ve got a family owned business? Or what happens if there’s a divorce, what happens? One of the parties dies? You know, obviously, if you’ve got a law firm, somebody who’s not a lawyer, it can’t be that high up in the business, but you know, you’re going to automatically have the business get brought over to the spouse who may not know anything about the trucking company, or whatnot. I mean, that’s a big thing for people to consider. Sure. And I always try and dissuade people from doing that. I mean, obviously, it’s, if it’s their business, you know, certainly, that’s, you know, it’s, it’s going to be up to them. And if they insist that that’s the way that they want to written, well, that’s fine. But it probably would make sense to, you know, to, to at least leave it open that it could be managed by some type of manager that would be, you know, appointed by, you know, maybe a majority of the members of the LLC, or something like that, you know. But along those lines, another important thing that you want to do, when you’re setting up a business, is making sure that you you account for situations where there could be deadlock. So anytime you have a, you have to have some sort of mechanism where there’s a tiebreaker for major decisions, otherwise, the company could just basically go into a stalemate, they’re not making any money, they’re on the road to bankruptcy. And deadlock can happen for a number of different reasons, it could be just, you know, major differences about the direction of the business, or it could be personal, you know, you just decide that you don’t like the other person that you’re, you’re in there with, but you know, that you’re part of the business with. So, you know, one important thing, and it’s relatively easy is to come up with some kind of tiebreaker mechanism on major decisions. Or maybe create a supermajority where one person holds two votes, or whatever you want to do for small business, especially in situations where there’s like four owners, or for managers of an LLC, where there could be a deadlock right to and to their, and they can’t move, because they’re so dug into their position. So

Jordan Ostroff 21:05
my favorite story along those lines is you’ve got the two person partnership, and they’re trying to decide like, the major color for something and one of them wants red, and one of them wants blue. And thankfully, the the way to break the tie is flip a coin. And I just remember thinking about that situation, like, okay, it’s not a big deal here. But imagine if that was like, Let’s buy this $10 million company, and one partner wants to do it, the other one doesn’t. And they’re flipping a coin to decide, you know, a $10 million decision, but you know, you gotta you gotta figure out how those things happen.

Blair Jackson 21:32
Sure. And if you don’t do it, and if you don’t have an attorney craft out for you, then of course, going to decide that for you. And as you and I know, as veterans of the court system, sometimes we agree with their decisions, and sometimes we don’t. And, you know,

Jordan Ostroff 21:49
I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve always gotten the exact result that I agreed with every single time in court without any exceptions,

Blair Jackson 21:55
well, then I would say you’re probably a much better litigator than I am, or you’re much more popular with judge or just

Jordan Ostroff 22:01
a large, just a better liar.

Blair Jackson 22:04
No, not at all. So So this will dissolution but also deadlock. But I guess, if there’s a theme to what I’m saying, it’s that you really have to account for people come in, and they’re full of hopes and dreams. And you don’t want to do anything to dash that. And and there are a lot of great ideas. But the fact is that a lot of businesses fail, right? What’s the, the the old anecdote like more than 50% over a five year period, or sign out in restaurants,

Jordan Ostroff 22:34
I think it’s like 80, over the first year,

Blair Jackson 22:36
so so you just have to be, I’m sort of the cold water guy saying Fine. Let’s talk about how you gonna split profits. But we need to talk about how you’re going to split losses, we need to talk about what happens if some unforeseen tragedy happens to a member of the business and so forth, in addition to setting them up with things that hopefully will help them succeed. Why not one of my favorite things that we did for dissolution is, you know, we had to, I think it was two guys who were a little bit older and had wanted to start their own company after working at a company for a long time. And we had the company buy life insurance policies for both of them. And then if you know, one of them passed away, then the life insurance paid out to the spouse to buy out the shares for the other person. So that way, the business paid for the protection of the two owners spouses, without having to worry about them having to negotiate something else. And I thought that was a really interesting way to work around a potential problem with the solution. Sure, but you brought up an excellent point to the probably, they’re circling back to I guess, and that is the leaving the spouse in charge, or the the spouse then fills the shoes of the deceased, you know, member manager or owner of the company. I’ve dealt with those situations before to where the person is just panic stricken. And they may Oh, they’ve been are they Oh, vendors or they’re not capable of, you know, you know, running the business essentially, yet, by either by default, or, you know, poor loitering.

Jordan Ostroff 24:11
Often by necessity.

Blair Jackson 24:12
Yeah. Well, they have to run the business by necessity. Yeah. But they didn’t speak to anybody that said to them, turning your otherwise, hey, you know, what’s going to happen? Are you really capable of running this is, you know, most people might honestly say, Well, no, that’s, you know, my husband’s job or my wife’s job or what have you. So, you know, that that can certainly create some problems.

Jordan Ostroff 24:36
Any other major issues that we want to make sure we get address at that ideal first meeting before the businesses started?

Blair Jackson 24:43
Well, yeah, if it’s a business that involves anything to do with, well, you know, I want to find out how many employees they have. So we’re talking about employment contracts? And what those look like, are they employees? Are they independent contractors, that’ll have tax implications, and maybe liability implications. But if they’re in something that appears to be, you know, a dangerous business, like, you know, I, I dynamite bridges, you know, that’s what my company does primarily, you know, we need to look at, you know, all kind of a regimen where there, you know, following the various safety rules, you know, are they properly insured? What are their, you know, what are their contracts, look at in terms of, you know, liability? And are they going to bear the entire liability for, for what they’re doing? So, it’s really important to find out what people do, it’s so funny how many people will come in and talk to me about their business and not even tell me what their business is? You know, and I have to circle back. Just hold on for a second. What are you actually doing? Oh, well, I’m doing that I’m, you know, printing up t shirts and selling them or whatever it is, you know, they’re, they’re already running with, they think that what they’re doing the legal construct, that those things are totally divorced. And that’s not the case,

Jordan Ostroff 26:06
you just love that we’re talking for about 25 minutes, just about all the things we need to consider with a business owner to make sure that they’re protected. I mean, I really, there’s no better way to prove that you need this much help than there is for us to be able to cover it for so long.

Blair Jackson 26:19
Well, no, absolutely. And on that point, you know, it breaks my heart when people come in. And that’s it, it’s more often than not that somebody will come in and see me for the first time. And it’s because they’ve been sued, right over something that they didn’t do. And maybe maybe something that they didn’t even do wrong. But you know, there there’s a whole or there’s a question, because there was a contract that wasn’t completed, or, you know, business entity wasn’t properly, you know, filed on their behalf. And there, they always say the same thing. Like, yeah, I definitely want to get my house in order with us. You know, but you got to get me out of this, you know, for alarm fire first. And I’m always thinking to myself, wow, I just, I really wish for their sake, they come in and said, I have an idea. And, you know, so help me with, you know, raising capital? What are the rules related to that? How do I incorporate, etc, you know, your point is so well taken, I mean, there’s so much more I can do, and more cheaply, you know, in a less expensive fashion, than if I have to go to court for you. And, you know, fight some protracted litigation because of something that, you know, was under,

Jordan Ostroff 27:37
yeah, how many hours are we talking about, you know, you’ve got that business owner before they start coming in. And obviously, I mean, it depends, if they’re gonna, if it’s a, you know, six people getting together to form a business with 10 other employees, that’s going to be a lot more work than a solo proprietor, but about how many hours we talking about to get enough of the documents put together, incorporating all those things.

Blair Jackson 27:57
So probably can certainly speaking, you know, maybe three to six or seven hours, and multiplying it by the number of owners or members doesn’t appreciably multiply the amount of time. And it would be more of the complexity of what you’re doing, you know, if you’re trying to file you know, a business is going to, you’re going to be doing business internationally, or, and then also, depending on whether it’s a nonprofit, or not a nonprofit. And we probably, you know, we could touch on that maybe at another time. But if you’re filing for nonprofit, their number of different regulatory schemes, and things that you have to include in IRS filings and so forth, that aren’t even a consideration with a private business, but private business, you know, three to six hours, I would say.

Jordan Ostroff 28:48
And really, I mean, three to six hours, that could be less time than taking one deposition of one of the partners if it gets to litigation. And it’s very contested, right?

Blair Jackson 28:57
I, yes. And I dealt with that situation, it was a two day deposition. And it had to be continued. Because the other attorneys didn’t get an opportunity to ask any questions. It was just plaintiff’s counsel, two days, eight hours, 16 hours total, while I guess, two hours for lunch. So 14 hours total, one guy just getting grilled by plaintiff’s counsel.

Jordan Ostroff 29:25
And that 14 hours, I mean, that’s something that could have been saved, or it could have been prevented from happening, based upon having better documentation.

Blair Jackson 29:32
Yeah, this was a incredibly complex deal. That was almost done on a handshake, and very little else. And so it was all, we were trying to figure out the intention of all the parties being created through emails and so forth. So exactly right. litigation costs, it gets very expensive very quickly, because you have to go to court, you have to prepare for court first, then you have to go to court. And like you said, depositions can be day long, or days long,

Jordan Ostroff 30:04
you know, and I always tell people, you know, the contract that you signed with our company, I spent a lot of time making sure that that’s only going to be a four or five page contract, the contract that we give you to have signed for your company, we spent a lot of time to make sure that’s a 40 or 50 page contract.

Blair Jackson 30:19
Absolutely. Right.

Jordan Ostroff 30:20
Yeah. It’s it. It’s amazing how much argument you can get over a comma over conditional clause over missing something over changes in technology. I mean, you know, you get some of these older businesses that don’t necessarily include something regarding the website URL or working across the internet was shipping things or whatnot, it’s, you can get a lot of money over a very simple thing being missing.

Blair Jackson 30:43
Well, another issue that comes up also is, you know, federal and state law interprets pretty broadly what is considered an investment. So and I handled a case with some attorneys from Chicago’s local council here, where the question centered on whether a condo, you know, selling timeshares was selling an investment that subjected itself to SE you know, Securities and Exchange regulation, filings, SEC filings. And so, things that you would not necessarily know or think about, as some type of investment can be, you know, and so YI, I’ve represented a couple or a couple people, you know, came to see me, they were starting a small business, you know, selling like beef jerky, and, you know, other like little food products. And they were talking about the fact they already mailed this to, you know, the product to different people in different states, you know, or they were, like, you know, trying to set up a GoFundMe site. And, you know, for in most situations, when you’re starting small like that, it’s not going to fall under, you know, sec regulations, but you have to be careful when you’re, you’re sending things through interstate commerce raising money through interstate commerce. And those are the types of things that, you know, these folks never thought of, and I, I would imagine that I wouldn’t either if I wasn’t an attorney.

Jordan Ostroff 32:16
So I mean, I think that covers most of our ideal client, you know, the person coming to us before they’ve actually started, we can get everything done from the ground up, sure, we can build that foundation. The next clients going to be somebody who what has been running the business, probably about what three to five years doesn’t have any pending litigation, realizes that they’re missing some stuff or have been working without the right documents. Is that right? I mean, that’s kind of the next most common client.

Blair Jackson 32:40
Yes, sure. And, or, they, they thought that they had everything, you know, nail down tight, and then they got sued, you know, and so, then I’m sort of, you know, looking back and seeing what happened, but let’s take that premise as well. Yeah, they’re fair amount of people that just want it’s like getting a checkup, you know, they’re like, well, this attorney this a long time ago, now, I’m more sophisticated about the way business works in general, or how my business works. So, you know, I’d like you to take a look at what I have,

Jordan Ostroff 33:16
or I know, I got this off Legal Zoom. And now I can afford

Blair Jackson 33:20
another little areas. Right, yeah, right. Exactly. Right. So and then it’s an opportunity, like a medical, it’s like a checkup for you just making sure that you’re as healthy as you think you are. So or, as you said, with Legal Zoom, maybe I miss something. And, you know, now I have the the funds to, you know, have an attorney do a proper review of it. And usually I could find something that needs improvement or is missing, or, you know, a lot of people don’t have comprehensive employee handbooks. And it’s a law review article, I, I’ve sort of started, it started and stopped the different times, depending on what’s been going on in my life. But the idea that you should have a fully formed employee handbook before you have any employees, it’s remarkable how many people you know how many companies don’t do that. And I did that by researching and looking at some examples in Silicon Valley, where he had two or three people and they had, you know, millions of dollars in seed money. And then in one case, one of the partners who was married to one of the other partners, hit on the third partner. And, you know, it was unwanted. And it drove her out of the business. I don’t know the details of what I don’t think it went to the worst possible of places, but she didn’t feel comfortable working there anymore. I don’t know that a lawsuit was even file, but guess what, look at the brain drain that they lost me. And then she started up another company, and apparently is doing quite well.

Jordan Ostroff 34:58
So another company was Google know,

Blair Jackson 35:02
well, then, potentially, there’s some other problems there. But, uh, you know, so the idea that, you know, this, I understand that the focus for a small businesses startup is, you know, to, you know, to get investors money, come up with good ideas. If it’s a tech company, you want your patents and, you know, you want to be able to run with this cutting edge technology that everybody wants, and they want to throw money at you. But you need to think about the, you know, the the personnel aspect of this because your whole company can get on done, especially in the era of me to with, you know, discrimination suit, sexual harassment suits, those types of things.

Jordan Ostroff 35:47
And I know, I mean, obviously, if if a lawsuit is not filed, it makes it a lot easier to fix any of the mistakes in the initial documents, right?

Blair Jackson 35:55
Yes,

Jordan Ostroff 35:56
right. Sure. Would you say? I mean, when you’re going through to an update or edit something that, you know, has been done by another attorney that you’re reviewing later? Are you taking more time than doing it from scratch? Or less time? Or is it about 5050? Between those mean, because I guess it really depends upon how good or bad of a job it was done the first time?

Blair Jackson 36:16
Sure. Probably taking less time, because there are certain things that nobody’s going to get, you know, and then. Right, but I mean, you know, boilerplate parts of contracts, where they’re talking about, you know, where the physical location of the businesses and so forth. What I see, in my experience, the the thing that I’ve seen, that is probably the most, you know, in general, the most poorly written part of a contract is, you know, a non competition clause in a contract. So, do you want me to expand on that a little bit?

Jordan Ostroff 36:56
Yeah, of course, I mean, we’re, you know, we always kind of go over this, and we look for identity, find the most common problems, and so,

Blair Jackson 37:02
well not competes right, as they’re known that this has really grown in the last 10 or 20 years, the idea that an employer is going to put a provision in a contract to prevent you from if you leave the company, from competing with them, essentially, you know, in the similar or relatively same way that, you know, in the same position, and in the same types of ways that you were, with whatever job you’re performing at that company, used to be sort of an old wives tale, I guess, or, you know, what have you, I think, a real misnomer that these things were never enforceable in court, you know, and I had not handled this type of situation for family members to that said, Oh, somebody told me, don’t worry about it, they’re never enforceable, that’s usually the company that wants you to come on board, you know, because the, they might not end up having to deal with this, it might be the employee that left the company. Well, there are reasons for not compete agreements. You know, they’re not, as some people think, just the either the employer being spiteful, but, you know, you’re investing a lot of time and money in that individual, potentially. And, and also, they’re, you know, they have access to the way that you do business. And if it’s a successful business, you want to protect, you know, the ability for you to train them, and then not just automatically see them being your, your, your prime competitor, you know, so, but the two keys with a non compete clause, are that it has to be reasonable in terms of scope, which is defined as geographic limitation. So, you know, you can’t say, for the most part, you know, it depends on the type of business it is, but you can’t say, if you’re selling t shirts, that, you know, you can’t sell them within a, you know, 5000 mile radius or something, unless, you know, dealing with Haines or some kind of, you know, big competitors. But it has to be reasonable in terms of geographic location, and time. So, traditionally, that would be two years, you know, two to five years, but it’s, it’s totally dependent on, you know, the types of industry that you’re in, you know, but I’ve reviewed a number of non competes, that somewhat at attorney draft and on behalf of a company, where neither those things were given lip service or or even or they’re totally outrageous, it’s like 50 years and, you know, you know, 5000 miles or something for for a business that’s, you know, within the state of Florida. Yeah, laughed out of court. No way it’s going to be enforced. It

Jordan Ostroff 39:57
was interesting. I had lunch yesterday with RR local survivor contest and Aurora McCreery, and she was telling me that for them, they’re not they’re non non compete, but their non disclosure for survivor is three years after the last episode of survivor ever airs. So that way that, you know, survivor can keep making it longer and longer. So you don’t hear whatever the whatever the behind the scenes disclosure would be, which I don’t know, because she wouldn’t disclose it. But total last survivors

Blair Jackson 40:21
gone. Right, right.

Jordan Ostroff 40:22
Yeah. So I’m convinced that even if they take the show off the air, they’ll just take like a two and a half year hiatus, and then just pump them out again, just to make sure that nobody loses their non disclosure agreements. Sure, absolutely.

Blair Jackson 40:33
So, so that, you know, probably less work. But you know, sometimes, you sort of shocked at what’s missing or what’s not in there. And like you said, it’s always good to be addressing that when it’s not in a litigation context, because, you know, the horse is out of the barn already. And, you know, you just got to deal with it.

Jordan Ostroff 40:54
Right. So, so don’t think that just because you’ve had the business for five years, you know, we can’t go in and fix it, don’t think it’s going to be over really expensive for it to happen. I mean, it’s one of those things where the sooner you address the problem, the better. But if you have to address the problem in the 11th hour, it’s better than addressing the problem. You know, after the 12th hour when it’s hit,

Blair Jackson 41:10
I can’t think of too many areas of the law that are more that work more preventative Lee, or we can do more to prevent future litigation, the business or corporate law, or whatever you want to call it, you know,

Jordan Ostroff 41:23
well, because it’s all based upon those contractual agreements between two parties, whether it’s the employee or an employee, whether it’s multiple businesses, or the owners or whatnot. And so you can contract away a lot of rights in the betterment of the company. Exactly, yeah. Alright, so let’s get to our third our biggest problem area, obviously, there’s people coming to us they’ve been sued, or they’re in the middle of litigation, what are the most common circumstances or types of suits that you’re seeing come up

Blair Jackson 41:55
a lot of suits related to and I’ve handled a lot of the non compete agreements, I think I have two active ones right now. where, you know, they, they felt like they had to leave, oftentimes. So I’ve done both sides to represent the individual that is under the non compete, that feels that they shouldn’t be and they want to be outside of that, I’ve also handle a lot of cases for companies that are trying to hold the individual to the, to the non compete. Other than that, you know, a breach of contract actions, or a breach of fiduciary duty actions. People that are in business with each other, you know, have certain responsibilities to each other, in terms of not trying to, you know, double deal or get business for their own private company, when they’re also part of another company, or a partnership or something like that. So I see a lot of that as well, you know, people that are, I guess, whatever you want to call it, double dipping, or whatever. But it’s important to know that you owe you know, certain responsibilities and duties by law, to the people that you’re in business with, and you’re not supposed to be competing with them actively or siphoning off money from them. And, you know, that’s seen through a lot of different prisons by, by different people, you know, some people think, Well, you know, they’re, they’re unhappy in their business relationship, and they’re like, well, this person probably knows me as money anyway. So I’m just going to keep this corporate opportunity to myself and not tell them. And then in my own mind, I’ve kind of, you know, even the playing field a little bit, or they, they’ve just become spiteful, and they don’t like the person anymore. And they’re, or they’re thinking they’re not pulling their weight. So usually stems from some sort of, you know, maybe personal or animosity to do with the business. And then someone does, you know, what’s perceived as the wrong thing. You know,

Jordan Ostroff 44:01
when also you’ll see instances where maybe one of the parties will own multiple businesses or a spouse will be part of another business, and then they’ll do a contract, that’s not, you know, fair market value. So their landscaping company is cutting the businesses property for three times the price, or they’re paying a vendor just because it’s, you know, got that relationship. And that can obviously be a huge problem.

Blair Jackson 44:22
Sure. So, you know, the important thing, and, you know, sometimes it appears that business law especially, is just this enormously complex type of thing, but it’s really about relationships, right? When you think about it, contracts or relationships, they’re just, you know, written down so people can understand them. And so a lot of what we see in litigation depart a area of this area of the law is that, you know, you’re dealing with, you know, relationships that went south, for whatever reason, and you know, you’re trying to come get to the heart of why that happened. Did someone legitimately take money that didn’t belong to them? Did someone cut somebody out of an opportunity that they shouldn’t have? Did someone oppressed somebody from an employment standpoint? So, you know, it’s, it’s not much more complicated than that. It’s usually some breakdown in the relationship caused by something that, you know, that’s the source of the litigation, and they can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And that’s why you’re in court?

Jordan Ostroff 45:28
Well, I always tell people that, you know, business laws a lot like family law, you know, your business is like a marriage, except turned up to 11. You know, and a lot of the issues go back to money, and a lot of it is, you know, you spent eight months to plan a wedding. Now, you’re going to go through a divorce, you know, for the business, you spent, you know, 15 years running this business. Now, you got to figure out what the next step is, you know, it’s it’s interesting how similar both those areas of law are from a, from an emotional standpoint, as well as from a legal standpoint, because a lot of its, you know, the contract stuff for what makes the most sense, or what, what’s generally agreed upon in the community or whatnot.

Blair Jackson 46:03
Sure, yeah, I agree.

Jordan Ostroff 46:05
Alright, so let’s get into the nitty gritty the question that we get asked, probably most frequently, at least round about lay cat, some some question along the lines of, what can I asked her in a job interview? I mean, we get this question. Can I ask people this? Can I ask people that? So let’s do a brief kind of overview for our listeners. So most of them will be business owners, they’re sitting down to expand higher, what are some of the major questions that they cannot ask? Sure.

Blair Jackson 46:31
Well, I guess we’ll start with there’s no magic list of what you should or shouldn’t answer, although, what what should be the sort of your overarching strategy, when you’re asking questions as an employer is, you know, what could get me in trouble if I asked this, and that’s dictated by federal and state laws are pertains to matters of discrimination, discrimination, I’m speaking broadly about age discrimination, gender, transgender, sexual preference, sexual orientation, marital status, things to do with your nationality. So race, ethnicity, and other types of personal questions that would sort of fall into that category.

Jordan Ostroff 47:27
So can’t ask the applicants age?

Blair Jackson 47:29
Correct. at all,

Jordan Ostroff 47:31
right. See, that’s one that always boggles my mind. Yeah, you know, you spend your entire life putting your date of birth on every single form ever. And then you get to a job interview and a camp, but I mean, you know, makes a lot of sense, right? You don’t want these companies that are targeting people, you know, over 40, under 40, and whatever it is, along those lines, sure.

Blair Jackson 47:47
And that and that what I just sort of listed out, is really the four it’s not the ceiling, because you don’t want to get yourself, you know, into, you know, a legal problem because of something that, you know, so I guess what I’m saying is, or trying to say is, you want to be sensitive to, you know, what is it about the job that you need to know that? I mean, you need to know if this person can do the job or not, primarily, so there’s really no reason to ask, you know, a lot of these questions. And don’t forget, this is also information that I think you pointed to this a little bit, you know, you can gather some of this information that you might want to know, through other means. We’re just talking about what questions you not really permitted or really shouldn’t ask the purse.

Jordan Ostroff 48:37
Right? Because I know, it always comes up and I guess there’s probably reframe the question because I don’t care about the the improper parts of the answer. But a lot of times, I’ll ask people, you know, what’s your fight? Where do you see yourself in five years? They’ll go, you know, married with kids? And I’m like, okay, you know, I can’t ask you about the kids. I don’t care. You know, I don’t want to hold it against you. Assuming you’ll take maternity leave or whatnot. I mean, more professionally, but you have, I’m sure you have people that will ask the question.

Blair Jackson 49:02
information. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Right. And that’s a very obviously, that’s an important question to ask, you know, as well. So we’re not talking about I mean, some people are going to tell you their life history. Right? Yeah. Or maybe their criminal history and those types of things, which you also shouldn’t be asking them about, you should be doing a background check. You know, although,

Jordan Ostroff 49:22
although I will say if you’re, if you’re applying to Jordan law, and you have a criminal history, I want to know about it for your benefit, we found that, uh, you know, it gives you an extra perspective to explain to a lot of our clients. Have you haven’t been through the process before.

Blair Jackson 49:36
But we maybe talk OFF AIR about that.

Jordan Ostroff 49:38
We may be the only employer that feels that way, though.

Blair Jackson 49:41
Right. Right. So I think we covered, you know, you should think about what areas could be considered, you know, discriminatory. And again, it’s the effect on the person, it’s not what you’re I’ve talked to so many people, you know, so many potential clients, current clients who express this, you know, with that wasn’t what I intended. It’s always the, of course, you know, and, and many times the person is not trying to actively as something that’s, that’s too personal. But, you know, it’s also the effect on, you know, the listener, I mean, you don’t know what that person’s personal experience has been. So, you know, it just makes sense to stay away from all these potentially, you know, sensitive questions. You know, I also want to, I guess, dial in a little bit with, you know, regarding, you know, fiscal challenges, disabilities, the individual, the way the law reads, federal law is that an employer has to make reasonable accommodations for the individual. But you are pretty much not permitted to ask questions about the individual’s disability again, you will, you know, you should be interviewing them. And then if you think that there’s an issue or something comes up, the question then becomes, can you reasonably accommodate them, but you could be stepping into a lot of trouble if you right out of the gate, asking them while I see her in a wheelchair, so you obviously can’t do this, that or the other,

Jordan Ostroff 51:21
even if it’s, you know, warehouse job, I mean, requires them to lift 35 pounds or something, or you have like, Where do you work in a business owner draw the line?

Blair Jackson 51:31
Well, like I said, you know, you’re looking at whether it’s, you can make them, you know, whether you can reasonably accommodate them. So, I don’t think sometimes you have to ask the question, because Don’t forget, it’s not what’s in your mind, or not what decision you ultimately made. But if you’re seeing that individual, and it’s very apparent to them, for example, you know, they may be quadriplegic, and simply not able to lift 35 pounds over their head, I don’t think you need to ask a follow up question about that.

Jordan Ostroff 52:03
Okay, you know, what about phone interview? I mean, then if you’re in a position where you’re not aware of any potential limitations?

Blair Jackson 52:12
Well, I think the probably the way that you can handle that would be to say that there’s nothing wrong with you saying, this is a very physical job. Okay. And it requires you to do X, Y, and Z. Do you think that you’re physically capable of doing that type of job? You know, and, I mean, if they say, yes, again, you’re going to be able to also, you know, as an employer, 2019, you know, and I’m sure you would agree, you’re not just relying on the internet, you know, you’re going to be checking references and and doing your due diligence to find out about the individual before you hire them.

Jordan Ostroff 52:49
Well. And we also had Dr. Aaron Webb on one of our earlier segments, who does a lot of evaluations of potential employees to see how they are from a health standpoint, will do the physicals beforehand, that may be an easier way to figure out?

Blair Jackson 53:02
Well, absolutely. And there’s no, that that’s a perfect point. And there’s nothing wrong with requiring that as part of this. But it’s more stepping into, you know, potentially a Pandora’s box where, you know, you’re asking something, and it may not have even been your intention to get to a certain point, but it’s received a certain way. And something like that can be the basis of a lawsuit. You know, and there are lots of attorneys that are hungry to take that, and especially if you’re, you know, you’re bigger target, if you’re doing well, right, you know, and you have resources. So it’s like, Okay, well, I’m going to, you know, plenty of situations where I’m going to, you know, take my pound of flesh, you know, out of this company, because because the fact they didn’t hire me, and they may just decide to write you a check, because it’s the cost of doing business. So, to the extent that you can avoid that, you know,

Jordan Ostroff 54:01
so it’s always funny, you know, when we talk about these issues, I always kind of go back to Can I strike a juror for this reason? You know, that’s the thing as a lawyer, that’s what I put my mindset on. Sure. So one of the couple of the ones that come up a lot, and I know, we it’s sort of a gray area we’ve gone back and forth on but I know obviously whether or not somebody is Hispanic would be separate from whether or not they speak Spanish or any sort of, you know, secondary language.

Blair Jackson 54:24
Yes.

Jordan Ostroff 54:26
How clear cut is the case login and beyond, you know, requiring somebody to be bilingual versus requiring somebody to be of a certain ethnicity?

Blair Jackson 54:35
Well, I think that the way that you deal with that, you probably, I think he answered your own question in that regard, which is, or maybe you’re just prompting me? And you know, the answer already, which I’m I mean, I hope so. I think so. I, is that you? So what do you really want to know, does a person speak Spanish? How many languages can you speak? Are you Do you speak Spanish? Are you proficient in Spanish? Which you say your Spanish is? You know, okay. Is it more conversational than you can read Spanish, you don’t have to get into where you’re from? Where were you born? What was your family? Like, you know, are those types of things?

Jordan Ostroff 55:14
So really focusing on the

Blair Jackson 55:16
skills? Not gotcha, because it’s a skill, that’s part of the skill set that you’re hiring for? Right. So nothing wrong with that.

Jordan Ostroff 55:24
And then the other one that I that we come up across, obviously, from a religion standpoint, you know, they’re going to be a number of issues where you can’t hire somebody based solely upon their their religion, you know, Christian or not. But what about somebody being religious of any form versus not? Or is that still too much of a gray area?

Blair Jackson 55:46
I would say unless the business is something that and probably want to check with me or another attorney first, before you sort of entered that fray. But it I mean, certainly, if you’re in interviewing for a church position, or something of that nature, or it’s a nonprofit that’s, you know, religious based than that’s totally, for the most part, I think the question would be within those boundaries, but otherwise, just as a general, are we trying to find out if this is a good person or a bad person, or if they’re going to do the right thing? I would stay away from that.

Jordan Ostroff 56:23
So even just, you know, belief in any sort of God, probably not a good thing to ask during a job interview?

Blair Jackson 56:28
Well, correct. because well, because let’s play it out a little bit. So if, you know if if I asked you, well, so you have any religious affiliation? You said, for example, yeah, Muslim, you know, what? Okay, I was just curious about that. And then you move on to the next question. And then you don’t get the job. You know, you could say, I didn’t like Muslims, you know, or their, you know, Islamophobia or whatever, I’m going to go get an attorney, and we’re going to fight this, you know,

Jordan Ostroff 57:02
so if you’ve got that, you know, that small family run business, the whole family’s always involved in the church, and they just want somebody that definitely believes in a higher power, even that it’s probably not worth the risk to get anything.

Blair Jackson 57:16
Yeah, or, you know, the other, the other way that you can deal with it, as you can say, Hey, you know, let me tell you a little bit about ourselves. Okay, we’re a church base, family base, whatever, we’re very tied in with this church. I hope that’s okay with you. But, you know, we we do this, and we do it from a Christ centered standpoint, do you have any problem with that? You know, so put it on the, the key is not where you’re fishing? If that makes sense, right? You can always say, here’s what we stand for. Do you think you’re probably could get away with this? But you know, are your values aligned with that? You know, and then you could say, well, now I’m not really into that are not really into this being seems like it’s too religious, or whatever it is, but there are ways of doing that. But try to avoid the, again, going back to your example of looking at it through a legal prism. Right, as litigator, you know, they always teach us right, in, you know, mock trial classes and different things, you know, never asked a question that you don’t know the answer to. And so when you’re fishing with a lot of these things, sometimes, you know, we well, what you should be fishing for is does the person have the skill set to do the job? And some of these other questions that you need to answer? Like, you know, did they have a criminal history or how old they are, whatever, can probably be resolved, you know, through other means.

Jordan Ostroff 58:47
But it’s interesting. You mentioned the, you know, the flipping it back on them. I had a friend in college at UCF who was a, an aggressive atheist, you know, if you will, but he worked at chick fil a. And so we always kind of, you know, try for that, because chick fil a is now I mean, you know, pretty religious. And he goes, look, it’s great. I never have to work a full weekend. I always know, I’m going to get Sunday.

Blair Jackson 59:08
Fair enough. Sure. Sure. So but you know, and that’s the thing, though, you know, because a job interview is really, you know, it’s more often than not, not always, but it’s two strangers or multiple strangers meeting, they have no idea about any of their, you know, personal experiences, life experiences, religious affiliation. And, you know, some people are more sensitive about things than others. And so the worst of all situation, and a lot of these things aren’t bright line either, right? I mean, you don’t have the person that’s spouting overtly racist, like, if you’re not a white nationalist, there’s no place for you know, here in this company. So I’m going to ask you a bunch of questions about your clan affiliation. And, you know, hopefully, you say yes, and, you know, well, it wasn’t

Jordan Ostroff 1:00:02
one of our clients. But I did hear somebody that had, it was an email sent out to everybody that said, Oh, the person sounds black, but I guess we should still bring him in for an interview. That entire company.

Blair Jackson 1:00:13
Yeah. So you know, it’s not those bright line things. It’s, you know, I’ve talked to so many and, and help so many, hopefully help. Many people that came in and said that was never, it’s always the same thing. It was never my intention. I didn’t think that they would answer that way. I didn’t think that they would be so sensitive about that. Well, how do you know, you know, and we live in a very litigious society as absolutely, when i both know, and all these listeners know, as well, I’ll be the first to tell you lawyers ruin everything.

Jordan Ostroff 1:00:45
And I say that.

Blair Jackson 1:00:48
So, you know, all it takes is, you know, somebody saying, well, this, you know, they talked to somebody and they’re like, Well, that sounds like discrimination. You know, when clearly that’s not the case, but it doesn’t cost I always tell people, maybe you have a variation as well that, you know, people say how do I avoid getting sued. And I’m like, most of the time, if somebody has whatever the filing fee is now $400, and an axe to grind, you’re going to get sued. And there’s precious little to do about that. But what you can do, from this perspective with the, you know, with regard to interviewing somebody is just stay away from these hot button issues, and focus on what skills Am I looking for from this individual, whatever their racial or ethnic makeup is, however old they are, whatever their gender affiliation is, you know, you don’t need to ask personal questions to figure out if they’re going to get the job done, if they have the skill set to do it. Now, that might touch on things, as you ably pointed out. And I’m glad you did about language and language skills and things of that nature. Sure. But that’s separate from where did you come from? What’s your makeup? What’s your background? And obviously, in 2019, I mean, we don’t have to get political. Here. This is on everybody’s minds. And it seems like everybody from every part of the political spectrum, is saying something that’s either being taken out of context, or accused of being racist, or what have you. So it’s, this should be a prime example on a big stage of what smaller companies and businesses should be staying away from when they’re interviewing people.

Jordan Ostroff 1:02:37
Alright, so any other anything else you want our listeners to know, regarding this topic? And I know we’ve addressed it for quite a bit, but we want to make sure,

Blair Jackson 1:02:47
well, they can always contact me at Jordan law. I mean, if you just have a couple of questions about what I should ask, you know, for the most part, if it’s not terribly comprehensive, and I can ask answer your questions for you, you can call me I won’t necessarily charge you a fee to do that.

Jordan Ostroff 1:03:05
Or will least let you know in advance that it’ll be a fee to answer this Well, well,

Blair Jackson 1:03:08
correct. And if it’s more evolved, or what have you, but I certainly, you know, I’m happy to speak to people that maybe have some questions or, you know, maybe you think they need a course correction. And, you know, they’re either their interview questions or, you know, matters pertaining to how they’re running their HR department or, you know, with respect to working, reworking their employment manual or so forth.

Jordan Ostroff 1:03:34
Alright, so we’ve got Blair at Jordan law, FL. com, or Jordan law, FL. com on the internet, or 40790655 to nine. I’ve got one more question. But before that, I want to remind everybody, we are still a relatively new podcast. So if you’ve been listening for the last couple episodes, and enjoy us, we’d love an honest and open five star review. That’d be fantastic. So with that being said, let’s end this podcast like we in every other podcast. What is the one piece of advice that you think if nobody gets anything else from this? What’s the most important thing that you’d like a business owner to know?

Blair Jackson 1:04:15
Wow, that’s a great question. I wish

Jordan Ostroff 1:04:21
we had every podcast with this one. So okay,

Blair Jackson 1:04:22
well, this is my first podcast. So I guess that

there’s no problem that’s unsolvable. Even if you’re in litigation, so don’t think, well, that’s my career’s over, my life is over. You know, I’m going to lose everything I own. There’s almost always something that can be done to mitigate any kind of damage. So we’ve talked a lot about the fact that you should, you know, come and see and talk to me or another business law attorney, when you’re starting a business before any litigation, you know, yours. But don’t think that everything is over, even if you’re in litigation, all right. They’re almost always ways that you know, I can help you mitigate any damage is done. So don’t feel like any situation is hopeless. I guess that’s kind of what I’m trying to say.

Jordan Ostroff 1:05:19
I also think it was pretty apropos had an ambulance drive by right as you were talking about how

Blair Jackson 1:05:23
we didn’t get through everything but your Did you arrange that now?

Jordan Ostroff 1:05:27
I found a special effect that Mark added.

Blair Jackson 1:05:29
Okay, so,

Jordan Ostroff 1:05:30
all right. Well, thank you very much for being on the podcast.

Blair Jackson 1:05:32
Jordan. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks so much.

Narrator 1:05:37
You you’ve been listening to let’s get up to business from Jordan. We hope you’ve enjoyed the podcast and would consider sharing the show. We would also love an honest five star review through iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or whatever pod catcher you use. If you are interested in being a guest on the podcast, please contact Producer Mark through email that Mark at Jordan la fl.com. Use this subject line podcast guest in your email. Thank you. We look forward to speaking to you again soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai