At the Watkins Firm, we believe our clients deserve a thorough free initial consultation prior to hiring us to do any work as your California or San Diego Business attorneys.  Are you in the process of business formation?  Are you a San Diego or California employer who is coming to grips with the extensive laws and compliance issues of our state?  Are you facing a PAGA action, wage and hour dispute or unpaid overtime lawsuit?

Do you have a business to business dispute or lawsuit to contend with?  Are there internal disputes between the business owners or shareholders?  Are you a medical practice or healthcare business entity or considering a Management Services Organization or MSO? What is the difference between our consultation, and the offerings of most other law firms?  In a nutshell:

• Time to discuss your concerns and issues
• Amount of information you actually receive
• A comprehensive approach informed by 40+ years of experience
• An accurate budget for the work you need accomplished

Why do we provide thorough free initial consultation with our California business clients?  Most “free consultations” are limited to 15 or 30 minutes, consisting of pleasantries and an introductory brief conversation, and then the charges start on an hourly basis.  That model simply fails to provide the time for us to understand the nature of our client’s business and the issue(s) they are interested in.  It definitely doesn’t provide time for any type of detailed response.

We do not have a clock on our initial consultation – we invest the time necessary to get to know you and to understand the nature of your business requirements or concerns.  At the Watkins Firm, we share the expertise and experience we have gained over the more than four decades of helping San Diego business interests just like yours, and share valuable insight into your business and the issues at hand.  We gain an understanding of your goals and objectives, and based on all of these factors we work to develop a plan of action or strategies to accomplish your goals.  We then provide a genuine budget, so that you know exactly what you will need and why, how much it is going to cost and why you should work with the Watkins firm before you ever retain us to begin.

Pro-Tip: “You don’t have to go in for a formal visit. You don’t have to pay a big retainer. You can pick up the phone and say, We’re thinking about “this” business challenge.  We’re facing an internal (or external) business dispute and need to know how to get it resolved quickly and efficiently.  If you’re an employer, you might be worried about the actions of an employee. And we can send some emails back and forth and you’ll immediately know whether you need to go ready to fight or just take a specific action and you’ll be fine.

People who have their own businesses are forming or purchasing their own businesses should seek a business lawyer as a counselor, sort of like an advisor and an older experienced lawyer like we have at the Watkins firm. We’ve seen it all. We’ve seen every type of company, every type of business, and we’ve been there through the good times and the bad times. After 40 years of doing this and after thousands of different companies, a lawyer tends to know more about how to run a business, and most people would expect we go to college for seven years, but we learned our whole career from other people’s mistakes and other people’s successes.

California employers have got to be the toughest people on the planet, especially in the country because doing business in California is hard on employers. In the last five years, they passed more laws that change things for employers than they have in the last 20. The laws changed so dramatically, especially AB five, to make it so much more difficult and so much more expensive to be a California employer that every single person thinking about hiring somebody should have a lawyer who can help them, should have a law firm that can provide HR services without having to pay three, four, $500 to a lawyer.

We have that. If you can’t afford your own in-house HR person, we have HR people here that are trained that can answer your questions and set you up and make sure you’re in compliance with all the regulations, all the training, training for your executives, training for your regular employees that you can have signed off. It doesn’t take that much money to do, but if you don’t do it right, by the right entities or people, then you could find yourself in trouble in the form of an employment lawsuit.

The key in most situations is simple: Take action.  And if you have an opportunity you want to attack, or a challenge you are concerned about, we’ll know off the top of our head what your options are.  We don’t need to ‘research it and get back to you (read: billable hours).’ We do this every day. Different clients, same issue. Call us – We’ll and tell you whether or not ‘that mole is something to worry about, or that it’s not cancer!'” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

You will gain insight from experienced business counselors that have worked to help businesses just like yours to survive and thrive.  Most importantly, you will receive a lot of genuine value from the thorough free initial consultation with the Watkins Firm, and for each dollar you invest in our relationship going forward.  See for yourself.

We invite you to review our podcast Episode 19 – Your Business Attorney is a Valuable Partner as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.  Experience the difference of working with a valuable business partner, instead of a paying an attorney.