People Don’t Sue People They Like

So, the first thing that you learn as an attorney practicing law is that people don’t sue people that they like. So, you have to like the people you’re going into partnership with, as human beings. And if you don’t, then you just shouldn’t do it. If you’re doing it just to make money, don’t do that. That’s a mistake because although a partnership is very marriage-like, you must understand it is generally less understanding than a marriage. You might be more understanding of family or a spouse than you would be of a partner.

And then, what’s their history? Have they had successful partnerships in the past? Do they speak well of their past partners, or ill of them? Have they sued lots of people, been in lawsuits and things like that? That would be a pretty big red flag. That would be an “out” for me. The other thing is if you have the blessing of doing a joint venture first. This is like “let’s do a transaction together so we can figure out if we get along first”. If you try that thing and it doesn’t work and you lost the money and things are still good, that’s a really good indication of somebody that would be a good actual partner past a joint venture. Then you get to have fun.

So you have to be able to say: “this is going to be fun for me and I also know it’s going to be fun for them”. And then you get to money.