We were lucky to catch up with Adam Yohanan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Adam, thank you so much for making time for us today. We can’t wait to dive into your story and the lessons you’ve learned along the way, but maybe we can start with something foundational to your success. How have you gone about developing your ability to communicate effectively?
I developed my ability to communicate effectively in college when I worked as a tutor for business school students. Even though I was a liberal arts major myself, I focused on tutoring the required business school classes, specifically economics and accounting. Through that process I became comfortable discussing complicated business issues using informal and accessible language. I learned that teaching others is the best way to develop your communication abilities, because you need to help your students understand complex topics by distilling those complex topics into digestible form without dumbing them down. Today as a small business lawyer I use the same communication skills that I used as a tutor. My job is basically to distill complex business law topics into easily digestible bites for entrepreneurs.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
After gaining extensive experience as a corporate finance lawyer in “Big Law” firms Milbank and Willkie Farr, I made a life changing decision to start my own law firm.
As you can imagine, this decision was not an easy one. In Big Law, I relished the challenge of servicing first tier global financial institutions alongside the best talent in the industry. But after learning what I needed to learn, it was time for me to hang my own shingle, taking that valuable experience and shifting my focus from large corporations to small businesses.
At first it was scary to be on my own because I had zero clients and needed to move back in with my parents. But I was confident that I was filling a gap in the market, and I believed there were people who needed my help and could pay. Although there were times I doubted if I would ever gain traction, I kept faith that the right clients would find me.
As a boutique business transactional law firm owner, I focus on building relationships with clients and becoming a real long term partner. I want clients to feel like they are represented by a relationship law firm not merely a paper pushing machine.
A lot of my clients are first time entrepreneurs or people who are transitioning from a corporate or government environment into entrepreneurship. For these people, I’m sort of a guide or a compass for them as they navigate their transition from prestigious W2 environments into the world of small business ownership.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The most impactful qualities I gained in my journey relate to mastering my actual craft not to entrepreneurship itself. This is such an important point that people miss. Before you can focus on marketing, management, accounting, and all the other aspects of being a business owner, you need to focus on what’s required for you to master your chosen craft.
For me, my chosen craft was law, specifically transactional law aka contract law. So I learned the fundamentals of transactional law before I ever started to think seriously about law entrepreneurship.
First, I learned how to analyze law, and how to learn about law, and how to apply the law to real life situations. This is something I learned in law school mostly, and it’s a core intellectual exercise that separates real lawyers from non-lawyers and weak lawyers who might know what the law is but don’t know how the law works.
Second, I learned how to focus on what’s important. This I learned from law firm partners working in BigLaw. They taught me how to zero in on the part of the contract that actually affects the client’s interests. They taught me how to speak to a client with emphasis on the important points, and deemphasis on everything else. A lot of senior lawyers still don’t understand how to do this, and as a result they go off on random intellectual rants that clients hate.
Third, I learned how to draft contracts in a way that is readable and understandable while still complex and comprehensive. This is not how contract law is usually practiced, but it’s the best way to do it in my opinion. Too much contract language is hard to read and frankly makes no sense even to lawyers. I learned this skill on my own once I started my own firm. They never taught me this in BigLaw or law school.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
My ideal client is someone who is ready to own a business, but they would rather acquire an existing business rather than start one from scratch. This is a great approach for people who are great at what they do, and they have mastered their craft, but they don’t want to go through the nitty gritty of getting a small business off the ground. For these people, I can help by acting as the acquisition lawyer aka M&A lawyer when the entrepreneur is buying the business, and then I can act as general corporate counsel to the business after the acquisition is complete.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yohananlaw.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamyohanan/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClz6rO1fE0wqI3o5bK1ir1Q
