Early Stage Startup Series
Something I’ve been asked a lot is “what is legal advice?”, and whether something someone told them is legal advice. Legal advice and legal information are two different concepts I’ll dig into today so that you understand the difference, and why framing your questions to certain people is so critical in whether the answer is legal advice or legal information.
First, I’ll start with what legal advice is NOT – legal information. Legal information is information about laws and precedents. Legal information is objective, general facts about laws in certain areas, and are not an opinion about your situation in terms of outcome or suggested next steps.
So, if you get a speeding ticket and want to figure out how to get out of it, you’ll probably Google online and check forums or websites for information. You’ll see anecdotes from people who describe what they did and how it worked out, or how-tos online that describe how to get out of paying for your ticket. These sources aren’t legal advice; they’re legal information because they’re simply providing information about the law, and how certain specific situations worked out for other people. That information doesn’t take into account your specific situation, what you should do, and what the probable outcome for you will be. It’s your responsibility to determine how much of that information applies to you, and how to proceed.
Someone only providing legal information does not have an attorney-client relationship with you, meaning they are not obligated to keep anything you say confidential.
Sometimes an attorney will provide general business advice, which is analogous to legal information – it’s not legal advice because it’s not tailored to your specific situation. It could even be examples of what businesses in your industry and growth stage tend to do, from what the attorney’s observed in their work, not what you should do. An attorney who only provides general business advice does not have an attorney-client privilege with you.
Legal advice, on the other hand, does evaluate your particular situation and gives you an opinion on potential outcomes, and what you should do.
Legal advice comes from someone with knowledge of the law (a licensed attorney), who looks over your specific situation and applies the law to your situation, thereby providing an opinion as to what you should do. This could be an attorney looking over your speeding ticket, telling you the options available to you, and suggesting which one is best for the outcome you want. Another situation could be an attorney looking over a contract for you and suggesting edits to the language, or who generally answers your question of “What should I do?” When that person has provided legal advice, you’ve established an attorney-client relationship and they cannot share what you’ve told them to anyone else.
Note that someone who is not a licensed attorney and provides legal advice is engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, which is illegal.
