India Internet News
David Snead And Jeffrey Cohen Explains Business Strategies For Hosting Companies
09 August 2011
At the first Business Development meeting of day two technology lawyers David Snead of W. David Snead and Jeffrey A. Cohen of Cohen & Richardson consulted the process of making and framing a business in a way which will reduce legal costs and improve the value of the hosting company.
Named "Keeping the Trolls at Bay: Effective Legal Strategies for your Business", Snead begun the presentation with the issues companies should report when filing a contract. Cost, expertise and support are three important areas that companies must focus on. Cost involves service level agreement, cultural fit, what the company is selling, and corporate focus at present.
Expertise consists of the kind of client, measurability, who is the end user, and time to market. At last, support consists of technical know-how, flexibility, in-house capabilities and strategic benefits. Snead stressed on that companies must focus on contracts not as a "litigation tool but more as a guide to a successful agreement."
Later on, he showed the main contract terms that consists of acceptance, term, early termination, cost, billing issues, warranties, security and privacy - all of which according to him must be clearly mentioned in a contract. Cohen then carried over from this point on, where he provided few hands-on recommendations regarding how companies can tackle an upset client who wants to "talk to their lawyer". He suggests that someone at the company must have a direct to legal consult, that you can regret but you must not accept liability, avoid long explanations, responses ad overpromises.
Probably a piece of advice that any session attendant could take away with them is Cohen's summary of a legal proceeding: "Anybody can sue anybody for anything. There is nothing you can do to prevent that. The questions are, how well are you prepared to defend yourself, and ultimately, what will be the outcome and cost." All companies should make themselves for potential legal defense in the scenario they get sued, he added.
Web hosts should have relevant agreements/contracts ready, generate a legal proceeding holding policy, records preservation, what to do with email/backup, how to select counsel, insurance, investigation, settlement deals, and inspect themselves if they should sue first. Cohen examined some of the tactics a hosting provider can utilize for dealing with a lawsuit, on the defendant side and on the complainant side.
Later on, Snead stands for the remaining presentation, and explained with an example of a Cease and Desist Letter (which according to him at least one of his client's receives on a regular basis) and the strategic method a hosting provider can consume to respond to this. He concluded with couple of advices on tackling with nasty clients, subpoenas and warrants, and nasty letters.