Lawyers and trust in business alliances

The proliferation of strategic business alliances should be good news for lawyers. These are complex transactions that require advice on legal compliance and the drafting and negotiation skills of lawyers. Unfortunately, many, businesspeople deny that lawyers add value to strategic alliances. They charge lawyers with eroding the trust and cooperation needed for a successful alliance and, accordingly, often admit lawyers to negotiations as late as possible and even then minimize their role, These allegations may be exaggerated, but to some extent they reflect real shortcomings of lawyers that deprive clients of services that could improve business alliances. These shortcomings have been almost completely ignored by law journals. The oversight is especially troubling because similar problems with lawyers crop up in other areas, like marriage, where trust and cooperation are needed. This Article marks a first effort to fill the gap in the legal literature. It begins by discussing the unusual qualities of strategic alliances and why they, pose unique problems for lawyers. It then considers how lawyers' negotiation tactics can cultivate, rather than erode, trust between the parties in alliances and suggests substantive contract terms lawyers can employ to foster trust and cooperation. Finally, it explores how law schools and continuing legal education improve lawyers' performance not only in strategic business alliances but in all situations where trust and cooperation are important.