Q&A

Q. I’ve never hired an attorney before, and I’m a little nervous. Are you billing me for this question?

A. We get it. We don’t like hiring attorneys either. That’s why you can give us a call to chat about your situation at no charge for up to half an hour to see whether there’s a fit for us to be working together. You’re not going to be billed until you sign a contract saying so.

Q. What does a transactional attorney do?

A. Transactional attorneys draft documents, interpret documents, negotiate contracts, mitigate risk, provide strategic advice, and just generally do all those lawyer things that occur outside the courtroom. A good transactional attorney pays close attention to detail and focuses less on how to win litigation than on how to keep lawsuits from happening in the first place.

Q. I need to sue someone, or evict someone, or take my landlord to court. Can you help?

Nope, sorry. We don't handle disputes. I recommend you look for litigation attorneys at HSBA.org (for Hawaii) or Cobar.org (for Colorado).

Q. So you’re a lawyer and a real estate agent. Can you act in both roles on my home purchase?

A. Nope. The ethical rules on this issue vary substantially state to state. What’s harder is that the clarity of the ethical rules wobbles about as well.

In Hawaii, our best interpretation of the murky rules is that being your lawyer and your real estate agent on the same transaction is a no-go. Absent other conflicts, Luke can be both your agent and your attorney so long as he doesn’t act in both roles on the same transaction.

In Colorado, it may be possible that a person could represent you as an agent and as a lawyer on the same transaction, but Luke is not currently licensed as an agent in that state, so the question is moot.