by Jerry Leth, Vice-President and General Manager, MANA
One of your benefits as a MANA member is access to a list of attorneys who have been recommended to MANA as being experienced and knowledgeable about the manufacturers’ representative business and laws that govern rep-principal relationships. Go to one of them when you need help with finalizing an agreement with a manufacturer.
They also provide an annual free half-hour consultation.
The purpose of this short consultation is to enable you to get a quick answer to a general legal question. It is not intended for you to get detailed legal advice or services such as a contract review or even a contract clause review.
The attorney with whom you speak will decide whether the consultation falls under the no-charge member benefit category or under a fee-for-service category. If the attorney believes the consultation does not fall under the no-charge member benefit category, he or she should notify you and allow you to decide whether or not to proceed. This notification should include the hourly rate and an estimate of the amount of time involved.
That list of attorneys is in no particular order — in fact MANA randomizes it regularly so that each firm spends some time in the beginning, the middle, and the end of this list. Visiting these attorneys’ websites is a good way to narrow down the list and choose an attorney who seems best suited to your needs.
We ask that you limit your no-charge consultation to one attorney. If the attorney you call is unavailable or you feel that the attorney you called is not a good fit for your firm’s needs, you may of course try another on the list.
Representative law is a very specialized area of practice, so attorneys with that expertise are often called upon to work on cases outside their home state. Many practice in multiple jurisdictions or even nationwide. MANA members often report that their communications with their attorneys are almost exclusively by phone and email, so please do not be concerned if the attorney with whom you have the best rapport is not located in your state.
These attorneys are not under any agreement with MANA; each MANA member’s dealings with any of these attorneys is on an individual basis, arranged between the member and the attorney he or she selects.
MANA does not guarantee or warrant the services provided by these attorneys or their qualifications. You are responsible for performing your own due diligence before selecting any attorney. Although many of these attorneys will assist both representatives and principals to write a fair and balanced representative agreement, most will not represent a principal in a commission dispute.
You can access the list in the “Legal and Consulting” section under the “Professional Development Resources” section in the member area of the MANA website.
Jerry Leth, MANA’s vice-president and general manager, started as membership manager in August 2000. Previously, he owned and operated Letco Tech Sales, Inc., a MANA member, multi-line professional outsourced sales agency he founded in 1989. Before starting his own agency, he managed a network of manufacturers’ reps as vice-president of sales and marketing for torque and tension equipment. Leth graduated from Stanford with a mechanical engineering degree. He started his career at Hills Brothers Coffee in San Francisco in engineering and production before embarking on a sales career.