Lawyers — who needs them? In commercial real estate, everyone. Who likes paying them? The obvious answer: Are you kidding?

Tony Alfonso, a partner in Reed Smith's real estate group, understands the sentiment. Plus, they often shoot down ideas that, legally, won't work, even though businesspeople may consider those thoughts blinding flashes of brilliance. "The age-old question in the real estate-legal issue is everybody wants to figure out how to get rid of lawyers or get around them." Alfonso laughingly tells GlobeSt.com but is also serious.

Between the two factors, many people, in and out of CRE, look for workarounds like finding contracts and other legal documents to download from the Internet. That's a dangerous choice because a single draft won't possibly cover the many variations in how state laws treat a subject.

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