Editorial
“
Lawyers can play a
crucial role in making
start-ups successful
”
Providing legal advice to a start-up is unlikely to make
you rich, not at the outset at least. But plenty of law firms
are willing to offer their services to entrepreneurs for free
– or at a heavily reduced rate – in the hope that as their
businesses grow, they will become generators of more
sophisticated work and bigger fees.
In addition, it’s argued that lawyers themselves can
play a crucial role in making a start-up successful. How?
As we highlight in our News Focus (on page 18), some
say that lawyers should take on the role of “connector”
in the sense that they can introduce entrepreneurs to
other members of their network, which could include
the venture capitalists and start-up incubators that
could make the difference between a start-up becoming
successful or failing. Regardless of whether lawyers
do take on this role, the future for the start-up sector
in Iberia is looking bright. Some say the timing is
right for start-ups as Spain and Portugal search for
opportunities to rebuild their economies after a period
of decline. Though the culture of business angels is
not as highly developed in Spain as it is in the UK, for
example, the total amount invested by business angels
in Spain did increase in the last year and the average
investment made by each business angel in the country
is comparable to the UK, which is ranked as the number
one “business angel market” in Europe. Meanwhile, the
total amount invested by business angels in Portugal
doubled between 2013 and 2014.
Elsewhere in this issue, we publish the results of
new Iberian Lawyer research that shows, while most
law firm partners in Spain and Portugal have become
more concerned about their firm suffering a cyberattack
following the ‘Panama Papers’ leak earlier this year,
the majority say their firm has failed to take steps to
address the issue following the incident. This is a cause
for concern among many law firm partners – a total of 85
per cent of respondents to the survey said they thought
cyberattacks against law firms were on the increase, and
only just over half of them (56 per cent) said they were
confident their firm could withstand a cyberattack.
Ben Cook
Editor
Iberian Lawyer
[email protected]
Twitter: @BenCook_Iberian
www.iberianlawyer.com
September / October 2016 • IBERIAN LAWYER •
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