Attorney Rachel Young Interview

This week I had the pleasure to interview attorney Rachel Young and learn more about being an attorney, working with an attorney, and an overall better understanding of contracts. Rachel currently has her own law office, located in San Diego, CA, which handles legal matters ranging from Family Law to Entertainment Contract Negotiations, which is the precise area she will be able to help my business with.  She has been practicing for about 8-9 years and from the looks of things she is doing very well. I asked Rachel some questions during our interview and two questions that gave me some great feedback for my own business when creating a contract; what are some key elements to making the contract good? And secondly, has she dealt with liability issues before?

When creating a contract Rachel pointed out everything that we want to go into the contract should be written and discussed by both parties before initial negotiations begin. She said this would be important for my business so we are sure to provide our clients a clear and precise vision of the services we will be providing them. Rachel explained to me about a simple case she had in which an event planning company was hired to provide a DJ for a family reunion. The event planning company hired the DJ and the day of the reunion the DJ was present but did not perform to the family’s expectations. Rachel explained to me that because the event planning company was only hired to provide the family with a DJ and this was the only service in the contract the event planning company was not held liable for the faulty performance of the DJ. Although this did not look great for the company, the liability fell solely on the DJ and his pay had to be renegotiated based on his actual performance. In the end it was good the event planning company specifically said in the contract what service they would provide and moving forward they would include in their contracts what would happen in case of situation like this, or they would only refer services to clients and require a finders fee.

This example Rachel told me about was the perfect example of a situation I might encounter with my business, so I now know how I can avoid a potential situation like this, and if it does happen how to handle it appropriately. Rachel’s suggestion of only doing the referring and charging a finder’s fee was a great suggestion that I had not thought about, which will open up more service opportunities for my business.

At the end of our interview I ask Rachel if she would consider doing consulting with my business on our client contracts and replied, “yes of course, but then I will have to charge you for my services and recommendations”.  To which I replied, “ yes of course, just don’t hurt my pockets too much”. We both laughed at the comments and ended the interview laughing. If you are in San Diego and need an attorney I would suggest hiring Attorney Rachel Young. 

Green Controversy aka Green Entertainment

“Going Green” is a huge controversy in and of itself, so naturally within the green the industry there is major debate and controversy on current policy. The controversy is seen here in the states with oil companies and environmental groups, but the United States it’s the only country having its own green controversy. I’ve read 3 different articles about current green controversy and they all seem to lead back to one source, the government. I personally think although the government may be moving toward a greener US and world, they have their own agendas will continue to move at a pace that is conducive to that agenda but still keeps the people thinking they will change. There is hope though; two of the three articles I read do demonstrate the government pushing for a greener world.

The first article comes from Anusha Subramanian in Business Today. The article discusses how the Indian Cabinet recently had a reshuffle and former minister of state for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, is now in charge of rural development but received a promotion in Cabinet rank. The article basically shows how Jairam who was know for being very adamant on environmental policy change in the Indian government has set a high bar for the minister of state for environment and forest. Although he no longer has the say he used in those terms, all the commotion he has caused did its job in the end. The people are now more aware and educated on green and the new minister will have to follow suit and keep the people happy but not the fellow government, or keep the government happy and risk upsetting the people.  I personally think the new minister will play her cards in a moderate manner and keep both sides happy, implementing green policy that will keep the governments green spending lower and the people green movement pushing forward.

The second article is about our own President Obama continuing to step up to green plate. The article comes Vincent Reitano with GREEN and SAVE Staff. Vincent’s article discusses how President Obama revisited LED lighting manufacture plant. This simple visit I big for the green movement, if President Obama approves of LED lighting then it must be worth the switch, well that’s what I like to think the way people preserved this visit. Even if Americans did not see it this way, it still shows that our nation’s leader is supporting the green movement and job creation. With the current state of the economy creating jobs is a necessary and arguable going green is a necessary, so put the two together and you have a formula to help kick start the economy. I guess the controversy still remains on whether need to focus our efforts on alternative sources of energy or stick with good old oil and fossil fuels? A better question and argument create more jobs or keep the same old jobs and economy?

Lastly I read on article with pointed out the Green Cities in the US and Canada written by Kaid Benfield via NRDC.org. This article shows my point of how the government can seem to be into the green movement but some of what they present just doesn’t add up in favor of the movement. The article discusses the top 5 cities in Co2, Energy, Waste, Buildings, Air, Water, Environmental Governance. Unfortunately as stated in the article not all of these categories results were comprised with one set standard, but some results were quantitative, qualitative, and subjective. The main point that stuck out to me with this article is the fact the Los Angeles is in the top five cities for air quality, CO2, and waste. I could see if the article is pointing out the top five cities with the worst in the categories.  The waste category may be something Los Angeles is doing well compared to other states, but air quality and CO2 emissions not at all. Everyone knows there is still a thick a layer of smog around the city and it is know for having some of the worst traffic in the US. If you have traffic that means there a lot of cars on the road which means more CO2 being emitted into the air, making the air quality worse. Also, Los Angeles will be shutting down one of it major freeways this week for expansion construction and that means more cars and more CO2. Kaid stated city rankings of any sort raise as many questions as they answer, and I would have to completely agree. Los Angeles being in the top five cities for Air Quality raises enough question itself.

All in all the article were very informative with regards to what’s happening in the green industry, or as I like to call it green entertainment. I have listed the discussed article links below, view them and get your dose of green entertainment; it will open your eyes to being green conscious.

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/cabinet-reshuffle-jairam-ramesh/1/16963.html

http://www.greenandsave.com/green_news/green-politics/president-obama-revisits-led-technology-cree-8384

http://www.greenandsave.com/green_news/green-lifestyle/green-cities-us-canada-kind-conclusion-co2-energy-waste-buildings-air-wat