End Run

What does it mean when you make an “end run”?

An end run is going around an obstacle to achieve a goal instead of breaking through it.

Today I completed an end run around a lawyer.  Lawyers serve a very useful purpose in our legal system.  They serve no purpose whatsoever in a workout.  A workout by definition is a business arrangement, not a legal one and most lawyers do not understand that.

I have been working for weeks with a lawyer to complete an asset sale.  He is a very nice intelligent guy, but does not get it.  He keeps talking about going concern and the asset values not being the ruler when taking a measure of how much a client should pay.  There is no going concern in a dead entity or an unprofitable one.  Not only that a bank cannot sell a going business, they can only close the doors and liquidate by auction.

I could say the same and other facts, but no matter how I changed my language and facts to say the same points, the lawyer was viewing it as a legal argument he needed to win.  There was no argument.  These are facts!  Instead of continuing to beat against the lawyer and attempt to change his point of view to match my own, I tracked down the banker and called him directly.  The lawyer is working for the banker, and therefore has no authority of his own.

Less than fifteen minutes on the phone and the banker was ready to receive the package I was presenting and gave me a verbal tactic agreement to my terms.  Bankers understand it is all about the numbers and the facts and Second Wind Consultants provides both in the best possible way and provides the most value to the bank.

Another victory for the good guys.