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Chief
Quit?
Quit dude—you know the moment something blows up he will be looking to blame you. Can’t stand these type of business individuals.
Pro
CYA. Don’t bother redlining or even suggesting alternatives, just summarize the most pertinent risks of a given deal and send to him via email.
If he’s authorizing all contracts regardless of the terms, it all needs to fall on him. There’s no real “legal review” taking place.
If something goes sideways before acquisition, it’s going to be his rear. Insurance ain’t gonna cover anything, this is a clear breach of his fiduciary obligations.
Pro
The only companies that accept all risk to close a deal are startups who must report growth to survive, or entities trying to stave off BK.
Counterintuitively it’ll start costing you business, because larger more mature companies will start to view you as a risk. My template doc was designed with lots of low hanging fruit to trade away to make me seem reasonable, but anyone accepting it AS IS is a huge red flag- they ain’t long for this world and/or have no idea what their obligations are or any ability to comply.
Wow thanks everyone. I thought I was being precious but looks like I was right on the money here. Hilariously this company was a client of mine and I was offered this job without asking. They were actually a great client to work with but have been terrible in-house. I guess the distance does matter.
I agree with what all of you have said about the CEO's competence and that he might be looking to blame me, as he already does.
You're right SC2 that they want to show as much growth as possible although competitors have done so much better. I do think the goal is to get acquired in a year or two at most and that's why the attempts to boost revenue by closing as much as possible. I've been privy to conversations with this CEO in which he's openly told me that he thinks of this as his company given that he owns a big chunk of the common stock and he will make x mil when he sells, so he doesn't care about anything else.
I've been at this company for about 1.5 years now. Would've liked to stay a bit longer because frankly, they need me and I can do a lot of good here, but clearly don't want me to do any of that.
I might need to dust off the old resume and start looking.
Just put the risk in writing to CYA.
Rising Star
quit. and agreed with other posts highlight the risks and move on
It is reckless. This happened when I was in house and that company failed. Dust off your resume. Keep doing your ethical job of informing the risk. CYA. CYA. CYA. Don’t be a signatory to anything. Look into your D&O policy.
He sounds nuts.
Thank you L1 and P1. I am going to use this weekend to redo my resume and reach out to some senior in-house folks I know. Might even consider moving back to biglaw.
Sure
Often says he doesn't care about any of it, just accept it if it's taking more than a day. For context: my turn around time is about 1 day anyway but often customers will take much longer. Second, we push back on 3-4 critical items (think unlimited liability type issues), or if something is just plan wrong (like the description of our service itself is wrong).
My worries are two-fold:
1. The amount of risk taken/ legal debt for this company is so incredibly high and disproportional to size that I worry it's almost reckless. One issue will wipe the company out. But I have no idea how to talk sense into the CEO to have him see that.
2. I am beginning to feel like there's no way for me to add value at this company at all.. if all I have to do is accept everything, why does it need to come to me at all? Why am I here? I also don't want to be blamed for "too much time taken" when it's clearly not me/ us.
CEO often sends out exploding angry slack messages instead of constructive adjustment conversations that lead to any kind of legal enablement in a way he'd get results he wants. I feel like I'm dealing with a child, not an adult professional.
How do I deal with this? I would very much appreciate any and all advice and help!
If any of you are looking/ your companies are hiring, let me know. I might need a new job soon :D
Thank you both. Yes all communication is in writing. I will make it very clear that all decisions will be on him.