Leaders Are Responsible for Making Succession Plans |
By the time that Lisa had left her art law practice, she was a top practitioner. It’s a rarefied field but, in New York and London, it matters.
As a body of law, art law draws on an array of disciplines—copyright, contract, tort, tax, commercial, constitutional, and international law—to facilitate and regulate the creation, sale, collection, and display of fine and visual art. It also deals with valuation and appraisal. As art crosses borders, art lawyers disentangle customs regulations. Millions of dollars come into play.
Yet when Lisa came to see me a while back, she wanted out. “I’ve had enough with billable hours,” she told me. “I just think there’s more to life.” It emerged that she was seeking to connect more directly to art. She was taking studio classes at the Art Institute. “It’s changing the way I think,” she said. “I’m becoming a visual person.”
In effect, Lisa was leaving a profession founded on words for one where the eye comes first. But how would this play out?
I asked what she next had in mind. “It sounds like you want to stay involved with art, just in a different capacity,” I said. Right.
“I have an idea,” Lisa told me. Most artists, she said, were barely subsisting. “Maybe I can help them,” she said. “Not as a lawyer but as someone who looks out for them.”
As we continued to talk, I began to see the shape of her idea. She would be a different kind of artist’s rep. “I won’t exactly sell images,” she........