The Verme Firm

The Verme Firm - Q&A

Question and Answer with Ann Verme, founder of The Verme Firm, Inc.

Q: Why restaurants?

A: Why not?! Restaurants are fun, restaurants are hectic, restaurants are all-consuming, restaurants are exasperating, restaurants are rewarding. I love the industry because it is creative but also depends on a fair amount of business skill to pull the whole thing off. I love and am in awe of the energy it requires every day to feed the nation.

I've worked for a number of industries and this, by far, is the most interesting and exciting. And so I decided to combine my vast business experience, specific restaurant industry experience and legal background and devote myself to helping people realize their dreams.

Q: Tell us how your firm came to be.

A: Well, while I was working as a restaurant manager, I decided to go to law school. I wanted to broaden my horizons and I also planned to use my law degree in a business capacity in some way, shape or form after I graduated. It wasn't until I graduated that I started thinking of returning to the restaurant or food industry but just wasn't sure how to pull it all together at that time.

After I graduated in 2004, an opportunity came along for me to work as a contract attorney (independent contractor) for a local healthcare company. Initially, the job was supposed to last at most a month, but I ended up staying for almost two years, first in the legal department helping out on overflow projects in just about every area of law - employment law, litigation, intellectual property, regulatory law - you name it, I did it - and then I spent another year negotiating contracts with provider groups and hospitals in a five-state area. But the whole time, I still had food on the brain.

Q: What do you mean by that?

A: I mean that although healthcare was interesting and I enjoyed what I was doing, I spent most of my time talking about food and restaurants and the Food Network and my vast cookbook collection (check out my blog regarding my collection at www.collectiblecooking.blogspot.com). I pretty much chatted about everything and anything to do with food.

Eventually my friends said 'Why are you in this [healthcare] field? You should be doing something with food since you talk about it so much' and I thought to myself 'Hmmm, I think they're on to something!' And so I decided to start my own practice focusing solely on restaurants and food-related enterprises, advising owners and want-to-be-owners on both legal and business issues.

Q: So what can The Verme Firm do for me that I couldn't do myself?

A: Great question. Anyone who has started a business, me included, knows that it's an enormous undertaking requiring attention to a ridiculous amount of detail. The Minnesota Food Code alone can derail almost anyone. I want to be a one-stop shop for restaurateurs and other food company owners to do the work so they don't have to and so they can focus on following their passion of being a restaurateur, or a food manufacturer, or whatever they want to be. And because I have real-world experience working in the industry, I understand what it takes to be successful. Not many other attorneys can offer that. In fact, sadly, most attorneys go from undergrad to grad school without really experiencing the wonderful world of work. I think that having a business perspective of things makes me a better attorney. I tend to see things in the big picture, just like a business owner does, rather than just the legal question at hand.

Q: But do I need an attorney? Some of this stuff seems pretty basic.

A: Truthfully, some of it is. The beauty of The Verme Firm is that you can decide how involved your want my firm to be -- do you want me to manage the entire project for you, manage parts or just handle a very specific task? It's all up to you. The point is that I can help take some of the pressure off so you can focus on the task at hand.

Q: What types of services do you provide?

A: Everything from soup to nuts! The Verme Firm, LLC provides a wide range of business services, from concept design to management training to drafting vendor agreements, as well as legal services ranging from business formation, commercial leasing, employment law and regulatory issues.

To learn more about how The Verme Firm, LLC can help you with your restaurant or food-related enterprise endeavor, please contact me by phone at 612-269-7246, or send an email to ann@thevermefirm.com