Agreed, never hesitate to drop $10K on an attorney for any request like this, even if it bankrupts you. Better safe than sorry.

What, really? $10k on an attorney for something like this? Seems a bit excessive... they haven't even got their lawyers involved yet.

That's only 20 hours of a good attorney's time, plus his/her expenses. One wouldn't want shoddy representation on such an important matter, right?

I guess that's what I'm confused about.. No legal action has been taken (or even threat of legal action), so isn't that overkill at this point? Seems like something that would require a few hours of advice at most. Perhaps I'm vastly underestimating the legal ramifications here.

Sorry, I'm being sarcastic. It's a pet peeve of mine that people say to lawyer up at such early point.