Business Formation and Metamorphous
The limited liability provided by a business entity such as a corporation or limited liability company is an essential tool for minimizing your personal liability. Our services include counseling on the correct form of entity and then creation and maintenance of the corporate entity. The demands of your business may call for transactions which affect your entity such as mergers, acquisitions, the sale or purchase of significant assets or the sale or purchase of shares of your entity. We have expertise in all of these areas and can assist you to avoid legal and business issues which might negatively impact your transaction.
Partners, Shareholders and Misunderstandings
While the genesis of the majority of all shareholder and partnership relationships is the ability to work amicably together, misunderstandings can and often do result in the breakdown of these relationships. We have developed an expertise in the creative resolution of partnership and shareholder disputes. This expertise has the added benefit of making us excellent counselors at the formation stage of the relationship. We assist our clients to put together partnership, member and/or shareholder agreements which set out clear expectations and a mechanism to resolve disputes up front, thereby giving our clients a framework to resolve issues before misunderstandings become disputes.
Employment
No matter what the size of your business, you may well have employment issues. As your general counsel we strive to understand your business so that we are better positioned to assist you to avoid potential employee problems as well as quickly assist you should a situation demand immediate attention. We have assisted our clients in the creation of policies and procedures, employment contracts, separation agreements and employee non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements to ensure the protection of your company’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.
Compliance Issues
We advise and assist with identifying and obtaining licenses, permits, and registrations from local, state, and federal agencies. We assist in identifying laws regulating your industry and in implementing plans for compliance.
Intellectual Property
We advise and assist businesses with issues of competition and the protection of trade secrets, as well as the licensing of intellectual property in the context of customer, distributor and other third party agreements.
Business Contracts
We are experienced at preparing agreements for most business situations. We believe in drafting agreements that are written in plain English with an eye to creating working documents that are easily administered by non-lawyers.
Real Estate
Real property transactions can be cumbersome to negotiate and resolve. We have worked with developers, commercial landlords and tenants and have consequently developed a keen understanding of the legal and business issues which can complicate these transaction and how to efficiently avoid them.
Collections and Dispute Resolution
Our goal is to resolve your legal disputes the cheap way – that is to say without resorting to litigation. In this context, we are successful at working with our clients to craft creative, cost-efficient solutions to the age old problem of getting paid.
Small Business Focus
- Entity formation
- Limited liability companies, corporations, partnerships and joint ventures
- Contract forms to correspond with business needs
- Regulatory compliance
- Assist in selecting outside attorneys and advisors
- Strategic planning
- Position company for growth or sale
- Transition advisory services
- Sale or acquisition by third party
- Existing shareholder/member buyout
- Transition to next generation
- Seller financing structures