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Good Corporate Legal Services are Essential to San Diego Small Businesses
If you are running a San Diego business, you need an experienced corporate attorney to help. Legal services are not only necessary, but are essential and can actually help your business succeed. Here are a few of the ways we can help.
Corporate Formations and Annual Maintenance
Having corporate status is important for you personally to help protect your personal and family assets from being seized for business debts, and corporate status can also come with tax advantages compared to sole proprietorship, partnership, or disregarded entities such as LLCs. Having corporate status also provides the platform through which you may bring on investors and business partners, limit liability when contracting with workers, clients, and vendors, and be best organized when approaching financial institutions or community lenders for financing. The choice between corporation, S-Corp, LLC, and the various forms of partnership is complex, as is choosing the best state in which to form the entity you choose. The factors weighed in the choice are management structure, taxation, liability protection, and annual maintenance obigations. Which one is right for your business? An experienced corporate lawyer can help you pick the best entity and the best jurisdiction for formation.
Protecting Your Business From One-Sided Business Contracts
You need an experienced corporate lawyer to review contracts that you are asked to sign. It may seem simple to just read the contract, but a good attorney can explain what you are reading. More importantly, a good lawyer can explain what is missing, what is tilted in favor of the other party, where changes can be made to make the contract less onerous, and more.
Drafting Business Contracts That Have “Teeth”
A trusted corporate lawyer can also protect your business by drafting contracts that are solid, enforceable under California law, and that have “teeth.” The “teeth” are needed if the other party fails to honor its obligations under the contract and you end up having to litigate. Business contracts should be drafted to help avoid litigation, but just as importantly, contracts should be drafted to help you win if litigation becomes necessary.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Many small businesses think that they have no intellectual property just because they are small. Under California and federal law, the definition of “trade secret” — one type of intellectual property — is broad. Client and vendor lists, for example, need protection. Even something as simple as the buying habits of your customers are commercially valuable and should be legally protected. This is another example of legal services that your small business needs. A good corporate lawyer can help.
Handling Ownership Issues Via Owners and/or Buy-Sell Agreements
If you are running your business by yourself, then, obviously, there are no ownership “issues.” Once you add a business partner, it is important to have some sort of written owners’ agreement and a buy-sell agreement. Things may start well, but everyone should plan for adversity, and “adversity” might be more than just disagreements. Divorce, disability, and untimely deaths happen, and all small businesses should have plans in place.
Mergers And Acquisitions
Maybe you just started your business and maybe buying another business or selling the one you are building is far down the road. Maybe. But opportunities come along unexpectedly. It is important to have a corporate attorney at the ready. It can take some time to get a business “ready” for a potential purchaser. This is similar to how an owner might refurbish a kitchen or bath before putting a house up for sale.
Contact San Diego Corporate Law
For more information, contact attorney Michael Leonard, Esq., of San Diego Corporate Law. Mr. Leonard was recently named as “Best of the Bar” by the San Diego Business Journal for 2018. Mr. Leonard has received that honor for the past four years. Mr. Leonard can be reached at (858) 483-9200 or via email.
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