Auckland Business Lawyer Typical Services Offered
Business owners and managers frequently need to hire legal services. If you have these responsibilities, then for your security, and your business, talk to an Auckland business lawyer.
A business is an important social and financial asset. This is not just for the shareholders, but staff, suppliers, the community and many more people and entities. Therefore, it is important that a local business not only survives but grows and thrives. To do that, the business needs good legal advice from pre-start-up days, all through its operating life.
Therefore, choosing the right Auckland business lawyer, is a key decision. It may also be that a company changes its legal counsel as it grows. Alternatively, they may hire a business lawyer for a specific piece of advice or help.
Examples of Services From An Auckland Business Lawyer
There are many different services and aspects of operating a business where a company might need legal assistance. Some of these include:-
Having the best ownership and company structure for your particular business is a crucial decision. This will affect not only the success of your venture but determine levels of risk, freedom to act, amount of compliance you will need, and even ease of sale.
Each business will have different needs and objectives so simply going for a sole trader option, or a Limited Liability Company, may not be the best option for you.
Trading terms and contracts are a key aspect for any business. After all, if your terms of trade are lax, you are leaving yourself open to all sorts of actions by your customers. You need strong contracts that work in your favour. This will cover the price, delivery requirements, standard of products you supply, and guarantees. For more complex services or products, the details will be more extensive, and can run to hundreds of pages. You will definitely need a competent business lawyer to work on that for you.
As your company grows, you will probably need to hire staff. Employment law is very complicated and needs specific actions taken in particular steps. For a start, you will need a Job Description and an Employment Agreement. If you do not have these properly set out, you are liable to difficult, and potentially extensive legal action against you. Even if you think you have followed the law, it is a sensible idea to have your law firm check your documents are properly prepared. The costs for inadequate documents can be high, not just the legal fees, but also penalties for failing to act correctly.
Your business will probably have some unique features which you want to protect from competitors. This can be your brand, trademark, intellectual property, patents, and many more. If you do not have these protected, then you are leaving your business open to attack from unscrupulous competitors.
When you come to sell or exit your business, this can be more difficult if you have not had good legal advice at an early stage. This is especially so if you have business partners or co-shareholders. For example, if one shareholder wants to exit the business, who do they sell their shares to? They may get a great offer from a competitor. Imagine how difficult that would make running your company. To avoid this and other situations, it is best to have a Shareholder Agreement written at an early stage. Other situations where this can be important is if one owner becomes divorced and has to include their percentage in the relationship property with their spouse. Similarly, if one owner disagrees with the others and wants to leave, how will they agree on a fair valuation if they are not acting amicably?
Summing Up
As you can see, there are many ways in that an Auckland business lawyer can help a company, from before they begin operating right through to disposal. Make life easier and avoid costly errors by working with an experienced lawyer.
McVeagh Fleming has a team of business lawyers who can help. mcveaghfleming.co.nz
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