For the majority of people who work in a commercial industry, the decision to hire a corporate lawyer can be compared with visiting a dentist. Issues within a company are like cavities in the teeth that need professional consultation to remedy. Failing to consult a lawyer, like failing to consult a dentist, can allow problems to fester and become worse.
There are also plenty of issues that don’t need legal counsel to remedy and can be solved internally. This begs the question; how do you know when it’s time to hire a corporate lawyer? This is an important question because you don’t want to spend time and money on unnecessary legal consultation.
Let’s take a look at some common example where calling in a corporate lawyer is necessary.
You and your business partners plan to create special allocations for profits and losses
These allocations will depend a great deal on the type of business you are in, whether it be a joint venture, partnership, limited-liability company or corporation.
Because this can be a complicated issue, you should solicit the services of an experience corporate lawyer to help you draft an agreement, explain its provisions and help settle any tax that needs to be paid.
A partner has donated corporate property without full consent
If one of your company’s partners had donated corporate property without the consent of all partners, you naturally want to get that property back. In many jurisdictions disposing of a property without the consent of all partners is automatically void.
Despite this, getting the property back can still be a complicated process with many other factors at play. Having a corporate lawyer on your side will make the recovery of the property via legal action much easier.
Environmental issues
Depending on the nature of your business there may be environmental factors that need to be considered and prepared for. Many time breaching environmental laws will result in heavy penalties as well as loss of goodwill with the public.
In order to avoid a conflict with environmental laws a corporate lawyer should be hired to help prevent you from breaching them or if necessary defend your company in court from lawsuits.
Employment and labour issues
If an employee has begun legal action against your business over a workplace grievance and it can’t be settled by your own policy you may require a lawyer to represent you. If the matter goes beyond labour and reaches a corporate level you will need a corporate lawyer for representation.