What to Look For in a Business Attorney
Business attorneys are numerous, especially in the Bay Area. Some are brand new, others have extensive experience, and more are specialized in specific areas of the law or in special types of disputes.
When you are seeking knowledgeable advice and support, you need to know what to look for in a business attorney and find the one that can help you best. Hopefully this list can help you make that decision. At the end, we hope you will consider JGPC Law. You can reach us on telephone on 925.463.9600 or via email at jgpc@jgpc.com.
A business attorney should be knowledgeable in business law
The first factor you need to consider is how well the business attorney is informed regarding business law. Businesses can face a wide range of issues and your attorney should be able to comfortably address the immediate issue at hand. Ideally, their experience is broad so they can handle more issues for your company in the future. A long term relationship is built on trust. Trust comes from knowledge about your business needs and experience working with one another. Trust can best be established over time.
A business attorney should be knowledgeable in a breadth of legal issues
The right business attorney for you should be able to help with shareholder agreements, resolutions, creation of bylaws, as well as more complicated issues such as intellectual property protection, including trademarks, patents, and non-disclosure agreements. Personnel issues are plentiful for any company with employees, including the legality of firing and hiring, wage laws, overtime, and sales agent issues. A business runs on contracts, so your business attorney of choice should be experts at contract creation, review and enforcement.
A business attorney should be experienced in your type of business
While legal knowledge is invaluable, a business attorney’s experience with different business industries, especially yours in particular, can make the difference for successful litigation or avoidance. A lawyer who hasn’t worked with your type of business or industry may miss opportunities, not be aware of precedence, or be unfamiliar with industry terms, trends and factors.
It is fair to ask your prospective attorney whether they have worked with similar businesses before and find out how they fared in the past. You may even ask for references. The best attorney will understand what you’re going through quickly and should be able to immediately help with utilizing the right resources to solve the situation.
A great business attorney belongs to a reliable network
Finally, a great business attorney participates in a resourceful network of other attorneys and support teams. As much as we would like, every attorney may not know every aspect of law or have all resources on staff. Times come when they don’t have the detailed knowledge or resources within their own firm. This is when professional networks and complete knowledge of available tools and services are highly valuable.
Arranging for an early consultative meeting between the owners or management and the business attorney should provide a platform for discussing issues such as “what happens if you do not have a particular resource?”
Learn more about JGPC Law, Business Attorneys
To learn more about business law and finding the best business attorney, you can visit JGPC Business Law on 5890 Stoneridge Dr. Suite 102, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Call us to set an appointment to discuss your business needs at 925.463.9600.