Oklahoma City Business Law Attorney

All businesses need legal help from time to time. Whether it is in setting up a business, complying with local ordinances, ensuring a safe workplace, hiring or firing employees, handling taxes, or planning for business growth, a business owner has legal issues to deal with all the time. In general, the legal business world can be divided into two basic types of practices. The transactional side of business law focuses on planning and executing, while the litigation side of business law practice focuses on the lawsuits and disputes that arise between parties in a business context.

In small businesses, much of the legal work is transactional. But it helps if your Oklahoma City business law attorney is adept at handling both.

Business Law Attorney: The Transactional Side

The transactional side of business law deals with setting up the organizational structure, setting up the physical structure, legal issues regarding employees, compliance with federal, state, and local laws, and tax issues.

Setting up your business organization is an important step and will affect your business for years. Whether you choose to be a sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, or corporation, it is important to choose and implement a structure that suits you and your business needs.

With some forms of business organizations such as partnerships, a contractual agreement between the parties is needed. In others, it is recommended but not required. Your Oklahoma City attorney can help you determine which form is right for you. Also, they can help with all the necessary state filings.

Contracts: Daily Tools For Businesses

The most important tool used by a business law attorney who works on the transactional side is the contract. Contracts are used every day in the business world to memorialize an agreement between two or more people or entities. Contracts involve negotiating the terms of an agreement and then drafting an agreement.

In small businesses, contracts are used daily. These contracts can include leases, vendor agreements, user agreements, terms of service, and employment contracts.

A good contract not only memorializes the contractual relationship between parties when things are humming along, but it can also provide tools the parties agree to use when things don’t work well in an agreement. Tools such as dispute resolution, arbitration clauses, and severance clauses are helpful when things go awry.

Having an Oklahoma City attorney understand your needs and draft appropriate contracts can save a lot of heartache later on.

When Your Business Is Humming Along: Planning, Taxation, And Compliance

The other major component of the transactional side of business involves planning, taxation, and compliance. All of these aspects of business law are used on an almost daily basis in many businesses.

Business planning includes not only writing an initial business plan, but also growth strategies, expansion, and feasibility. All of these are colored by taxation.

Tax code is complex and colors every aspect of how a business operates from initial startup to initial public offerings (IPOs). A good attorney is necessary to make sure that your business is protected through good tax planning at every stage.

Compliance with the law is necessary at the city, county, state, and federal levels. This is true from start-up to the dissolution of a business. As part of the initial start-up and planning, an attorney can help ensure that your business is in compliance with all governmental rules and regulations. A yearly compliance check-up with your business law attorney is always a good idea.

Litigation: The Other Side Of Things

Most businesses see litigation at some point during the lifespan of the business. Litigation is never pleasant, but it is part of doing business.

Carrying some sort of liability insurance for your business is a must. Some of that litigation can be handled through insurance that you have in place to protect your business.

However, some contractual disputes may not be covered by your insurance. Your business law attorney can help you resolve many of these types of disputes, often without the need to engage in litigation.