Business Lawyer in Tampa

A Tampa business lawyer can help you start and grow your business by creating your operating operating or shareholder agreements, negotiate your contracts, protect your trademark, and help with legal general counsel.

Business law a vast of area that covers many different parts of a business including:

• Corporate formation and structure
• Operating agreements for LLCs
• Contract drafting and reviews
• Shareholder agreements and by-laws for corporations
• Stock purchase agreements
• Due diligence in business acquisitions
• Asset protection agreements
• Employee classification
• Regulatory compliance
• Commercial lease creation and reviews
• Negotiations

Florida law has unique laws and practices that apply to Tampa businesses. For example, if you are selling or buying a business, you can either hire your own lawyer or hire a “business transaction attorney”  that helps draw up the paperwork for the business acquisition without representing either the buyer or the seller. Although this approach is more cost-effective and may be appropriate for low-risk deals, a business transaction attorney cannot conduct due diligence for the buyer or answer questions specific to one party or the other.

Business Entity Formation

Choosing between a limited liability company (LLC) versus a corporation has both legal and tax implications.  It is also important to draft the proper corporate documents such as a LLC’s operating agreements or corporation’s by-laws and shareholder agreements. These documents establish ownership, create succession plans, and protect your assets. In addition, consulting a business lawyer and accountant is important in choosing whether or how to involve a parent company or holding company.

Contract Review and Negotiation

Contract drafting goes far beyond putting words on a paper. There are so many parts to a contract draft or review beyond the four corners of a contract. Sound contracts need to discuss specific terms like term length, fees, services, limitations of liability, indemnities, representations, warranties, buy-outs, defaults, terminations, and any other terms specific to the parties. Other considerations include outside of the four corners of the contract include insurance compliance, liens, third-party contracts, regulatory compliance, and proper disclosures. Having the right business contract lawyer is essential for this.

Business Acquisition and Business Purchase Agreements

Buying or selling a business is a huge decision and doing so incorrectly can come to haunt you after the deal is done. Buyers want to ensure that they are getting their money’s worth and not buying a liability. Sellers want to ensure that they get paid for the value of their business and are not liable to the buyer post-closing. There are also other issues like contract assignment, due diligence, deal structure, promissory notes, transition periods and obligations, and tax considerations.

Trademarks

Having a trademark that you can protect is important to having a successful brand and business. If other businesses can use the same name or brand as your business, it is hard to stand out. Common mistakes that business owners make when they try to file their own trademarks include applying for a trademark that is too similar to an existing trademark, not being unique enough to qualify as a trademark, or simply filing the trademark application incorrectly resulting in technical defects. Our Tampa trademark lawyer can help you file your trademark application correctly to protect your brand.

We are business lawyers serving the Tampa greater area including Downtown Tampa, South Tampa, North Tampa, Westshore, Carrollwood, New Tampa, Temple Terrace, Ybor City, Channelside, and Westchase.