Small Business—General Counsel

 Posted on July 28, 2017 in Business Law

If you have a small business in Oakbrook Terrace or elsewhere in DuPage County, or if you are considering starting a small business, it is important to consider having general counsel for your company. You might be thinking: if I simply have a small business with only a couple of employees, do I actually need general counsel?

As an article in the Boston Globe explains, small business—of all sizes and types—regularly encounter legal issues that require the assistance of counsel. When you are trying to run a business, attempting to tackle some of these legal matters on your own can be frustrating and complicated, and in some cases seemingly impossible.

What Kind of Business Should I Form?

One of the initial reasons to work with general counsel as you develop your small business concerns making a decision about the type of business you want to develop. A fact sheet from the U.S. Small Business Administration explains that there are numerous business structures from which a person (or group of persons) in DuPage County can choose.

The type of business structure you select will depend in part on the size of your business, as well as your preferences concerning business taxes, liability, and profit matters. Generally speaking, there are six different types of business structures, and our Oakbrook Terrace small business general counsel attorneys can help you to create any of the following:

• Sole Proprietorship: This type of small business is usually the easiest of the six to establish, and it is a business structure in which the individual business owner bears responsibility for the assets and liabilities of the company.
• Partnership: There are different kinds of partnerships that can be developed, and they can vary in terms of how the partners are responsible for business issues. A DuPage County small business attorney can help you decide if a partnership is right for you, and if so, what type of partnership is best for your business situation.
• Corporation (also known as a C corp): This is a type of business that usually works best for larger small businesses that will have multiple employees. It is more complex than other types of business structures.
• Limited Liability Company (LLC): This type of small business works like a partnership in some ways (especially when it comes to tax liability), and like a corporation in other respects.
• S Corporation (also known as an S corp): This business structure is similar to a C corp, but taxation works differently. In an S corp, the business taxes are linked to personal taxes. A business attorney can explain in more detail.
• Cooperative: This type of business structure has member-owners and is quite distinct from most other business types.

Handling Legal Issues That Arise

Small business general counsel is also extremely important for many different types of legal matters that arise in the course of doing business. For example:

• Making hiring and firing decisions about employees;
• Drafting and enforcing contracts;
• Handling business contract disputes;
• Managing employee disputes;
• Dealing with employee discrimination and other employment law claims;
• Effectively using restrictive covenants;
• Drafting commercial real estate contracts and handling commercial real estate disputes;
• Business taxation matters; and
• Business negotiations.

No matter how small or large your business might be, it is important to have general counsel to assist in the wide variety of legal issues.

Contact an Oakbrook Terrace Business Law Attorney

At Farooqi & Husain Law Office, our advocates are committed to assisting the Muslim community in DuPage County with a wide variety of small business needs. Whether you are just now forming a small business and want to work with general counsel from the outside, or if you have been in business for a period of time but have legal issues that have arisen, one of our dedicated Oakbrook Terrace business law attorneys can assist you. Contact Farooqi & Husain Law Office for more information.

Sources:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/08/23/for-small-businesses-lawyer-general-counsel-for-day/MSTeebVCPC3ApxqaOKANuI/story.html

https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/choose-your-business-structure