Business & Corporate Law

The practice

Most businesses need an attorney for predictable reasons: forming the entity, signing the lease, hiring the first employee, taking on a partner, or selling the company. The firm handles all of those, plus the less predictable matters that come up in between.

The typical client is a Metro Detroit business with anywhere from two to two hundred employees. Small enough that the owner expects to know the attorney by name. Established enough that the contracts have real money behind them.

Services

• Entity formation. LLC, corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. The firm selects the structure that fits what the business actually does, then drafts the articles and operating agreement.
• Contracts. Service agreements, NDAs, vendor agreements, and partnership agreements. Drafting from scratch or fixing what a non-lawyer wrote.
• Mergers, acquisitions, and business sales. Letter of intent through closing. Buy side and sell side.
• Compliance. Federal, state, and local. The firm flags applicable rules before they become enforcement problems.
• Commercial leases. Reviewing and negotiating the lease your landlord drafted in their favor.
• Employment matters. Employment agreements, non-competes, non-solicitation provisions, severance agreements, and employee handbooks.
• Business disputes. Partnership disputes, breach of contract, and vendor disagreements. Most settle. Some do not.
• Corporate governance. Board resolutions, bylaws, ownership transfers, and the formalities that protect the liability shield.

When a business actually needs an attorney

Not constantly. But specifically when:

• The company is being formed. Setting the structure correctly once costs less than fixing it later.
• A contract carries real liability or ongoing commitment
• The business is adding a partner, hiring its first employee, or taking outside investment
• The company is being sued, threatened with suit, or stuck in a partnership dispute
• The owner is selling the business or planning an exit in the next several years

Where the clients are

Most of the firm’s business clients are in Wayne County: Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Detroit, Livonia, and Westland. Family-owned shops, growing companies, restaurants, contractors, automotive suppliers, and professional services firms. The work is for the people who run the business, not a holding company two states away.