Why Does My Business Need a Lawyer?

Your business needs employees and contractors, but do you actually need a lawyer? Some people say you do and some say you don’t, but when it comes to legal disputes, it is always nice to have someone on your side that understands the law and how to navigate it. Here are a few reasons you may need a lawyer for your business.

Creating Contracts

You are going to be creating and signing a lot of contracts while running your business. From rental contracts for the space you occupy to employment contracts to terms of use for your products, the types of contracts and their impact on your business is endless. Contracts are meant to outline responsibilities and duties between each party and provide protection against violation of terms. Signing the contract is important, but it is also important to make sure that the contract is enforceable and that you aren’t getting the raw end of a deal in the contract. A lawyer can help you look over or draw up a contract to avoid ending up in court with a violated contract that can’t be enforced.

Protecting Intellectual Property

Almost everything you create as part of your business falls under intellectual property. Whether it is the design for one of your products, your website copy, or an innovative way of accomplishing a task, you want to protect your intellectual property. More often than not, this can be what makes or breaks your business in terms of competitiveness and productivity. You can work with a lawyer to obtain patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secret protections that you need. As Trask Britt points out, having these protections adds value to ideas, inventions, and technological developments.

Staying Legal

Whether you are just starting out with your business or if you are a major corporation, there are a variety of legal requirements that you must meet. If you fall behind on any of them and someone decides to come after you, you could end up with large fines and penalties, so it is better to avoid this situation in the first place. Your lawyer can help you file the correct documents for forming your business or making a change to the structure. They can also oversee any sensitive negotiations, such as environmental issues, or complaints against your business from the government.

You don’t need to have a lawyer that clocks hours with your company every day, especially if you are a small company, but it is important to know who you can turn to if you run into a problem.