Home | Search | Contact Us

	Small Business Trends: Add Value to Your Company With Outside General Counsel Business  By Jason Wallach Your business takes up all of your time. You want to focus on improving your product, sales and profitability, but you spend most of your time managing employees and customers. You know you need to protect your business and minimize your liability, but you're not sure whether your contracts actually do protect you or leave you vulnerable to litigation or loss. You don't have the skill set to determine if your company is in compliance with labor and employment laws, tax laws, environmental and health safety regulations. Yet each of those areas, if left unmanaged or mismanaged, can financially devastate you. A cost-effective solution is to have a “go-to” person who is not on payroll: an outside general counsel. An outside general counsel is an accessible and experienced legal advisor who practices preventive law and who is familiar with the day-to-day challenges that small business owners face in trying to manage their business and plan for growth. An experienced outside counsel can review your business formation, draft and review contracts, negotiate leases and contractor agreements, obtain financing, help you buy or sell your business, protect your ideas and inventions, and make sure your workplace practices are in compliance with state and federal employment laws. Outside counsel can also review your employee handbooks, insurance policies, recordkeeping, and your training needs - all with an eye toward preventing lawsuits, defending your business, and protecting your personal assets. Should a dispute arise, your outside counsel will help you resolve the issue swiftly and efficiently in a manner that achieves your business objectives. Small business owners face big risks every day. An effective outside general counsel will help you develop a risk management strategy so an unexpected accident or loss doesn't cripple or even bankrupt your business. Where appropriate, he or she will make recommendations on how to transfer some of your business risks to others and on how to control and minimize the impact of an unforeseen loss. An effective outside counsel also can review your insurance coverage, help you improve your insurance rating, improve your underwriting, reduce your premiums, and help protect you from the risk of being sued. Preventive Medicine Investing in preventive legal advice when it comes to your employees can provide the greatest return of all. An experienced outside counsel can review and draft employee handbooks and personnel rules, including policies relating to sexual harassment. He or she can advise you on day-to-day workplace issues such as terminating employees, wage and hour disputes, family leave, privacy, discrimination, harassment, and work-site injury problems. Your outside counsel should be able to help you identify incipient problems and procedures to minimize the impact these issues can have on your operations and profits. A low-cost do-it-yourself approach might work for some things, but your business is too important and too valuable an asset to take a "boiler plate" approach. The laws that govern and regulate small businesses and companies are vast and numerous. Outside general counsel should be a vital partner and trusted ally who complements your management skills and expertise and whose relationship results in cost-savings, reduced tax liability and litigation, long-term growth, and profitability for your business. This Article is published as a service to our clients and friends. It is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute advertising, solicitation or legal advice. ©2007 Berger Kahn, A Law Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Back
	© 2010 Berger Kahn, A Law Corporation    Disclaimer