A proven San Diego corporate attorney at the Watkins Firm provides sound business counsel and advice based upon almost four decades of experience. What should your corporate counsel do to help your corporation from the point of business formation to the ultimate disposition of your company through a merger or acquisition? Why is your corporate attorney one of the most important external business partners you should have?
Key Takeaways About a Proven San Diego Corporate Attorney at the Watkins Firm:
- Entity selection and the protection of the corporate veil are part of the services of a proven California and San Diego corporate attorney.
- The heart of the corporation is the operating agreement for an LLC or the shareholders agreement and bylaws for other entities. These crucial documents contain literally more than a hundred essential clauses, but each clause can be configured in one of several different ways.
- Contracts are the foundation of all successful business transactions. Look for a law firm with a large, proprietary library of proven business contracts that will provide exceptional governance over your transactions, while reducing the likelihood of challenges or disputes.
- Corporate governance ensures the proper maintenance and updates of corporate documents and ensures legal, ethical and regulatory compliance throughout your entire operation. Even small companies must carefully and consistently exercise corporate governance in order to protect the corporate veil.
Entity Selection and Business Formation
The first step for any corporation is the selection of an appropriate entity or group of entities. Your proven San Diego corporate attorney at the Watkins Firm invests a lot of complimentary extra time up front to learn about your business plans and the strategies you intend to employ as you conduct business locally, throughout the State of California, across state lines or even internationally.
Which entity is best for you, an LLC, S Corporation or C Corporation? If you are in the medical business or healthcare field a California Professional Corporation and/or a Management Service Organization or MSO might be the right entities for your practice or business operations.
The key to business formation isn’t about the fairly straightforward paperwork required to create an entity and file with the state(s) in which you intend to do business. The heart of the corporation is the operating agreement for an LLC or the shareholders agreement and bylaws for other entities. These crucial documents contain literally more than a hundred essential clauses, but each clause can be configured in one of several different ways.
Your Watkins Firm attorney asks a lot of questions to help set up the relationship of the owners and investors of the company completely and properly up front while anticipating the types of challenges and business-threatening developments which will inevitably arise down the road.
Contracts are the Foundation of All Business Transactions
Contracts and agreements are the foundation of all business, and your proven San Diego corporate attorney at the Watkins Firm works to ensure that every agreement and contract you sign protects your interests and puts you in the best possible position to succeed and profit.
We carefully craft strong business contracts from our proprietary library of proven, successful contracts which we’ve developed across decades. This library is constantly updated to reflect changes in federal, state and local laws and saves you substantial costs and reduces the extensive risk associated with downloaded forms.
Effective contracts solidify relationships with vendors, employees and customers alike. A well drafted contract should guide the parties seamlessly through a transaction. They are like a game plan, anticipating every potential challenge and clearly identifying the role of each party to the agreement. Our seasoned counsel and legal skill helps you to avoid litigation, side step potential traps and obstacles, and draw on the experience of other professionals with extensive experience and expertise in your industry.
Well crafted business contracts reduce or eliminate misunderstandings which can lead to business disputes or expensive lawsuits. A clearly constructed contract anticipates challenges which might arise and how the parties will work through those challenges to achieve the “benefit of the bargain.” Reduce the expense and contingent liabilities associated with litigation and protect your corporation.
Corporate Governance and Compliance
We help you to manage every aspect of corporate governance, compliance and maintaining up-to-date and effective bylaws and policies. Corporate governance ensures the proper maintenance and updates of corporate documents and ensures legal, ethical and regulatory compliance throughout your entire operation. Even small companies must carefully and consistently exercise corporate governance in order to protect the corporate veil.
Your San Diego Corporate Attorney at the Watkins Firm
Your San Diego corporate attorney at the Watkins Firm will become one of your most trusted and valuable business advisors and partners. Just as every professional athlete requires a strong coach, every business owner or corporation needs a strong business coach and counselor.
Pro-Tip: “The corporate veil applies to both limited liability companies and corporations and also some other trust and things like that. But if you have a separate business entity, you have something called a corporate veil. And the thinking is if you keep everything separate and you treat it as a separate entity, you don’t co-mingle funds. You don’t fail to keep records.
Then if there’s an obligation of the corporation or if there’s no statute saying it goes right to the primary owner, owners, and shareholders, then you are not personally liable for that. And that means you can take more risks in the business place. You can take out loans, you can get vendor contracts, you can get employment contracts, you can do all kinds of things, joint ventures, mergers, all kinds of things in the name of the business. And when you get home, if things go bad, you don’t have to tell your spouse, yeah, I lost the house.
Corporate governance is maintaining your corporation in a legal and proper fashion, such that you’re in compliance with all the laws of the state of California, so that you may be respected in your corporate form as a separate legal entity. It’s about fairness, it’s about fraud, it’s about doing business in a proper manner, which doesn’t rip off customers, doesn’t damage vendors or lenders. If you maintain your corporation in a proper fashion, keep your minutes, keep your statement of information with the Secretary of State filed, have your meetings and maintain proper records and do business separately, then you should have benefits. You should have tax benefits, you should have investor benefits. You should have benefits of when you want to sell your company. The ones that really stay on it and run their business the right way are usually much more successful” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner
We invite you to listen to our Podcast Episode 6 – Why Do You Need a (Corporate Attorney), review the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.
Learn about the unique blend of skills, advice and quality legal services that the San Diego corporate attorneys at the Watkins Firm can bring to your company. Lets discuss your business or corporation, your plans and challenges, your dreams and vision for the coming year. We are committed to supporting our clients, and helping their businesses to get off to a great start, and work with them as they continue to grow and thrive.
Meet Daniel Watkins:
Daniel W. Watkins is a true people person who sincerely listens. He cares deeply about what others are going through. Dan enjoys digging into the facts and finding creative solutions to problems. He contributes his insights candidly and constructively.
Dan’s interest in people make him deeply invested in every relationship and his exuberant personality makes him a true litigator. Dan fights for his clients with a fierce and calculated commitment.
Dan has practiced in the areas of business, medical practices and healthcare business, high tech/science, real estate and employment defense law since 1987. He is a trusted litigation strategist and true trial attorney with over 50 jury and bench trials to his credit. Dan has successfully represented both large companies and individuals and achieved substantial victories in well-publicized trials throughout California and the U.S.
He is experienced in business and corporate formation and administration, as well as all forms of alternative dispute resolution, including binding arbitration and mediation.
THE ROAD TO BECOMING A BUSINESS LAWYER AND LITIGATOR
Dan has almost 40 years of experience working with, for and against some of the largest insurance companies in the country. He has successfully tried and litigated cases in the areas of Healthcare Compliance, Commercial Litigation, Unfair Business Practices, Fraud, Breach of Contract, Battery, Premises Liability, Product Defect, Medical Malpractice, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Construction Defect, as well as Unfair Competition, Defamation, and Trade Secrets.
In December 2003, Dan commenced litigation against Health South Surgery Centers-West, Inc and its’ subsidiaries, exposing the company’s extensive mismanagement and misconduct of its’ surgery centers. Dan has also been asked by some of California’s largest municipalities and corporations to conduct legally required investigations into matters involving alleged employment discrimination and harassment.
