Business is all about risk and reward. Risk is an inherent element of any successful business. There are many forms of business risk associated with economic conditions, technology, competitors, and environmental or regulatory issues, especially for our clients in the practice of medicine or the healthcare industry. Risk assessment and/or legal and business risk management is based on the belief that it is best to identify, mitigate, reduce, or eliminate legal issues and risks before they become genuine (read: expensive) legal problems.
The need for thorough, experience-based risk assessment is an essential element of any business entity’s strategy for risk management.
Much like a tax or financial “audit,” risk assessment focuses on the legal risks of virtually every aspect of business. The Watkins Firm applies almost four decades of business and litigation experience, expertise, and judgment to identify potential areas of legal risk and manage the process to minimize or eliminate potential risk.
Pre-litigation and Dispute Risk Analysis
Business risk management and legal risk management often begin with an analysis of past, present, and future exposures to disputes or lawsuits. What are the present areas of risk your business or corporation faces based upon the structures within your transactions and your company’s history involving past disputes or lawsuits? The Watkins Firm can review existing contracts, policies and procedures, corporate governance and compliance, and employment policies to reduce your risk exposure and mitigate identified areas of potential exposure.
Ask about the Watkins Firm’s unique approach to litigation, specifically designed to prevent disputes and lawsuits and to resolve any dispute in a timely, cost-efficient manner. The Watkins Firm is able to resolve the vast majority of business disputes and lawsuits through effective, leveraged negotiation. We represent clients in all Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) phases, including negotiations, mediation, arbitration, and trial.
Are Your Contracts Updated and Current?
The Watkins Firm maintains an extensive proprietary library of proven business contracts, tested in simple and complex business transactions across many years. Our contracts are constantly updated to strengthen indemnification, reflect changes in the law, and ensure no clauses (within a document or missing therefrom) present potential issues or vulnerabilities in a dispute.
Is Your Workplace Compliant with California and Federal Laws and Regulations?
In our opinion, California is the most complex and challenging state in which to be an employer. Employers face extensive regulatory and wage and hour compliance, FMLA and EEOC challenges, ADA requirements, and exposures related to California’s Private Attorneys General Act or PAGA. The plaintiff’s attorneys advertise heavily for dissatisfied employees upset with their employer. These employees can be coached, and an employer often notices changes in their behavior or specific words or phrases that become part of their communications.
We help our clients to tighten up existing HR documents and contracts, policies and procedures, the employee handbook, and internal processes and guidelines that can be the difference between substantial exposure for retaliation, discrimination, or wrongful termination and a smooth process for managing, evaluating, reviewing, and disciplining your workforce.
Healthcare Risk Assessment and Management
The Watkins Firm has served the healthcare industry and licensed medical professionals and their practices for over four decades in San Diego and California. A medical practice or healthcare business inherently carries high exposure to risk. Regulatory compliance extends to HIPAA and HITECH compliance to protect information about the patient and their health and prevent and manage various incidents, protocol breaches, and violations.
Stark law anti-kickback statutes are designed to prevent illegal referrals and to ensure proper financial relationships between licensed medical professionals and business entities. The risks in these areas increase when Management Services Organizations or MSOs are part of our client’s corporate structure(s). It is possible to minimize or eliminate these risks while leveraging external business skills to improve the business side of the equation and allow medical professionals to focus on delivering exceptional healthcare and patient satisfaction.
The Risks of Intellectual Property and Trade Secret Misappropriation
Intellectual property identifies your company’s unique value to the market(s) you serve. It extends to creations of the mind such as logos, artwork, video and presentations, and process manuals to proprietary computer software, recipes, processes, and trademarks. Trade secrets are established to reduce the likelihood of internal misappropriation and future competition. What steps should you take to protect your company’s intellectual property and trade secrets? What proactive steps can be taken to minimize potential infringement or misappropriation?
Legal and Business Risk Management Must Focus on Prevention and Mitigation
Any legal and business risk management strategy must focus on the development and implementation of policies and procedures, processes for handling potential issues or violations, ongoing education and training, as well as managing the challenges of any dispute or lawsuit. What actions can be taken to mitigate exposures or remediate them altogether? What steps can be taken to resolve potential disputes and legal exposures quickly and efficiently?
Are You Concerned About Legal or Business Risk Management?
If you are concerned about legal or business risk management, you need the Watkins Firm’s experience, advice, counsel, and services. We will work with you to assess every aspect of your company’s operations, processes, procedures, and documents to identify areas of potential exposure, increase awareness, facilitate education and training, mitigate or remediate potential risks, and resolve any dispute or lawsuit quickly and in a cost-effective manner.
We invite you to review our podcast Episode 10 – The Importance of a Strong Corporate Attorney as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.
Call 858-535-1511 for a Free Consultation
As a business, we understand the importance of protecting your business throughout its lifetime, from formation to eventual sale or dissolution. We get to know your business and understand your goals and objectives so that we can provide the most effective combination of advice and services to help you reach them. We have worked with literally thousands of local and regional businesses and can help you to avoid business disputes and pitfalls, and prosperously grow your business. Contact us online or call 858-535-1511 to discuss your case with a knowledgeable business law attorney in San Diego, California.
Contact a Business Lawyer Or Corporate Attorney Today
To set up a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our knowledgeable San Diego business lawyers, call us at 858-535-1511 or contact us online.