Are you searching for a proven, experienced California corporate attorney in San Diego or Southern California?  As our Founder, Dan Watkins, said recently on a podcast episode: “Every business should have 3 great partners they can count on, a good business and corporate lawyer, a banker and a solid tax adviser.”  A corporate attorney is more than simply ensuring governance and compliance issues are met and annual meetings are conducted. Your business attorney should be a good business coach and someone you can talk to about anything.

As an experienced California corporate attorney in San Diego, Dan Watkins manages all of the important actions and documentation required to protect the corporate veil and your company’s standing with the State of California.  More importantly, he works with our clients to ensure all of their internal documentation and corporate documents are updated and in alignment with present and future company objectives.

Corporate documents such as the operating agreement for an LLC, or the bylaws and shareholders’ agreement for a corporation must be kept up to date with all changes in local, state and federal laws.  What has changed in the business this past year and what challenges have we faced?  How can we establish boundaries in our corporate documents to ensure the performance of our stakeholders while protecting the interests of the company?

An experienced California corporate attorney in San Diego also knows how important company documents such as the employee handbook and policies and procedures manual are to prevent employee litigation and wage and hour disputes.  California makes it difficult enough for any employer to handle their business.  We work with our clients to ensure solid expectations are in writing, policies and procedures are updated and enforceable and that each employee has signed both their new employee handbook as well as appropriate job related materials to prevent plaintiff’s attorneys from targeting your organization.

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

You need an experienced California corporate attorney in San Diego.  You need the proven advise and counsel of the Watkins Firm.  We’ve served the San Diego business community for decades and will work to protect your interests and help your company to thrive in the coming new year.

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.