The Watkins Firm’s San Diego and California corporate attorneys protect your business and personal assets in today’s fast paced business environment.  The Watkins Firm has served the California corporate community for more than four decades.  We provide sound corporate counsel, guidance on business transactions and relationships as well as services to support and represent California employers while protecting the corporate veil.  The corporate veil is the only thing which separates the personal assets of the owners of a company from the company’s creditors.

The foundation of a corporation and the protections of the corporate veil are only as strong as your corporate documents.  We review and update corporate documents including but not limited to:

• Corporate registration
• LLC operating agreements, corporate formation documents and bylaws
• Shareholder agreements
• Meeting minutes

We help to ensure completion and filing of all documents associated with annual meetings, annual filings, shareholders meetings and compliance with California corporate law.  We keep our clients informed and in compliance with all regulatory issues at the federal, state and local levels including Sarbanes-Oxley and the Dodd-Frank acts as well as industry specific regulations such as OSHA and HIPPA compliance for the healthcare industry and medical providers.

Watkins Firm corporate attorneys protect your business and personal assets by reducing or eliminating risks associated with litigation.  This begins with legal representation of California employers to ensure all employment related documents including policies and procedures, hiring practices, disciplinary processes and employee handbooks are up to date and compliant.  Corporations have a duty to ensure all employees, executives and officers conduct themselves in a legal and ethical manner.  We help to develop internal programs which inform employees and management while ensuring that all controlling documents and processes are consistently applied and up to date.

Managing the Board of Directors is a crucial corporate function and our attorneys assist with all associated management activities.  This can include support with board meetings and agendas and associated records and communications, as well as ongoing education for the board to ensure fulfillment of associated fiduciary duties.  We provide insight and operational support in crucial consideration and analysis of decisions regarding the decisions of the corporation as well as its planned growth and management direction.

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

Our experienced California corporate attorneys protect your business and personal assets by protecting the corporate veil itself.  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. to speak with one of our experienced California corporate attorneys for a complimentary consultation or schedule an appointment to meet with us in person.