Why is corporate governance and compliance important at year end in San Diego and throughout California?  The owners, managing shareholders or controlling members of a business, corporation or LLC have a responsibility to protect the corporate veil by performing regular actions and ensuring implementation of consistent policies and practices throughout the company.  What is the importance of corporate governance and compliance and how can a San Diego company ensure they have taken every step necessary to fulfill their fiduciary duties to their LLC or corporation?

3 Important Takeaways About What makes Corporate Governance and Compliance Important at Year End:

• Corporate governance and compliance protects the corporate veil and ensures every aspect of the business itself is legal and compliant with all federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, and legal requirements.
• The owners of any corporate entity must ensure regular meetings occur, and minutes of those meetings are captured.  The corporate documents and bylaws should also be updated on at least an annual basis.
• The failure to conduct corporate governance and compliance lessens the value of the company, and can allow the corporate veil of the entity to be pierced by creditors, allowing them access to the assets of the individual owners.

The Elements of Corporate Governance and Compliance

Corporate governance and compliance begins with the mandatory meetings required of any corporation or LLC.  Shareholders or members are required to meet regularly and written records or “minutes” of the meetings must be kept.  However, the importance of corporate governance and compliance extends to far greater areas of responsibility including the practices of managers and employees who represent your business and the steps taken to ensure your company is in full compliance with all federal, state and local laws and regulatory requirements.

Your company or healthcare business must have practices and procedures in place to comply with all employment and wage and hour laws including but not limited to HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley standards, OSHA and even federal and state securities laws.  In addition, the corporate compliance officer must ensure that every representative of the business – from the Board of Directors to the least paid employee – understands their responsibilities and conducts themselves in full compliance will all associated laws and regulations.

What makes corporate governance and compliance important at year end is the natural cycle of business review and planning.  Most genuine and effective business entities use this time at the end of the year to reflect upon all that has happened in the past year and what they wish to accomplish in the coming fiscal year.

Pro-Tip: “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. And someone comes to look at it like when we sell a company, we have to come up with something called schedules. Schedules are what we use to identify all the different elements to tell a buyer this is a proper corporation and it’s a safe bet to purchase or to merge with. So all those things. And on top of that, if you comply with corporate governance, you’ll end up doing better in business over the last 35 years. The ones I see that don’t hold their meetings, that don’t keep records, that don’t refuse to commingle, those ones don’t do as well. The ones that really stay on it and run their business the right way are usually much more successful.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Are You Focused Upon Corporate Governance and Compliance Important This Time of Year?

The corporate law attorneys at the Watkins Firm have almost 40 years of experience in these matters.  We counsel you as our client on the importance of corporate governance and compliance as well as the actual steps they must take to preserve the crucial protections of the corporate veil.  We help you to develop systems to consistently monitor, document and implement all aspects of company policies and procedures.  We work to ensure your corporation or LLC is fully compliant with federal, state and local laws.

We also provide sound insight and counsel based upon our extensive business experience.  What challenges do you face?  What actions can you best take to position your company for growth and prosperity in the coming year?  Corporate governance not only protects the corporate veil, it establishes a firm corporate foundation which increases the value of your entity while positioning it for maximum opportunity and performance.

What makes corporate governance and compliance important at year end here in San Diego or anywhere in the State of California?  If you have questions regarding the importance of corporate governance and compliance and the steps you should be considering 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.

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.