Are you searching for a corporate law attorney in San Diego? Watkins Firm has 40+ years of experience serving the business, science and tech, real estate and medical / healthcare communities here in San Diego and across California. As your corporate attorney(s), we are prepared to guide you through every aspect of forming, growing, merging and/or selling a San Diego or California corporation.
3 Important Takeaways when Searching for a Corporate Law Attorney in San Diego:
- an effective corporate attorney must be able to handle everything from business formation and entity selection, through all aspects of business relationships and transactions, governance and compliance, dispute resolution, and ultimately, the protection of the corporate veil.
- The corporate veil is the essence of business. It is the essence of a corporation. The business entity, the corporation, exists to separate and protect the shareholders who own the corporation from the creditors of the company and the risks of business. Business is all about taking prudent risk that generates a reward. The corporate veil allows its owners to take those prudent risks, while protecting the assets and interests they’ve already developed to date.
- Any effective corporation will encounter disputes and lawsuits. Your corporate attorney must be able to help to anticipate and evaluate risk and potential exposures to disputes and lawsuits. When the corporation becomes involved in litigation, your corporate attorney should have extensive experience in every venue including negotiations, settlement conferences, mediation, arbitration and at trial, as well as the ability to quickly and efficiently resolve disputes and lawsuits while protecting the assets and interests of the corporation.
What is a Corporate Attorney?
What is a corporate attorney, and what should you look for in a corporate law attorney in San Diego? As your corporate attorneys, the Watkins Firm provides legal services from formation and entity selection through the development and implementation of contracts and resolving any disputes which arise along the way. We guide corporations as employers ensuring that they fulfill all of the requirements specified in federal, state and local laws and regulations.
Your corporate attorney should be one of the corporation’s closest and most trusted advisors. They should have extensive experience in every aspect of business as well as every aspect of protecting the corporate veil. The corporate law attorneys at Watkins Firm bring 40+ years of experience in every aspect of business to advise, protect, and advance the goals and interests of your corporation. We also represent individuals and companies who are forming or acquiring new businesses, and require assistance in properly structuring their new entities and acquisitions, (and avoiding legal pitfalls) from inception. It is a privilege to be able to form a relationship with any start-up company or corporation and amazing to assist with the growth and development of our client’s companies over time.
We handle establishing and protecting your entity, and other entities and joint ventures you will require throughout the life of the corporation. As deal makers, we are in the business of figuring out how to get business transactions across the finish line in the face of ‘deal breakers.’ We handle every legal aspect associated with corporate life, and the day-to-day requirements of a corporation, including but not limited to:
Business contracts – We custom tailor every contract from our proprietary library of tested and proven business contracts. This ensures a strong contract in a cost-efficient manner while ensuring it is prepared to fulfill your corporation’s unique applications.- Advice and counsel on California laws for employers and the complex issues of employment defense here in California. California is the most difficult state in which to be an employer. Your corporation will require proven employment contracts, HR documents, employee handbooks, policies and procedures as well as employment and regulatory compliance checklists and forms.
- A California medical practice or healthcare business corporation requires a constellation of legal services including but not limited to healthcare entity selection, physician and medical professional employment agreements, healthcare entity governance and compliance, Creation of an MSO (or multiple MSOs), as well as risk assessment and mitigation for a Management Service Organization or MSO.
- Corporate governance: Our attorneys protect your corporate veil, and manage all supporting tasks such as updating shareholder agreements and bylaws as well as documenting the minutes of board and shareholder meetings, and the provision of training and support to ensure ethical, moral, and legal conduct by every owner and employee of your corporation.
- Mergers and acquisitions: Whether you are buying a business, or merging with or forming a joint venture with another entity, we manage every aspect of due diligence, contracts, negotiations, and advice at every step in the process.
- Business dissolution: If it becomes necessary, we help to identify and complete every step required to close the doors of your corporation. We can also help you reform under a new entity to protect ongoing business from contingent liabilities in your industry.
The Protections of the Corporate Veil
Your corporate entity exists to separate you, the individual person (member, shareholder, officer), from the separate legal entity: the corporation. In legal circles we describe this as the “corporate veil.” Your corporate law attorney in San Diego from the Watkins Firm establishes and protects the corporate veil. The corporate entity provides valuable protections to the personal money and assets of the corporation’s owners and shareholders from the creditors and liabilities of the company. There are important steps which must be diligently maintained in order to preserve the protections of the corporate veil while protecting your personal money and assets.
What is Corporate Governance and Compliance?
What is corporate governance and compliance and how can the San Diego corporate law attorneys at the Watkins Firm help your corporation or LLC to remain compliant?
Once a company is formed, there are many small details which must be regularly managed to protect the corporate veil and reduce exposure to expensive litigation or regulatory violations. The Watkins Firm will review your corporate filings, processes and documents to ensure legal and regulatory compliance. We help to keep your corporate documents, bylaws, shareholder agreements and/or operating agreements up to date and in agreement with one another.
We also work with corporate boards, executives and management to bring them up to speed on new developments in Federal and California corporate law as well as best employment practices. We work with our clients to ensure a strategy is in place to effectively train and monitor all employees of your company to ensure they are conducting themselves in a legal and ethical manner.
The benefits of corporate governance and compliance may seem like small issues compared to other corporate objectives. However, as your San Diego corporate law attorney, the Watkins firm’s reliable advice and counsel helps to keep your corporation running in an optimal manner for a minimum cost while reducing exposure.
Experienced San Diego Mergers and Acquisitions Attorneys
The experienced San Diego mergers and acquisitions attorneys at the Watkins Firm provide valuable advice, counsel and legal services to your corporation as you work through joint ventures, asset purchase transactions, the acquisition of another company through a stock purchase agreement or the merger of your corporate entity with another. Each of these transactions is legally and financially fraught with risk and opportunity.
Pro-Tip: “So why are the shareholders agreement and bylaws such critical documents? Nobody fights unless there’s money to be made or lost. And if you have an agreement that identifies what everybody’s rights and obligations are ahead of time, then you won’t have a fight because everybody will know, but if there’s no agreement, then you’re going on people’s understanding. And when money is involved, emotions are involved and they’re understanding changes to fit what they want. Right. But if there’s an agreement there, that’s already covered all these, what ifs, then their emotions won’t run wild and they’ll realize they’ll be bound by what they agreed to before. And so you’ll end up without a big dispute.
We have an extensive, proprietary library of contracts, and we ensure they are updated to reflect changes in the law every month. And then we also have templates that we input into agreements based on different factual circumstances. So once we get the entire picture of the corporation and it’s individual transactional needs, and we get into the details, that’s when we draft things up to uniquely fit the client and their business at hand.
Contracts determine how much you pay for materials and labor and everything else. And also contracts determine how much you charge and how much you can collect. If you don’t have an understanding and detailed description of what you’re going to pay other people and what you’re going to get paid written down and thought about, you’re going to have a much greater challenge running your corporation.
We’ve had individual corporate clients for decades. And when our clients do well, our attorneys feel like they’re doing well outside of whether they’re getting paid a whole bunch of money or not or fees or anything. We have long term clients. And our attorneys really feel good when things turn out for them because a, on the litigation side, they go through stress and we go through stress. And when we resolve a dispute and our clients are happy, we’re happy. And we’re relieved transactions. Our clients have owned their company for years and years and years, and they want to sell it. They believe they have a good deal on the table and we want to do everything we can to make sure that goes smoothly. And our client gets all of their benefits of the bargain, everything they wanted. We want to do our best to make sure they get that. And if it happens and they’re happy, then we are proud. We’re very proud and we’re happy for them. So this combined knowing someone for 30+ years, their highs and lows, their difficult times, their good times, you can imagine, you really feel a bond for your clients.
Real corporations have general counsel that they can call on, and they usually call on them in advance before trouble happens to avoid trouble, and they utilize that council with a team of other professionals to make sure that they’re doing everything in the most proficient and profitable manner as possible. If you’re a California corporation, and you are trying to do everything right in the best way you can for your company, you’re going to have general counsel. You probably already do, and that attorney or couple of attorneys or law firm will advise you on things that have to do with your business, your field specifically, and in general.
We have transactions and litigation attorneys. We have experience from both sides of the aisle. We have the deal makers and we have the “watch out; Don’t do that; You can get sued” lawyers! And we all work together so we all can spot the same issues and provide good advice. And that’s what every business owner needs. It’s the least expensive form of insurance you can buy. We just know you have a business relationship with your business lawyer who knows you and you got a problem, shoot them an email and they get an answer. And that’s why it’s so much less expensive than not. And then having trouble and having people try to get in and undo mistakes that you might’ve made because you’re not an attorney or you don’t generally practice this’s kind of law. That’s why we like the whole business relationship thing. And you’ll sleep better at night knowing when you have one. When you have a Watkins Firm attorney behind you, many of our clients believe its one of the best business decisions they’ve ever made.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner
Your San Diego Corporate Law Attorney at the Watkins Firm
What does your San Diego corporate law attorney at the Watkins Firm bring to the table? We have almost four decades of proven success serving the San Diego and Southern California businesses and medical/healthcare entities. As your business coach and advisor, we draw upon previous successful experience in thousands of similar situations and transactions. We have achieved tremendous victories at trial. We have helped to form thousands of successful Southern California businesses.
We are here to serve and protect your corporation from the moment of entity formation through every transaction of your business. We provide consistent and proven advice for and in the defense of California employers. We resolve corporate disputes in a timely, efficient manner. We work to ensure effective corporate governance and compliance is met and your corporation is prepared to meet the objectives you’ve established, and successfully accomplish them.
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 Dan 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.
