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5 Steps to Pick the Right Business Attorney

If you run a small business, you will face lots of ups and downs, so you need to hire the right lawyer to maintain your business and future investments. Hiring an attorney will not cost you much money, but it can solve your costly legal troubles. Therefore you need to choose the best lawyer for the future of your business.

Why Should You Hire a Business Attorney?

Whenever you have a business, it’s time to hire a small business lawyer. Here are some points which start-up and small businesses should know before hiring a business attorney:

  1. Your choice of business entity structure will decide the future of your business. C-corporation law will be a great plan to grow your venture capital.
  2. When you are selling products to investors or raising venture capital, you need a business attorney to manage cheque sheets and navigate security laws.
  3. If you are opening a business with partners, the rights and responsibilities can come up. A business attorney will help you to manage partnership agreements and corporate business law.
  4. Your business can grow with contacts from other companies. A lawyer can help you to manage those contacts.
  5. As the business grows, you need to handle employee issues. A lawyer can help you with labor law agreements and solve unjustified termination lawsuits.
  6. For business tech, health, and research sectors, you need a business lawyer who is an expert in IP. They are known as a trademark lawyer who will help you protect your business.

Research Attorneys on Network or Legal Directories

Some good sources will lead you to the right lawyer for your business. And hiring a beginner level lawyer for the job is like hiring a new employee. Meeting with different attorneys and selecting the right one for your business is the best method of finding a good attorney. Kelman cryptocurrency law in New York is the best practice to find the best attorneys.

Besides all of these sources, the use of your professional network. Your best friend might have a connection with the right attorney. Even your workplace partners might know somebody. Online legal directories can also find business attorneys who are near you. Lawyer bar associations have and maintain a daily updated list of licensed attorneys in many states.

You can get legal help sites such as Avvo, Rocket Lawyer, and LegalZoom to get the right lawyer for your business. These sites have reviewed the listing of attorneys. You can find your small business attorney with a review of him. Not all legal sites have verified customer reviews and often no context about the client’s legal issue. Also, you need to check properly about lawyers when you find a lawyer online. Check their LinkedIn, verify that the lawyer is licensed in your state, and check their website with simple research from Google.

Before You, Hire Ask The Right Questions

During the consultation with your attorney, you need to find out if the lawyer is the right fit for your business. To do this, you can ask the following questions:

  • What is your experience with small businesses?
  • Can you tackle the legal issue of my business with your experience?
  • Can you refer me to other business lawyers if needed?
  • Is there anyone who will work with you about my business issue?
  • How can you maintain contact with me?
  • How do you charge and collect your fees?

Maintain Fee Budget For Lawyer

As a business owner, one of the most important concerns is budget planning and fees for attorneys. On average, an hourly billing rate of lawyer range is $150 per hour as a junior lawyer of a small city and $100 or more for top lawyers from the big city, so it’s important to set fees for your attorneys and how much you can pay for their service. Here are some fees arrangement attorneys often demand in small business:

Flat Fee

An attorney charges a flat fee instead of an hourly rate payment. It can save the business holder a lot of money as he just pays the attorney a flat fee. Then, the attorney will handle the issues as time goes on. He might even work regularly to provide you the best outcome. To them, this method is also known as a package deal. They are very smart to know that clients with satisfaction will come back again to hire them.

Contingent Fee

An attorney arranges a contingent fee when there are legal actions involved in the case. This type of fee is completed only when the attorney has successfully won a case. Some previously fired attorneys might avoid this type of payment because of his fired midway incident from the last client.

Equity in Business

Some business attorneys intend on dealing with equity in the business. They will deal with this in exchange for giving you legal help. It doesn’t happen often because new small businesses have the lowest chances to succeed. But if the business has a fast-growing startup, some attorneys might be convinced enough to have equity in the business.

Retainer Agreement

Small businesses tend to have a lot of legal work. As a retainer, an attorney is very helpful for that small business. An attorney with a retainer agreement only requires a small amount of money each month. The amount of money will determine the work hours for the attorney. Some even have an hourly rate to start the retainer agreement.

Acknowledge If It’s Right to Skip the Small Business Lawyer

You may need a lawyer’s guideline in most case scenarios. To grow a small business, business attorneys will give you guidelines. They may eventually cost more and more as time goes on. To be the best strategist, you have to know when you will need a lawyer and when you don’t.

A small list of tasks that doesn’t require a business attorney is below.

  • Writing down a business plan
  • Selecting a name for your business
  • Gaining a business license
  • Completing business formation papers
  • Appealing for a business loan
  • Stabling your books
  • Padding tax returns
  • Appealing for an employer’s identification number
  • Hiring employees to set up payroll

Many intend to handle these tasks on their own. They use another businessman to help them proceed with the business further and also for stabling books. To do these simple tasks, you don’t need a lawyer. But a tougher situation may make you need a business attorney’s assistance. To get a good quality business license, you need a well-mannered attorney.

This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.com and other Amazon websites.

Written by Marcus Richards

One Comment

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  1. Marcus, I agree with all of the points you made on how to hire the right business attorney for your company. I like how you suggest asking potential attorneys about their experience and if they can handle your legal issue based on that experience. I think it would also be smart to ask potential attorneys for references that you can contact to get a better idea of their services.

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