Business General Counseling for Start-Up, Emerging, and Established Businesses

Not all of our clients have in-house legal departments.  We often work with those business clients and their executives to serve as their “outside in-house counsel” to provide legal advice, spot legal issues arising in the business, draft and review contracts with customers, vendors, and partners, and manage claims and litigation that arise locally and across the country.  Sapientia’s legal team is comprised of attorneys who have been in in-house counsel positions and who have even run their own businesses.  So, by hiring Sapientia, clients have a trusted legal team to serve as their “outside in-house counsel” who know not just the laws, but also the ins and outs of owning and running a business.

Typical general counsel services we provide include the following:

• Corporate Structure/Business Entity Selection and Creation:   Advice on choosing the best entity for your project or business and drafting corporate documents to meet your unique needs
• Licensing and Permits:  Advice on filing, defending violations, and representation in hearings and meetings
• Construction & Design Contracts & Disputes: Negotiations, drafting, and resolving disputes
• Financing:   Structuring initial financing (equity, debt, venture capital), advising on loans and equipment leases, restructuring debt, buy-outs, purchasing or selling businesses
• Real Estate:   Purchase and sale agreements, leases, landlord-tenant issues, zoning issues
• Employees:   Handbooks, training, legal compliance, employee agreements, employee disputes
  severance agreements
• Contracts, Supplier Agreements: Negotiation, drafting, resolving disputes
• Trademark and Intellectual Property Matters:   Assistance with choosing a trademark, registering the trademark, guidance on protection and enforcement
• Food Labeling/Packaging: _drafting and advising regarding product labels
• Buying, Selling, and Merging Existing Businesses:   Guidance on sales and acquisitions of companies, assets, and real estate, including drafting and negotiation of all purchase and sale documents and advice through due diligence and closing
• Officer and Director Counseling on Fiduciary Duties
  
• Dispute Resolution, including Litigation, Arbitration and Mediation
  
• Internal Investigations: Oversight and management of internal company investigations
• Strategic Growth & Legal Risk Management: General legal advice for the strategic growth of business and to manage potential liability and risk to better protect the business and its future

 

Sapientia’s outside general counseling services are often structured under alternative fees to ensure predictable fees and expense to clients. There are many fee structures the firm has used to customize what works for its business clients.  For example, Sapientia offers a subscription fee  designed for companies (from start-ups to well-established businesses) to reduce and spread out legal expense over the year to meet clients’ budgets.  This type of arrangement allows clients to budget legal services with certainty and predictability while knowing they have a legal team available to them 24/7 and on the ready for business and legal issues as they arise.  Similar to a mobile phone plan, subscription fees can provide a set number of hours per month (as low as five hours) and the option to roll-over those hours for future months if not used.  During the annual subscription plan, clients receive answered emails and short phone calls and a monthly check-in meeting to discuss new issues, on-going matters, business developments, and future plans.

Through its outside general counseling services, Sapientia is able to provide its business clients with part-time, on-demand legal services with a diverse team of legal professionals who make it their priority to know its clients’ businesses.