Practice Areas
Corporate Formation and Governance
It is essential that new and existing businesses determine and set up the correct legal entity for their specific industry, business objectives, financial objectives, and regulatory compliance requirements. Further, operating businesses need to ensure that corporate formalities are observed to avoid litigation and putting the business’s limited liability protection at risk.
Both corporate formation and governance are critical to any business’s long-term success and viability, but remain arcane and opaque to the average business person.
Principle Law’s attorneys consider your business’s specific objectives and operating landscape as well as legal issues such as securities regulation, tax ramifications, and limited liability protections in crafting a corporate formation and governance strategy for its clients.
Principle Law’s attorneys take a client-first, educational approach to corporate formation and governance to not only set you up with the appropriate business entity and corporate structure, but to also ensure clients understand why such choices are appropriate for their specific business.
Commercial Transactions
Commercial transactions are the “business” in business law because commercial agreements determine how, when, and whether your business will pay or receive money. While often overlooked or delegated by company executives, commercial agreements are the lifeblood of most businesses and are the most common cause of business lawsuits other than employment disputes according to the US Chamber of Commerce.[1]
Unlike many churn-and-burn firms, Principle Law’s attorneys approach commercial transactions by first determining the client’s objectives in the transaction as they relate to the client’s overall business objectives. Next, we consider the competitive landscape, the contracting party’s goals and limitations, and perform a risk assessment on the deal overall. Principle Law understands that relationships with customers, clients, vendors, and contractors are more than just pieces of paper to businesses and takes care to avoid damaging relationships in the contracting process. Armed with a close understanding of our clients, their relationships, and the competitive landscape, we then vigorously negotiate for the most advantageous terms for our clients in the friendliest and most efficient process manageable.
Real Estate Transactions
Real estate transactions are the highest value and most important deals that most businesses and individuals will encounter in their lives and careers. Despite this fact, many think that purchasing, selling, or leasing real property is performed under “standard” or “boilerplate” terms. While it is true that many states have standard forms from which to begin a real estate transaction, each transaction, like each business and individual, has its own particularities that can too easily be overlooked by relying on standard or ad hoc legal forms, and risks and issues that may not be immediately apparent to even real estate professionals like brokers and title companies.
Whether it be the sale of your home, purchasing or leasing a commercial property, negotiating an easement, or performing a 1031 “like-kind-exchange,” you will not regret retaining the attorneys at Principle Law to ensure that your real estate transaction is performed correctly and contains no hidden surprises.
Trademark Law
Trademark law is the area of intellectual property law that governs the use of branding as it relates to goods and services offered for sale commercially in individual states, in the United States through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and throughout the world under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Many businesses begin to offer services and products without performing a search to determine if the branding they plan to use has already been claimed. This can result in the inadvertent use of protected trademarks, potentially resulting in expensive lawsuits and forcing the company to undergo rebranding at a late stage in product development. Wise business owners instead seek to clear their branding before implementing it and register their trademarks with the appropriate authority so that they can invest in branding and marketing with confidence.
Additionally, businesses that have developed trademark right can lose their rights if they do not properly and promptly enforce them against potential infringers. Understanding how to find potential infringement and enforcing legal rights against infringers is key to a strong brand strategy.
Whether you are rolling out a new line of goods and services or seeking to solidify or existing rights in branding, Principle Law offers expert guidance in trademark law and takes an educational approach to this often subjective and frustrating area of law.
Intellectual Property Protection and Licensing
Intellectual property includes patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets. Business owners should be familiar with their intellectual property, the value that it holds, and how to protect it. Many businesses fail to identify and protect their valuable intellectual property until it is too late.
Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are all explicitly protected by registration with the federal government, while trade secrets, by their very nature, cannot be revealed and therefore cannot be registered, though they are protected, if certain procedures are observed, by the Defend Trade Secrets Act.
Intellectual property interacts with employment law and commercial transactions because business owners have a vested interest in preventing employees from disclosing trade secret information and may want to protect intellectual property created by employees and contractors as “work made for hire”.
Intellectual property can also be a productive asset if licensed to or from others, but the particularities of license agreements are often arcane and confusing. A deep understanding of the complex legal regimes governing intellectual property is required to create a mutually advantageous and legally sound intellectual property licensing agreement.
Employment Law
Employment law is the most litigated area for any business according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.[2] Employment law issues often include discrimination and harassment complaints, classification as employee or independent contractors, disability and unemployment insurance claims, wage claims, and much more.
Wise business owners create comprehensive employment agreements, including offer letters, employee handbooks containing anti-discrimination policies and other policies consistent with law, confidentiality and proprietary inventions assignment agreements, and conform their practices to be consistent with both the law and their own policies. By taking a prophylactic approach to employment law, business owners can avoid most common employment law issues.
Regardless of whether you wish to set your business up to avoid the legal pitfalls associated with hiring others to perform work for your business or if you are now faced with an employment law issue, contact the attorneys at Principle Law today for a free consultation to discuss your company’s employment matters.
Civil Litigation
Civil litigation is any legal dispute where two or more parties are seeking damages or equitable relief, other than criminal accusations. Principle Law specializes in disputes common to businesses, namely, breach of contract disputes, employment disputes, partnership disputes and shareholder litigation, intellectual property disputes, and disputes involving real property.
Most business disputes are able to be settled out of court, but navigating the settlement process, mediation, and the rules of civil procedure (once an action has been filed) can be a complex and intimidating process. Further, pro se (self-representing) litigants have been shown to be at a dramatic disadvantage in litigation, winning only 4% of cases in which they were the plaintiff, and 14% of cases in which they were the defendant according to a recent study of federal court litigants.[3]
Regardless of what stage your business’s dispute is in, and regardless of whether your business is the plaintiff or defendant, it is highly recommended that you seek the advice of a civil litigation attorney to ensure that your business has the best possible outcome.
[1] Liability and Lawsuits: What Business Owners Need to Know. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Publication. Retrieved from https://www.uschamber.com/lawsuits/arbitration/liability-lawsuits-business-guide.
[2] Liability and Lawsuits: What Business Owners Need to Know. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Publication. Retrieved from https://www.uschamber.com/lawsuits/arbitration/liability-lawsuits-business-guide.
[3] Empirical Patterns of Pro Se Litigation in Federal District Courts. The University of Chicago Law Review. Retrieved from https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/publication/empirical-patterns-pro-se-litigation-federal-district-courts.