Outside General Counsel

All businesses need legal help. However, the expense of keeping full-time attorneys on staff is often not cost-efficient. Our attorneys therefore act as outside general counsel to many medium-sized and small businesses. Essentially, we provide businesses with their own legal departments, so they do not have to bear the cost of keeping a set of lawyers on staff full-time. Our blend of legal, business and financial experience leaves us ideally situated to fill this role.

All businesses – and business owners – need legal advice, counseling and representation. Small and mid-size New Jersey businesses face daunting legal challenges. These include employment laws, leases, regulatory compliance, insurance coverage, relations between the owners of the business, contract drafting and review, real estate, transactions, litigation and structuring the business to limit personal liability and taxes. It is a mistake to try to face these challenges alone. Many medium and small businesses cannot afford to hire full-time in-house lawyers, however. This can be solved by hiring trusted, experienced “outside” business attorneys to handle the firm’s legal needs.

Businesses, especially small and mid-size businesses, need to focus on their core operations. This is their bread and butter; if they cannot focus on these matters, they will not stay in business. Hiring outside, part-time lawyers to fill the company’s needs makes business sense.

Ideally, outside general counsel should not just be called when there is an emergency. A business’s attorney should help prevent problems, not just respond when the company is sued or receives notice of a regulatory violation. General counsel should work with you to plan so that your contracts ensure you get well paid, that your business operates in a way to minimize the risk of liability, that it is in compliance with its regulatory requirements, that it is structured to minimize tax burdens, and that the owners’ written agreement protects their rights and avoids disputes.

While we have an experienced and aggressive team of litigators, in our outside general counsel practice we strive to prevent problems before they lead to the time and expense of litigation. To be sure, sometimes litigation cannot be avoided, and in this case we fight aggressively for our clients’ rights. However, we know that our clients’ best interests are served by ensuring that they can focus on their core operations so that they can run their business profitably. We always keep this goal in mind.

Our attorneys are well-suited to help businesses by serving as outside general counsel because they understand business and finance. Our New Jersey lawyers bring a broad range of business experience to companies. For instance, in addition to being a tax, estate and transactional lawyer, Frank Nardi is also a certified public accountant and certified financial planner. Our senior attorneys also have a wealth of management experience in the banking and transportation industries. This allows us to understand your business model, and to focus our services to compliment it.

If your company is in need of legal advice or representation, please call one of our New Jersey business lawyers at (973) 890-0004, or e-mail us.