OUTSIDE GENERAL COUNSEL
Businesses of all sizes have a common need — day-to-day legal guidance from a highly qualified attorney they can rely upon. Ideally, this attorney will develop an intimate understanding of your business and can advise you on a range of matters. At Barnett & Rubin, we understand these requirements and have developed an Outside General Counsel practice specifically for such businesses. In this capacity, our attorneys are available for direct and ongoing involvement with all aspects of your business operation matters. In the event that litigation becomes a threatened or actual issue, we are keenly situated to aggressively represent your company’s interests. This is what sets us apart from other firms offering general counsel services: Your litigation firm IS your general counsel, and we already have the experience and knowledge of your company’s culture, operations, history, and goals thereby saving you valuable time and financial resources as compared to a new attorney who isn’t “up to speed.”
Our attorneys have the background that is essential for advising your company on daily operational matters, plus the strong negotiation, litigation, and trial skills as necessary. Further, our broad experience with many types of businesses gives us a perspective that allows us to be effective legal advisors for all our clients.
Matters handled by our Outside General Counsel practice include:
[icon name=”building-o” class=””] In-House Operations
Entity Formation and Dissolution
- Corporations
- Limited Liability Companies
- Partnerships
Employment Issues
- Offer letters / employment agreements
- Termination and severance agreements
- Noncompete agreements
- Trade secret and IP protection
- Wrongful termination
- Employee handbooks
Company Governance
- Board meetings
- Drafting minutes
- LLC Operating Agreements
- Secretary of State filings
- Shareholder / partner / LLC member agreements
- Buy / sell agreements
Litigation
- Shareholder / partner / LLC member disputes
- Operating disputes, board gridlock, officer disputes
- Directors’ and officers’ breach of fiduciary duties
Financing and Business Analysis
- Insolvency concerns
- Pre-bankruptcy planning and bankruptcy filing
- Debtor / creditor work outs
Risk Assessment / insurance
Environmental compliance / clean-up
Outside Operations:
Contracts
- Leases – real property, equipment, and vehicles
- Mergers and acquisitions, due diligence
- Purchase and sale agreements
- Noncompete agreements
- Software licensing
- Vendors, suppliers, manufacturers and distributors
Litigation
- Misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition
- Breach of contract
- Collection and creditor’s rights including bankruptcy cases
- Commercial landlord / tenant including unlawful detainer
- Fraud, embezzlement
Benefits of our Outside General Counsel practice
- General counsel and litigation representation combined
- Short response time and on-demand availability
- Speedy completion of projects
- Identification of business issues by a trusted professional
- Avoidance of financial burden of full time legal staff
- Focus on small to medium companies and issues unique to them
- Understanding of your company’s culture and way of conducting business
- Problem spotting before legal emergencies develop
- Balancing legal demand versus business demands (your best legal strategy may not always be your best practical approach)
- Association with our highly recommended network of outside professionals (both legal and nonlegal) developed by our attorneys over 25 years to assist to any extent necessary:
- Out-of-state counsel
- Insurance agents / brokers
- ERISA / retirement planning
- Family law issues
- Estate planning
- Financing and lending
- Environmental compliance and clean-up
- Patent, trademark, and servicemark filings
- SEC matters
- Information technology and systems
- Facilities maintenance and improvement
- Accounting and tax planning
- Navigation of municipal issues
- Real property records and title company access
- Criminal representation
