While you may or may not be able to file the paperwork yourself with the Secretary of State of the particular state you want to create your entity in, the right attorney may be able to assist you in choosing the right entity type for your business, file in the correct state, put you in touch with the right people to help your business grow faster, file your paperwork properly, explain the difference between different entities, and answer any legal questions you may have.
Whether you should pay an attorney to read, negotiate, revise, or customize a contract you for really depends on the particular contract you are entering into. How much is the potential liability within the contract? How much exposure is there? How money are you putting in? How many times are you using the contract? How important could the contract potentially be? The more money you have within the contract, or the more liability potential within the contract, the more you should steer away from a form contract. While a form may be fast and easy, it is not always the proper solution for your business.
While you are probably very good at your business specialty, however you are likely not a business contract attorney. You have not likely studied case and statutory law on contract enforceability, argued such law in front of various courts, negotiated such language with various attorneys for years, and you likely do not have a good idea of what type of language within a contract is more likely to be enforceable vs. what type of language within a contract is less likely to be held by a court to be enforceable. You probably did not customize your contract to limit your future financial liability and thus have not fully protected your personal as well as your business assets. At LOKK LEGAL we can provide such protection for you or your business at a fraction of the cost of other larger law firms.
The problems you may run into and the ability of you to be repaid on your Promissory Note really depends on a lot of factors, a big factor is the note itself. Where is the note’s venue? Where is the note’s choice of law provision? Does it have a choice of law provision? An attorneys fees provision? Any security? Interest? Is the interest going to considered usurious? Can the note be accelerated? These are just a few of the factors when drafting a Promissory Note. At LOKK LEGAL we will look at
There are many reasons one would set up a legal entity. Generally speaking however, setting up a legal entity limits liability to that legal entity’s assets. To be more specific, operating under a legal entity generally protects the liability of the shareholders or owners of that entity from personal liability i.e. an owners or directors personal bank accounts, personal house, personal car, etc would not be generally exposed to liability. LOKK LEGAL can figure out which type of entity is right for your situation and set one up for you at a low fixed rate fee.
Even though you may have an entity formed, it does not guaranty that your personal assets as an officer, director, shareholder, are shielded from liability. There is a doctrine in law called “piercing the corporate veil”. This doctrine is generally used by litigators when suing on a contract in order to get to personal assets. Factors that are looked at by the court to determine whether the corporate veil should be pierced are “undercapitalization” i.e. whether the business was started with enough capital, “co-mingling of assets” i.e. was business assets used for personal expenses or whether personal assets used to pay for business expenses and “a failure to observe formalities” i.e. were minutes kept and the like. Piercing the corporate veil makes having a strong and SECURE contract even more important because of the increased ability of your assets to be exposed without these factors and much more in order to secure monies and your interest.
Depending on the location, size, duration of the lease, and leverage of each at an individual time, a landlord may be more and less likely to negotiate specific terms of a lease. However, LOKK LEGAL, by going through every line of your lease, has in the past, and can potentially obtain provisions such as 1) free upfront rent 2) reduction in continuing rent 3) additional tenant improvements 4) additional protections and representations 5) reduction in potential legal exposure for you and your business within the lease and 6) additional peace of mind by knowing exactly what is within the lease.