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General Counsel

For a business to have sustained success, trustworthy legal direction is essential. Foster Swift serves the role of general counsel for many small and mid-size businesses and associations whose present business model doesn't support a full-time in-house lawyer.   

Clients call on us to address the complete range of legal issues facing their business. Our involvement level can vary depending upon the entity's needs and goals. As the legal advisor to the management team, we offer proactive strategies that minimize risk, counsel on matters of corporate governance as well as regulatory issues and develop creative solutions when problems arise. Recognizing the profitability goals and financial parameters of our clients, we constantly strive to be as cost-efficient as possible. Foster Swift business and tax attorneys are able to tap other legal issue experts within the firm as the situations require, which expedites our response and often reduces the cost to the client. 

The bottom line is that by providing a comprehensive team of attorneys, we are able to build long term relationships with our clients that focus on success in every phase of the business cycle. Some of the matters we routinely handle when serving as general counsel include:

  • Entity selection, formation and organization planning
  • Drafting start-up documentation
  • Complying with regulatory requirements and federal and state laws
  • Ownership structure
  • Establishing corporate records
  • Employment contracts and benefits
  • Zoning compliance
  • Real estate transactions, commercial leases and construction issues
  • Taxation
  • Intellectual property and information technology issues
  • Operating agreements
  • Shareholder agreements and dispute resolution
  • Corporate bylaws
  • Commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions including asset or stock acquisitions or sales
  • SEC reporting requirements, executive compensation issues, disclosure issues and general corporate governance matters
  • Contract preparation, compensation plan preparation and general corporate counseling
  • Succession and exit planning
  • International expansion, joint ventures, immigration and U.S. import/export controls
  • Federal and state tax planning

At Foster Swift we recognize that every business is different, and each business will have different legal needs for every stage in the business cycle. For every contract and transaction our attorneys will make sure your business gets the best terms available while minimizing liability.

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