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Coakley Law

Small Business Law

As I was cutting my lawyer baby teeth practicing litigation, I found myself constantly thinking: “if only they came to me before things fell apart, this would be so much easier and less expensive for them.” As much as I enjoy litigation, working with someone to put the pieces of a small business together and protect that business, rather than picking them up when things fall apart, is like being there when the baby is born. I like working with any size business to come up with a plan to provide legal services as the business grows. At first, all a business may need is a client-facing service or sales contract to limit liability from customers. Or a business with more than one owner might need an operating agreement, so that when disagreements happen down the line it doesn’t have to be the end of the business; those “small business divorces” as I call them, can get nasty. As a business grows, I’ve helped clients draft employment manuals and policies, negotiate leases on new offices, vendor or subcontractor agreements, and handled the purchase or sale of new businesses. And when a client is involved in a dispute, I bring tools gained over 20 years of litigating cases to the table to find the most favorable resolution possible for the client.

Some projects I’ve helped small businesses with include: LLC formation, non-profit formation, lease drafting and negotiation, contract drafting and negotiation, independent contractor and employee contracts and manuals, and resolving all sorts of disputes – landlord tenant, employee, business-to-business, regulatory actions. Like I said, I’ve been around a while.