Are you aware that there are corporate lawyers for hire when you run into certain business problems? There are many legal issues that a business can run into in their lifetime. It can be due to payment issues. Or maybe the business needs a corporate lawyer to help draft an agreement. The reasons are many.
Why Hire a Corporate Lawyer?
When people hear of hiring a lawyer, corporate or not, they will immediately think of how expensive it can get. It may be true but not necessarily applicable in every circumstance. However, here are some common reasons why people hire a corporate lawyer:
- Draft agreement letters, privacy policies, and other legal documentations
- To represent the business in court
- Help deal with international or local clients
- And many others
Hiring a corporate lawyer has been proven useful especially when you have issues pertaining to your business. Having said all of that, let’s have a look at some of the times you need to have a corporate lawyer.
When To Hire Corporate Lawyers?
You’d be surprised at some of the instances when you need to hire a corporate lawyer. Here are some of examples.
1. Your business is in a highly regulated industry
When we say “highly regulated industry”, it means the industry has a lot of rules and regulations attached to and surrounding it. There will be a lot of times when you will find how you need to apply for licenses from respective government authorities. At the same time, you will also need to make sure that your business is compliant with the laws in place.
If you do not have the proper rules and regulations in place, there’s a good chance you risk a close down without having the proper licensing. Licensing seems like it’s a lot of work for many business owners. We can understand as not every business owner has the money to hire a lawyer or find that there are sufficient clients to support their market.
However, this should not be a major issue as Malaysian laws have innovated and improved itself to support business owners across the scales. Hiring an experienced corporate lawyer can help you pinpoint the issues and resolve it.
2. Having multiple co-founders or shareholders
You’d be surprised that even business partners have disagreements and conflicts on how to manage the business. It may help boost your business in the early stages, however, this is for the long-term benefit of the company. Engage a lawyer as a mediator to help you and your business partner to lay out the basic outlines of the rights and responsibilities in the company.
Usually, when companies hire a corporate lawyer it’s for the following scenarios:
- For the company to prepare for any potential bankruptcy in the future
- When 1 partner or stakeholder decides to leave the partnership
- Dividing the business’s profits between the owners and stakeholders
Just make sure you and your business partners are on the same page of understanding upon hiring a corporate lawyer. Misunderstanding is present in every situation, just make sure that it’s lowered to the most minimal level.
3. You are a new company or a start-up company
Young companies don’t really last a very long time. According to some statistics, up to 90% of startups don’t last beyond its first year. At the same time, 82% of the new companies shows that new companies shut down due to cash flow problems. The very same statistics show that only 40% of startups legitimately made profit. Malaysian startup companies are booming in 2020, however there are something for you to look out for.
As mentioned in the previous point, your business partner may choose to leave your company after a few years. What will happen to the newly-vacated shares? Will you buy it over? Or will it be sold to someone else?
There is also the question of how much time and effort each co-founders or owners should spend on the business. You will find that some co-founders don’t put in as much effort as the other co-founder. It’s basically like university all over again. You’ll see how you’ll be running the business as a 1-man-show instead of as a partnership as previously agreed upon.
Sometimes, the company needs new investments. Maybe your partner likes the new investment and pushes for it. However, you don’t. How will this issue be resolved if that’s the case?
There can be several scenarios ranging from easy to resolve to ones that are too complicated. In this case, it’s best to hire a corporate lawyer to help be your mediator.
4. Hiring new staffs or contractors
A lot of companies and businesses think that they don’t really need a lawyer when it comes to hiring new staff or contractors. If you think the same thing here, you’d be in for a surprise at what some staff can do to break employment laws. Generally, an average employee in Malaysia will do their work as asked. However, there will be times when you will run into that one black sheep that caused a lot of problems for you and your company. That is something a lot of companies do not like.
For example, there are times when your employees have to handle sensitive company information (finance accounts and health records are some of the most common ones). You may have a company rule in place that your employees are not allowed to take home sensitive documents due to its sensitive nature. Some black sheep employees just won’t listen and decide to bring it home. Not only does it break protocol, there’s a possibility that P&C information may have been leaked by the same ill-disciplined employee.
This is when you can get your lawyers in to help resolve the case. Depending on how serious the nature of the problem is, your lawyer can and will advise you accordingly.
Conclusion
There are so many possibilities why you need corporate lawyers. Corporate lawyers are not exactly something that business owners think they need for now. However, in the long run, it’s something that is pretty useful long term.
