Steven M. Tarshis

Attorney at Law

Business Organizations (Including LLCs and Partnerships)

The practice of law associated with Business Organizations can be an extremely extensive area of law involving corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships, joint ventures, limited liability companies and a host of other form of business entities that carry on both for profit and not for profit activities.  The representation of both individuals and business organizations in this area of law covers a wide multiplicity of topics, including:

  • Choice of type of business entity.
  • Choice of jurisdiction.
  • Process of formation.
  • Corporate governance.
  • Nature of ownership.
  • Operational matters.
  • Asset protection.
  • Combinations.
  • Acquisitions.
  • Dispositions.
  • Dissolutions.

Accordingly, attorneys practicing in this area of law need to be well-versed in many different but related legal disciplines, including corporate, partnership, securities, tax, real estate, non-profit, intellectual property, insolvency, fiduciary duty, and mergers and acquisitions law. Furthermore, because many business organizations have operations that cut across jurisdictions and state boundaries, advising clients may require knowledge of federal and state laws throughout the United States.

Most business organizations are privately owned and relatively small, and are traditional family-owned companies and entrepreneurial start-up ventures.  However, others may be large and complex enterprises with highly sophisticated governance structures. Accordingly, an attorney representing clients such as these must be well versed and experience in legal work that can range from representation of an entire organization, including its owner(s), in all aspects of the organization’s legal activities to engagement as a specialist in one or more discreet areas.

The legal skills required of a business organizations attorney also include the ability to advise clients with respect to divisions of ownership and the sale and transfer of ownership to purchasers of a business as well as future generations.  This, of course, is in addition to more immediate concerns regarding initial entity formation and operation. For these reasons, it is mandatory that an attorney is able to properly advise a client with respect to not only structuring the business, but must also able to possess an in-depth understanding of the clients’ strategic business objectives and their succession and estate planning concerns.

The practice of Business Organizations also involves a thorough knowledge of the relationships between businesses and the interactions and transactions among them, including contracts, joint ventures, licenses, settlements, and mergers and acquisitions. Business Organizations is wide-ranging area of law that often serves as an entry point or primary point of contact for businesses to a law firm and the various types of legal services it provides.