Corporate Attorney in South Carolina
What is a Corporate Attorney?
An interesting discipline that often gets misunderstood, because some media portrays them in the board room one day and in court the next. In most cases a corporate attorney works on contracts and deals, whereas litigators step in when things go wrong.
The role is to advise clients of their responsibilities, rights, and legal duties. This company lawyer must have a knowledge of accounting, contracts, bankruptcy, intellectual property, licensing, and all other areas specific to the corporations they work for.
The knowledge required often depends on where they are situated. For instance a law firm in Charleston may work on many small jobs like drafting employment agreements, policies, joint venture agreements, settlement agreements, and also have the ability to work on projects which span many months, negotiating a single business transaction, requiring in-depth knowledge of South Carolina as well as many other states.
This lawyer will have strong negotiation and communication skills, have an analytical brain, be able to think outside the box, and have great attention to detail.
Corporate Lawyer FAQs
Business Wealth
How do I raise money for my business?
There are several ways to go about raising money for your business. You can do it through taking out loans from banks or individuals or you can do it by handing out equity.
How can I use a convertible note to raise money for my business?
Yes, this is a great way for an LLC to gain funds without having to get a valuation. Here’s the idea: an investor holds a convertible note for X dollars and then there are trigger points when it turns into equity. This means the firm gets capital without having to spend a ton of money on valuations and expensive funding endeavors. What’s in it for the investor is that they get something that carries interest and then when it converts, it usually does so at a discount. So, whatever the outstanding balance, it can buy shares for less – usually around 80%. This is a great solution for many firms and gives investors an upside without dumping thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Legal Documents
If the owners never signed our corporate paperwork, is it still enforceable?
It certainly would be persuasive as to what agreement is, but without everyone’s signature you may run into trouble enforcing it. The obvious reason is that the person who does not want it enforced will likely say that they never agreed to it and that’s why they didn’t sign it. The take away is to make sure your corporate documents are up to date and signed.
We never had a shareholders agreement or bylaws, can I do them now?
This is something you want to try to address as soon as possible because it’s hard to handle once there is a dispute as to ownership or otherwise. If the owners are all in agreement, you should try to update your corporate paperwork.
Meet John Henderson, Your Corporate Attorney in Charleston SC
Prior to co-founding Henderson & Henderson law firm in December. 2014, John graduated from Wofford College and the Charleston School of Law, He remembers:
Early on in my career, I began working with Charleston people on how to grow their company in South Carolina. One of my early clients came to me having given away equity to several employees. The problem I was faced with was that they had left and got to keep the capital. This taught me years ago valuable lessons as a corporate attorney about making bosses think through the consequences of giving out ownership. We also learned a few tricks on how to do this in a better way. For example, one common strategy is to utilize an employment agreement along with the shares – this way if an employee leaves (terminates employment), the business or owner can purchase that capital back for fair market value.
Learn more about John Henderson and contact him for any questions.
