Small Business Solicitors

When starting their enterprises and over the course of the lifespan of those businesses, the majority of small business owners rarely hesitate to utilise some common human resources, such as accountants and insurance agents. These resources are seen as a cost of doing business by business owners, and they rarely skimp on paying for them. However, the importance of having a small business solicitor in your corner cannot be overstated.

Unfortunately, small business owners don’t often regard lawyers in the same way. Which can be a big mistake. Small business owners should have a small business solicitor in their network of business advisors for advice on a range of matters.

Being a small business owner, there may be times when you need a small business solicitor more than others, but you should always have one on call when you need one, and this is a role that the specialist small business solicitors on the Pearl Lemon Legal team are happy to fill for small businesses in a wide variety of industries, and will be happy to do for you.

What a Small Business Solicitors Can Do For You

A small business solicitor can provide guidance on a variety of issues that may arise throughout the course of your company’s existence, such as choosing the right legal structure (such as a corporation vs. LLC), the legal ramifications of hiring employees vs. independent contractors, drafting and negotiating contracts, dealing with potential government investigations of your company, terminating contracts and employees, and merging or purchasing another company.

You should be able to get in touch with your small business solicitor to talk about the activity and any potential consequences whenever your company is unsure about a prospective course of action. Generally speaking, it is advisable to err on the side of caution and involve your small company lawyer as soon as possible.

Let’s examine how a small business lawyer can assist your company with contracts as an example. All business types use contracts frequently, but rarely do small business owners have their lawyers analyse the documents before they are signed, especially when it comes to contracts with suppliers and employees they consider essential to the growth of their company.

An attorney can identify common contract clauses that cause issues, such as those relating to assignment, termination, and dispute settlement.

Pearl Lemon Legal's Small Business Solicitor Services

Legal advice on contracts is just one of the many ways that an experienced Pearl Lemon Legal small business solicitor can prove an invaluable help to any small business, including yours. Other things that we can help you with include, but are far from limited to, all the following:

Business Partnerships

Many small businesses start life as an idea shared by like minds in the form of a partnership. Far too often these partnerships are a loose, informal agreement between like-minded entrepreneurs, which, while workable for a time (perhaps) can become a legal minefield as the business grows, or even if it fails and there are debts and responsibilities to be apportioned. Having a small business lawyer consultation can provide invaluable guidance and legal protection in navigating these complexities.

Working with a small business solicitor will allow you to start a business partnership off on a strong legal footing. We can help you to draw up a partnership agreement that is fair to all involved and that, as far as is possible, covers all the legal issues that are likely to occur as the business grows.

Intellectual Property Rights Issues

Lots of small businesses are based on great new ideas, and those ideas deserve the proper protection. A business has certain automatic rights to their ideas and inventions when they develop anything. However, if someone steals the concept, they might find it challenging to establish that the creation was, in fact, their own.

Small business solicitors can assist in the process of securing intellectual property rights through copyright and trademarking. A small business solicitor can also assist you in pursuing restitution from businesses and individuals that violate your intellectual property rights, or in defending yourself in the event that you or your company is accused of doing so in relation to someone else’s.

Licensing

In some industries, especially in the hospitality industry, in order to do business at all a company needs to obtain, and then maintain, certain licenses. This can be a long and challenging process, but one that is often made far easier and more efficient with the right legal help.

Once you have a reliable solicitor on your side – and Pearl Lemon Legal can offer you just that – they can also help make sure you follow all the legal guidelines and practices associated with maintaining this licensing and help you defend yourself and your business if you are accused of doing something that might see you lose those all important rights.

Employee Relations

UK employment law can be complicated, and thanks to things like an increase in the acceptance (even if slightly reluctantly) of remote working and the use of independent contractors and/or freelancers instead of traditional employees can complicate it even further.

As this is the case, small businesses can often find that they have violated these laws without ever having intended to. However, ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law. As your small business lawyers, we can help ensure that your company is treating those who work for you in the way the law prescribes and can be available to defend your company’s position if you are accused of not doing so.

Property Law

Many small businesses still need physical premises to operate from, and may need help with the legal side of renting, leasing or buying such property. Pearl Lemon Legal can provide that help.

Tax Law

While you may have an accountant – or a software – that takes care of the majority of the tax issues your small business must deal with on a day-to-day basis, the ever-changing tax laws – and they really are – can quickly see those less acquainted with the ins and outs of UK taxation – especially in the digital and e-commerce spaces where small businesses may be doing business with clients and customers all over the world – get themselves into legal trouble.

With Pearl Lemon Legal on your side as your small business lawyer, you can be assured that you and your business remain in HMRC’s good books while also taking advantage of the lesser known legal tax breaks to which even your accountant may not know you are entitled.

Reputation Protection and Defamation Issues

If you ever read the newspaper, watch the news or even skim business publications that relate to your industry, you are well aware of the damage that can be done to a small business by just a few tweets, a handful of (fake) bad reviews, unflattering news stories or completely false information posted online that big search engines like Google pick up automatically and then seem to circulate everywhere overnight.

Even before the advent of the Internet, reputation protection and defamation were issues that even small businesses needed to be concerned about, but that has increased significantly now that so much information is posted, and circulated, online.

Not only can Pearl Lemon Legal’s small business solicitors provide you with sound legal advice and representation if you need to address defamation issues in court, but they can also help you deal with reputation protection before certain content can do your business harm.

Want to learn more about how Pearl Lemon Legal’s team of experienced small business solicitors can help you? Contact us today and let’s talk about it.

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