General Counsel

For a business to have sustained success, trustworthy legal direction is essential. Foster Swift serves the role of general counsel for many small and mid-size businesses and associations whose present business model doesn't support a full-time in-house lawyer.

Clients call on us to address the complete range of legal issues facing their business. Our involvement level can vary depending upon the entity's needs and goals. As the legal advisor to the management team, we offer proactive strategies that minimize risk, counsel on matters of corporate governance as well as regulatory issues and develop creative solutions when problems arise. Recognizing the profitability goals and financial parameters of our clients, we constantly strive to be as cost-efficient as possible. Foster Swift business and tax attorneys are able to tap other legal issue experts within the firm as the situations require, which expedites our response and often reduces the cost to the client.

The bottom line is that by providing a comprehensive team of attorneys, we are able to build long term relationships with our clients that focus on success in every phase of the business cycle. Some of the matters we routinely handle when serving as general counsel include:

Entity selection, formation and organization planning
Drafting start-up documentation
Complying with regulatory requirements and federal and state laws
Ownership structure
Establishing corporate records
Employment contracts and benefits
Zoning compliance
Real estate transactions, commercial leases and construction issues
Taxation
Intellectual property and information technology issues
Operating agreements
Shareholder agreements and dispute resolution
Corporate bylaws
Commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions including asset or stock acquisitions or sales
SEC reporting requirements, executive compensation issues, disclosure issues and general corporate governance matters
Contract preparation, compensation plan preparation and general corporate counseling
Succession and exit planning
International expansion, joint ventures, immigration and U.S. import/export controls
Federal and state tax planning

At Foster Swift we recognize that every business is different, and each business will have different legal needs for every stage in the business cycle. For every contract and transaction our attorneys will make sure your business gets the best terms available while minimizing liability.