Business Lawyers: Why It Is Crucial For Startups to Hire One

Owning your own business may make you feel that it is your sole responsibility to ensure that everything is catered to by you. However, bearing all the responsibility for your company decisions can be quite overwhelming. Moreover, it makes you susceptible to making some crucial mistakes as some facets may become overlooked due to the sheer volume of work that might be on your plate. This is why it is important for business owners, especially startup companies, to consider all aspects of commercial law and hire an attorney. Below are a few of the reasons why it's crucial for startups to hire a business lawyer.

A business lawyer will ensure you have the right entity structure

Some people have the assumption that owning a business on your own automatically means that it has to be identified as a sole proprietorship. The reality is that there are different types of entities that you could register your business as. You should note that having a sole proprietorship will not provide much for you in terms of liability protection. You may want to consider registering as another entity such as a Limited Liability Partnership, a corporation and more.

A business lawyer will handle licensing

When starting your business, you will probably have numerous ideas or products that you would like to implement. However, executing these ideas will require the appropriate patents as well as copyrights. Failure to file for these on time or filing for them incorrectly will put you at risk of having your intellectual property stolen by the competition. This could lead to long, drawn-out court cases and huge losses. To prevent all this, it would be essential to have a business lawyer on your side who will be tasked with handle all matter pertaining to licensing.

A business lawyer protects you from liability

Starting a business means that you may be exposed to lawsuits, and as such, most people will try their best to conduct their business as professionally and lawfully as possible to avoid this. However, some situations may be beyond your control. For instance, if an employee slips and falls on your premises, which leads to them sustaining injuries, you will be liable if they chose to sue you. On the other hand, if a customer is to get injured on the business property, it would be up to you to prove that your business did not have a role to play in the accident. A business lawyer will ensure that you have appropriate insurance to protect you against these claims. They would also be qualified to represent you in court in the event the situation escalates to a lawsuit.