Every new startup faces a mountain of challenges, and many of them will involve financial and legal issues. If you’re launching a business, avoid common pitfalls by hiring an attorney in advance. Here are a few ways legal representation can benefit your company in its early days.

4 Ways an Attorney Can Help Your Startup

1. Provide Counsel

Making the wrong decisions can keep your startup from realizing its true potential, which is why consulting a business attorney can be advantageous. Your legal representative will advise you on forming a corporation or LLC and help you consider how tax laws will affect your startup.

2. Create Partnerships

Even if the original idea was your own, you might have been joined by other creative talents or investors, who each had a hand in developing the business. Since these parties may want to maintain some control over the startup, you may want to form a partnership. Your attorney can draw up a contract that will make the partnership legally binding and determine how much control each partner has over various aspects of the business.

3. Protect Your Intellectual Properties 

As you start the business, you’ll have to create the logo, animated company mascot, training materials for future employees, or brochures for customers. Since this original material is for your business, protect it from being claimed and used by others by asking your attorney to obtain copyrights and trademarks for it. Any commercial product that you invent should also be protected with a patent.

4. Draft Contracts

Whether you’re hiring employees or doing business with vendors, your arrangement will depend on forming a legally binding relationship. Your attorney can draft a contract that details the terms of each arrangement, so both parties know what to expect. This can include creating nondisclosure agreements to help you keep your business practices secret and out of the hands of competitors.

If you’d like a business attorney to help you launch a startup, contact the Law Office of Dawn N. Murata LLLC in Lihue, Hawaii. This locally owned law firm provides sound legal counsel to protect the interests of their business client across Kauai. Learn more about their services online, or call (808) 245-4572 to schedule a consultation.