When you are starting a new business, or in the planning stages of developing one, then it can be relatively easy to overlook the legal aspects of your new endeavour. While your focus may well be on generating start up costs, proving your business is viable to investors and trying to generate interest in your product or service by advertising, legal matters can take a back seat to what appear to be more pressing matters.

Yet the truth is, such are the legal demands and responsibilities of any business in the modern world, from large multi-nationals, right down to the smallest single man operation, that it is important that you have a trusted and reliable legal expert to call upon both in the planning stages of your business and also when you are fully operational.

In this article, we’ll examine how a legal expert can help a business both in the formative part of their development, from the first ideas of a business to the first day of trading. Then we’ll also look at the ongoing support and important roles a legal representative can fulfil for a business, which will enable the business to function on providing the excellent product or service that they advertise, rather than frantically trying to deal with legal issues that they have not paid enough attention to.

Starting Out

A legal representative can help a fledgling business or one that is yet to start even before they have had their first official day of trading. A trained solicitor can help you formulate the structure of your business, whether you are a limited company, partnership or similar and get this formally structured and written up in a legally binding contract. This is important if you are not a sole-trader as it protects both you as an individual, and your business as well as offering other directors or partners the same level of protection.

When you are starting out in business, it is also very easy to overlook legal issues when you are focused on finance generation or the formulation of a business plan. By using the services of an expert in business law at this stage, you can save yourself vast amounts of stress, time and money later by ensuring that your business plan is entirely legally sound and does not fall foul of any of the many laws that are in place to do with businesses.

Discussing your plans and proposed operations with a business lawyer will enable them to clearly identify which aspects of business law are most pertinent to your proposed line of business and as such, if you need to take any steps to ensure that your company is operating within those laws, you can do so from the very start. This is a much more sensible approach than starting a business without taking legal counsel, only to then find you have fallen foul of a law and then be forced to make changes while operating (not to mention, having to face the possibility of legal action or fines).

As a new company, a business lawyer is invaluable in ensuring that your set up is in full adherence with local laws and regulations, ensuring that you can rest easy about that important side of your business and focus on providing the service or product to the best of your ability.

Day to Day Issues

You may think that if you have taken salient business law advice at the planning stage of your business and that you are now operating and starting to generate income, that your need for a business lawyer would now be over. In truth, there are many occasions when a business may need the services of a business lawyer or some other form of legal representation and as such, it is absolutely vital that should that need arise in your business, then you have a trusted legal expert to call upon.

Many larger companies now employ their own team of lawyers to investigate all aspects of their business and report back to owners about any legal ramifications that they may face. While this is not practical for smaller operations, it is important that you have a legal expert that you can trust to ensure any issues with the law are dealt with quickly and cost-effectively.

It is only when you examine some of the key reasons why a business lawyer can be such a valuable asset to a business on a day-to-day basis, that it hits home how important strong legal counsel is.

- Employees – As an employer, you have a right to ensure that your employees are safe at work, that they are working in a safe environment and that you do not discriminate against any particular group of people when it comes to employment. A legal representative can help your business adhere to this and also provide advice and important counsel in the event of a claim being made by an employee against the business.

- Consumers – As a business, you are legally obliged to act fairly towards customers, by ensuring that the services or products you offer match the description of them in your literature or adverts, that they are of a satisfactory quality. A legal representative can not only help you adhere to these laws but provide advice and counsel should a claim be made against you.

-Other Issues – Your legal representative can advise you on other legal issues that may be pertinent to your business, such as environmental laws, business insurance, pension schemes, dealing with unions and much more. Indeed, almost any aspect of running a business that you would care to mention will likely have some legal implication at one juncture.

In truth, a business needs strong legal representation not just in terms of a face to represent the company legally in court, but on a day to day basis to stop that happening. Sound ongoing legal advice from a trusted legal representative is one of the shrewdest investments any business can make to protect both its assets, its employees, its customers and its future.