General Counsel
Businesses large, small and in between encounter a wide variety of legal issues on a daily basis that require the attention of an experienced practitioner with both knowledge of the law and the business concerns facing executives and managers.
Some businesses- generally the larger, more established ones- maintain a staff of in-house lawyers to provide many of the general legal services their company requires. However, for many small companies and new ventures (as well as established medium and larger organizations looking to keep costs down), having an in-house lawyer is either not financially feasible or not necessary given the limited number of projects needing a lawyer's attention on a daily basis.
The solution: a strategic relationship with an outside law firm that can provide- at reasonable rates- the legal counsel a company requires without having to increase employee head count. At Cohen Schneider LLP, our attorneys have worked as in-house lawyers and outside counsel to businesses of varying sizes and understand the particular needs of management when seeking legal counsel to help run their business.
We bring both our experience in solving complex legal issues along with a keen sensitivity to the underlying business issues that will inform our client's posture in each project they undertake.
Our services include:
- Contract review and negotiation
- Employment matters
- Intellectual property identification and protection
- Business disputes
- Internal real estate matters (e.g. office/store leases)
- Real estate counsel on business deals (e.g. purchase and sale of property for business transactions)
- Regulatory compliance
- Purchase and Sale of businesses or business interests
As every company's needs vary, Cohen Schneider LLP works with management to structure a relationship that best suits the company's situation.
Examples of such arrangements include a monthly "on call" retainer to cover all general legal questions and limited (writing a letter, reviewing a document, etc) projects-with additional charges for more specific, detailed projects including negotiating/drafting agreements, litigation, etc; a per-project fee for a particular assignment with the fee agreed upon in advance (and not increased unless client desires additional outside-of-project-scope work to be undertaken); and the traditional hourly rate structure where the company pays Cohen Schneider LLP per hour for work requested by the client.
