Business Law Lawyers and Attorneys

Business lawyers handle the legal machinery of running a company: choosing and forming an entity, shareholder and operating agreements, commercial contracts, employment documents, licensing, financing rounds, buying or selling a business, and the disputes that follow when a deal or a partnership breaks down.

The work divides roughly into transactional and litigation. Transactional counsel drafts and negotiates; business litigators handle breach of contract, partnership disputes, non-compete fights and creditor claims. Many firms do both, but the individual attorney usually leans one way.

Before you hire

• Match the lawyer to the stage. Forming an LLC and negotiating a Series A are different jobs, and so are their price tags.
• Ask about industry experience. Regulated sectors — health care, food service, construction, financial services — carry rules a generalist will miss.
• Discuss fee structure openly: flat fees are common for formation and standard contracts, hourly for negotiation and disputes, and some firms offer a monthly retainer for ongoing counsel.

For company tax structuring, intellectual property or securities work, see those categories — many business attorneys listed here work alongside specialists in them.