Small Business Services

At Lewis & Lin, our Small Business Lawyers provide sophisticated and experienced services for our clients who own and operate small businesses. We provide a wide array of corporate services, including:

  • New business formations

  • Preparation, negotiation, and management of corporate commercial arrangements

  • Joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions

  • Employee compensation and termination

  • Licensing, production and distribution agreements

  • Independent contractor, vendor, and retail sales agreements

  • Business plans and private placement memoranda

  • Ownership structuring, equity incentive programs

  • Employment arrangements

  • Corporate and governance oversight

  • Private placements of securities, including due diligence oversight

  • Negotiation of term sheets, capitalization, share pricing and dilution concerns

  • Attention to Federal and state securities law compliance.

Our client-focused practice puts the clients’ needs first, and our attorneys work directly on our clients’ important legal matters. Because we operate without a bulky chain of command, our services are much more cost-effective compared to larger firms.

New Business Formation
If you’re ready to set up a new business, there is a dizzying array of questions you must now face. Lewis & Lin attorneys meet with each client, thoroughly reviewing their circumstances, resources, goals, and expectations in order to help them decide what type of business structure they would like to set up.

Do you plan on bringing in investors? Do you plan to eventually sell the business? What sort of liability will your type of business incur? We address all these questions and then walk you through the process of acquiring a Taxpayer ID and setting up your business as a federal and state-recognized entity.

Small Business Litigation
Our services benefit our business clients from the time the business is formed, throughout the life of the business. We provide counsel for day-to-day operations, but we also help businesses navigate the contract disputes and litigation matters that inevitably arise. We handle cases involving:

  • Commercial litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution

  • Intellectual property

  • Business divorce

  • Domain Name Disputes

  • Misappropriation of Trade Secrets

  • Trademark infringement

  • Copyright infringement

  • Breach of contract

  • Defamation and reputation management

  • False Advertising and unfair competition

General Counsel Services

We understand that new or growing businesses often don’t have an in-house legal department. Our attorneys are well equipped to act as Outside General Counsel for your small business. Whether it’s consultation on a vendor contract, advising on an employment matter, or collecting on an unpaid account, we can assist so you can focus on your business needs. In the event we are unable to work directly on a matter, then we will locate, engage and coordinate outside counsel as part of your unified legal team.

Licensing Agreements
Lewis & Lin attorneys handle various types of e-commerce and licensing agreements relevant to small businesses, including:

  • Web agreements

  • Domain name assignment agreements

  • Technology agreements

  • Services agreements (“Terms of Use”)

  • Privacy policies

  • Marketing agreements

  • Software licensing agreements

  • Outsourcing agreements

  • Content licensing agreements

  • Distribution agreements

  • Development agreements

  • Advertising agreements

  • Fashion industry agreements

  • Art use and artists’ rights agreements

Trademarks and IP Rights
If you have recently started or are currently starting a new business, this is the ideal time to consider how to safeguard your company's valuable intellectual property. Lewis & Lin LLC can advise you on how to ensure maximum levels of trademark protections for your company and brand names and can help you avoid investing significant resources in marketing and advertising in a potentially infringing name. For technology and creative businesses, it may be appropriate to put trade secret protections in place, for example, through copyrights and other ownership of your website to your company.

If you wish to discuss your small business needs, contact us today.