A New York lawyer for business contracts helps companies review, draft, negotiate and manage the contracts that serve the business enterprise. Take a look at our article, “10 Provisions to Include in a New York Business Contract”.

Common Types of Business Contracts

A good New York business contract lawyer is a professional that you want to have on retainer. Not only do they make the process of creating contracts and reviewing them easier, but they can help your greatly when making business agreements and go-to-market strategies.

Here are some common types of contracts that businesses engage New York business contract lawyers to help with:

  1. Shareholder / Partnership / Operating Agreements. Every New York business should have the agreement amongst the owners addressing the operations and management of the business and the respective shareholders’ rights and obligations. The form of the agreement might be called a “Shareholder Agreement” (in conjunction with the corporate bylaws if the entity is a Corporation or Incorporated), an “Operating Agreement” if the entity is a New York limited liability company, or a ”Partnership Agreement” if a partnership.
  2. Service and Sales Agreements. These are the heart of the New York business. These can be the go-to-market agreements with your customers by which the company makes revenue. A New York business contracts lawyer drafts your company’s agreements to help your company maximize revenues, streamline processes, and minimize risks. Or perhaps your business is purchasing products or services — you will want to properly define what you are buying, how much you are paying, and the rights and obligations of each party to the agreement.
  3. Investment Agreements. Investment contracts govern the terms or the deal between your company and the entities that give you money to run your business — whether as a loan or an equity investment. These relationships are the keystone of your business and the provisions of the investment agreements should be mutually beneficial. A good New York business contract lawyer can help review, draft and negotiate the terms of a contract for “win-win” outcomes for all involved parties.
  4. Commercial Real Estate Lease Agreements. If your business needs office space or other real estate to operate, and your company does not own the real estate, your company needs to need to enter into a commercial real estate lease agreement. Unfortunately, the terms of a commercial lease agreement can widely differ between landlords and can be very onerous. They differ greatly from residential real estate leases. There are many hidden “additional rent” charges and other heavy-handed provisions in a commercial real estate lease that need to be properly reviewed and negotiated by a New York business contracts lawyer with appropriate real estate experience.
  5. Confidentiality Agreements and Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). Having strong confidentiality provisions in your New York business contracts or stand-alone NDAs are crucial to many business operations, especially when dealing with proprietary information. Companies not only want to protect their proprietary methods, information and practices, but also their trade secrets. See our article “When Do You Need a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA)?” for a deeper dive. New York business lawyers help you protect your business, proprietary practices and trade secrets.
  6. Employment Contracts. Absent provisions to the contrary, employees are employed “at will,” meaning they can quit at any time or be fired at any time. Usually, except for key employees and officers, a company will not have a stand-alone employment contract with most employees. However, best practice is to have employees agree to be bound by the policies in the company employee handbook (which may have certain contractual provisions applicable to all employees). You also might want to have all employees sign confidentiality agreements (which might include non-compete obligations and also assignment of works-for-hire and licenses to underlying technology). Also a company would want longer term employment contracts with key employees.
  7. Knowing When to Bring in Other Professionals. Your company’s New York business contracts lawyer is also your company’s general counsel. They should not only “know what they know,” but should also “know what they don’t know.” Meaning your New York business lawyer should anticipate and identify issues needing to be handled by other experts like tax lawyers, litigators, patent lawyers, immigration lawyers or import/export customs lawyers, to name a few.

Feel free to call us at 212-688-8944 if you need help with deciding whether you need to hire a New York business attorney. As the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”