Finding a good lawyer is essential to any business. Protecting your business from liability and creditors is essential to longevity and success and the groundwork for those mission-critical tasks must be laid in the initial stages. Because of the complex and often misunderstood nature of intellectual properties, finding an attorney familiar with the industry becomes even more important if you are in the entertainment business. Seek out the best lawyers you can afford to help you navigate the complex problems you may face. But what does a lawyer do from day to day?
Protect Your Assets
The most valuable service an entertainment and/or business attorney can do is help you shield and maintain your intellectual properties. Every company has them: trade names, trade secrets, logos, branding, and yes, even copyrights. Entertainers and celebrities also possess personal rights in their names and likeness. To keep your business relevant and profitable, you need to minimize the number of intellectual property assaults your company undergoes and have a strategy in place that protects those assets from litigation assaults levied by both legitimate and illegitimate claimants. This could be anything from a business using your trademark or logo, to people pirating your content for their personal use. Other physical assets like your office building or company cars can also be the subject of liability in frivolous or legitimate lawsuits.
An intellectual property lawyer can help protect these assets from your competition and false claims. Contact us immediately if you want protect your creations or if you have questions. Otherwise, your sales may be affected by other companies taking your ideas. Entertainment & IP lawyers may be costly at first, but they are worth it in the end.
Source: https://www.incorporate.com/learning-center/protecting-business-investment/
Follow Regulations
As legal fictions, i.e., creations of the law, business entities are perhaps the most highly regulated citizens in the U.S. Most Fortune 50 corporations have armies of in-house counsel who can help them with corporate maintenance, regulations, and the strict legal guidelines specific to their individual sector. If a company or small business owner isn’t careful, they can neglect to maintain the proper corporate documentation fail to follow important regulations, which can lead to hefty government penalties, fines and/or client lawsuits.
For example, banking regulations can be time-consuming to comply with and too complex for the average business person to understand. Lawyers can inform you of laws that you should be aware of, giving you time to up your company standards. They can also defend you if someone is accusing you of failing to follow state regulations. Hiring legal help can keep you out of hot water by analyzing the laws. At Shrum Hicks & Associates PC we have a special program tailored just for small businesses who want the assistance of general counsel without the hefty annual salary and benefits normally associated with such an employee. Investigate our VIP Counsel program.
Source: https://www.podium.com/article/risk-management-strategies/
Stabilize Internal Relations
If you are starting a business with multiple partners, or forming a performing band with different musicians, you want to get a lawyer involved sooner rather than later to avoid the joint and several liability inevitably attached to simple partnerships. Because of the complicated nature of business structures and legal precedent, you should pursue accurate legal documentation of your business to determine who gets what should the business ever fall through, or who is liable if the company gets sued. While some business owners think this is a self-defeating prophecy, others recognize its usefulness as a safety net. It’s always a good “just in case” option to be prepared.
Lawyers can help each employee and business owner know their exact role in the organization. It keeps people’s expectations in check and stabilizes internal business relations. Hiring a lawyer for your business is just practical and safe for your staff.
Even though you may think a lawyer is a luxury expense, it becomes incredibly necessary in the moments you wish you had one. Start looking for one immediately when you decide to go into any type of business. Your life will be made a lot easier by getting yourself a lawyer.
If you need legal representation for your business, schedule a consultation with us!
