Wednesday, November 23, 2011

New York Corporate Lawyers: Diversified, Challenged and Busy

By Geoff Caplan


Folks in the New York Metropolitan Area sometimes forget that Staten Island has its own subset of highly experienced professionals for every legal discipline - and corporate lawyers are no exception.

No longer the "over the bridge" stepchild to the rest of New York City, Staten Island and its residents can count on a significant number of highly experienced and proficient professionals to meet and exceed every expectation.

The Growth of Corporate Law

Just a few short years ago, there were 67,000 corporate lawyers in the United States, working on average for 50 hours per week. The number has grown exponentially since then.

Before you retain a Staten Island corporate lawyer, it is important to understand exactly what they do, beyond the obvious perceptions.

The role of a corporate lawyer is to ensure the legality of commercial transactions, advising corporations on their legal rights and duties, including the duties and responsibilities of corporate officers. In order to do this, they must have knowledge of aspects of contract law, tax law, accounting, securities law, bankruptcy, intellectual property rights, licensing, zoning laws, and the laws specific to the business of the corporations that they work for.

Usually, the practice of corporate law is less adversarial than that of trial law. Attorneys for both sides of a commercial transaction are less opponents than facilitators. One lawyer characterizes them as "the handmaidens of the deal". Transactions take place amongst peers. There are rarely wronged parties, underdogs, or inequities in the financial means of the participants. Corporate lawyers structure those transactions, draft documents, review agreements, negotiate deals, and attend meetings.

What areas of corporate law a Staten Island corporate lawyer experiences depends specifically where the firm the attorney is located, and how large the legal practice is. A small Staten Island corporate lawyer in a smaller firm might deal in many short-term issues such as drafting wills, divorce settlements, and real estate transactions, whereas a corporate lawyer in a larger firm might spend many months devoted to negotiating a single business transaction.

Similarly, different firms may organize their subdivisions in different ways. Not all will include mergers and acquisitions under the umbrella of a corporate law division, however.
Some corporate lawyers become partners in their firms. Others become in-house counsel for corporations. Others still migrate into other professions such as investment banking and teaching law.




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