Many people are unclear as to what services they can expect from a business lawyer. The role of a corporate attorney is to help negotiate and ensure the legality of commercial transactions, advising individuals, corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and other legal entities on their legal rights and duties, including the duties and responsibilities of corporate officers. In order to do this, a business attorney must have knowledge of aspects of corporation law, contract law, tax law, accounting, securities law, bankruptcy, intellectual property rights, licensing, employment law, and the laws specific to the business of the corporations or legal entities that they represent. Of course, the type of corporate transactions are very broad and can range from determining and advising on the initial set up and organization of a legal entity (whether it will be a corporation, limited liability company, limited partnership, general partnership, or other) to setting up an option plan, to leasing a space, to licensing a trademark, to mergers and acquisitions (buying and selling the business), to advising publicly traded companies on corporate governance and securities laws. This multi-disciplinary practice makes business attorneys a unique breed in an era where professionals all tend to specialize. While being a corporate lawyer is a specialty area in itself, the corporate lawyer must have some knowledge in the various areas of laws identified above in order to best advise and negotiate a commercial transaction, and if necessary, engage an attorney in one of the specialized areas such as employment, tax, or intellectual property.
Afshin Hakim’s unique and broad range of work experience make him the ideal corporate lawyer for your business. Mr. Hakim was initially trained as a litigator in the area of employment law at O’Melveny & Myers, a top international firm. Unlike most business attorneys, he has the knowledge and experience of the consequences and ramifications of any potential litigation that may result from a corporate transaction and how to best avoid unnecessary pitfalls. In addition, Mr. Hakim also has served as a general counsel of a privately held company, providing him with insight from the business owner’s perspective as to what business issues are typically most important to companies and how to best navigate around the intersection of legal and business issues. Lastly, Mr. Hakim gained his corporate law experience at two other international firms, where he had the opportunity to represents companies from the initial start-up stage to publicly traded companies on Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. The experience of representing such mature companies, provides a depth of experience and knowledge that is priceless in representation of start-ups and middle market companies. Overall, Mr. Hakim is highly adept in spotting all the significant business and legal issues in any corporate transaction and advising his clients as to how to bests negotiate their options towards a successful transaction.
To learn more or to set up a free consultation with business attorney Afshin Hakim, please call (213) 238-1600 or email him at afshin@hakimlawgroup.com.
