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Business Formation & Governance
An online filing creates an entity. It does not decide who controls the company, how profits move, or what happens when a partner leaves. Those answers live in documents most companies never write until it is too late.
The Approach
The operating agreement is the most important contract you will sign with your partners.
Entity selection is a tax and liability decision before it is a legal one, and we make it with your CPA at the table: LLC or corporation, where to form, and the tax classification that fits how profits will actually flow. The filing is the easy part; the structure behind it is the work.
The governance documents are where companies are really built. Who controls decisions and which ones need unanimity, how profits and losses are shared, what happens when a partner stops contributing, dies, divorces, or wants out, and at what price. Every one of those terms is easier to negotiate on the first day than after a disagreement, and our litigation practice has seen exactly what the missing clause costs.
For growing companies, the practice extends to equity for key people, profits interests and vesting, holding company structures, and conversions and restructurings when the original setup no longer fits the business.
What we handle
Formation and governance work.
- Entity selection & formationLLCs and corporations, formed around tax, liability, and exit.
- Operating agreementsControl, capital, distributions, and exits, written for your company.
- Shareholder & buy-sell agreementsThe triggers and valuation mechanics that prevent owner litigation.
- Equity & profits interestsBringing in key people without giving away the company.
- Holding company structuresSeparating assets, operations, and risk.
- Conversions & restructuringsFixing the structure the business outgrew.
Questions
Before you call.
LLC or S corporation?
They answer different questions: the LLC is an entity type, the S election is a tax classification, and the right combination depends on owners, payroll, and exit plans. We coordinate the choice with your CPA so the legal and tax answers match.
We are 50/50 partners. What should we plan for?
Deadlock. A 50/50 company with no tiebreaker or exit mechanism is a dissolution case waiting to happen. Deadlock provisions and a buy-sell with real valuation mechanics are the insurance.
We already formed online. Is it too late to do this right?
No. Most of our governance work papers companies that already exist. The documents can be put in place now, while the partners still agree.
Contact
Get counsel in the room before the terms are set
Tell us what you are building and with whom. We will tell you what the engagement would look like, in writing, before any work begins.
Canton Office
101 Woodland Way, Suite 1C
Canton, GA 30114
Phone: (770) 891-3681
Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Florida office, by appointment:
1831 NW 33rd Street
Oakland Park, FL 33309
Request a consultation
Confidential. No obligation. We respond during business hours, usually the same day.
Corporate and transactional inquiries go directly to Jack Ross. Prefer the phone? Call (770) 891-3681.