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A Houston business contracts lawyer will help make sure you take the steps needed to protect your business relationships.

What Can a Houston Business Contracts Lawyer Help With?

A business lawyer can assist in setting up your business, drafting and negotiating contracts, and enforcing contract provisions against other parties.

Contract Drafting

Your key relationships will be documented through contracts, including agreements with vendors and suppliers, manufacturing agreements, leases, sales agreements with customers, non-disclosure agreements, and intellectual property agreements.

While the details of the contract may seem small or inconsequential, these contracts will govern the most critical aspects of your business. It is important to get the details right and accurately reflect the intended relationship between your business and the other parties.

Breach of Contract

Once a contract is signed, the parties must adhere to the contractual obligations. Unfortunately, not all parties follow through with their commitments and things don’t always go as planned. If you are dealing with a party that is not living up to its obligations, a business contracts lawyer can provide valuable guidance on how to pursue recovery. If, on the other hand, a party is alleging that you breached a contract, your business lawyer will work with your litigation counsel to help defend your position.

Employment Contracts

Employment contracts are an important and complicated type of contract. As your business grows, you will be hiring employees and working with independent contractors. These relationships come with different obligations for things like taxes and workers’ compensation. It is important that you appropriately classify workers and document the relationship in the correct fashion. A business contracts lawyer can help advise you on employment contracts.

Common Types of Business Contracts

There are many types of business contracts. If you think of any important part of your business, there is likely a contract involved. Some common business contracts that a lawyer can help with include:

  • Non-disclosure agreements
  • Non-compete agreements
  • Partnership agreements
  • Employee agreements
  • Independent contractor agreements
  • Website terms of service
  • Intellectual property licensing agreements
  • Privacy policies
  • Leases
  • Master services agreements and statements of work
  • Sales agreements
  • Vendor agreements
  • Manufacturing agreements
  • Software as a service (Saas) agreements

The above list is representative of common agreements, but if you are unsure of the type of agreement needed in your situation, contact a business contracts lawyer for assistance.

A Trusted Legal Advisor to Help Protect Your Business

It is a business contracts lawyer’s job to understand the ins and outs of the business, the business’s main concerns, and its primary business goals. This knowledge enables the attorney to draft and negotiate contract terms that address the issues that are most important to you.

Do I Need a Lawyer for My Business’s Contracts?

A lawyer is a critical partner when drafting, negotiating, enforcing, or defending contracts. While it might feel faster and cheaper to put together your own contract, this will likely cost you much more time and money down the road.

Contract language is nuanced and sometimes ambiguous. A skilled lawyer will work to draft and negotiate contracts that are favorable to your business and, in the face of a dispute, leverage the language to work in your favor. In many contracts, changing one word can drastically alter the meaning, and business contracts lawyers are trained to read contracts with a keen eye to these changes.

A highly qualified lawyer will make sure that your business is protected in its most important relationships.

Houston Business Lawyer for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Whenever you find yourself needing to reach out to our office, you can be sure you won’t need to wait for days or weeks in order to get a response. Here at Stafford Law Firm, we pride ourselves on being easily accessible and on responding to all client inquiries as soon as possible.

The fact of the matter is, one day your business will need legal assistance. Whether that be for business formation, drafting contracts, planning the business’s succession, or simply general counsel, we can help.

Schedule your free consultation right away to discuss your business’s legal needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

First, a business contract lawyer will work with you to gain a clear understanding of your business and the reason for the contract. With this understanding, the lawyer will draft a contract that includes terms laying out the relationship between the parties, including their various obligations and the penalties for failing to fulfill those obligations. If the other party proposes changes to the draft, your lawyer will work with you to determine which changes are not acceptable and will negotiate with the other party on your behalf.

Once a contract is finalized, your lawyer will continue to be available to analyze any language in the contract that comes into dispute and to advocate on your behalf.

A good contract lawyer has both an eye for detail and the ability to understand big-picture business goals. In a contract negotiation, you often have to make compromises in the negotiation process. A skilled lawyer can advise which changes are most likely to negatively impact your business goals and, conversely, pose a low risk of business disruption.

While a good contract lawyer will have deep contract expertise, they should also be able to explain the contract terms to you in plain English. Expect your business attorney to flag any concerning terms, suggest business-favorable modifications to the contract language, and answer any questions you have about the contract and the contract process.

This will depend on the type of business you are running.

  • If you will be providing confidential information to other individuals or entities, you will need non-disclosure agreements.
  • If your business purchases goods or services from third parties, you will need vendor and services agreements.
  • If you sell goods or services to customers, you will require a sales agreement.
  • If you sell products directly to consumers, you will need a return policy.
  • If you are licensing out or licensing in intellectual property, you will need an intellectual property licensing agreement.
  • If your business has an online presence, you will need website terms of service and a privacy policy.
  • If you have employees or work with independent contractors, you will need agreements in place with these individuals.

In addition to the contracts you put in place, you will likely be presented contracts by other parties you work with, and a business contracts lawyer can review these contracts on your behalf.

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