When most people think of law, it’s usually the earthshaking, dramatic, and (sometimes) controversial legal battles that rage across courtrooms and makes headlines in the media. However, in most cases, this isn’t what the practice of law looks like. Usually, it’s bookwork, research, and trying to keep massively expensive messes like what you’d see on television from ever happening—in essence, it’s preventative law.
While this may not seem like much, it’s actually very important for businesses. Anyone in a corporate setting needs to take the legal implications of what they do into account and to do that, you need legal counsel.
Definition of Preventative Law
But what exactly is preventative law? At its core, it’s the process of making sure you avoid legal difficulties. This contrasts with traditional law in that rather than trying to defeat something that has already happened, you do everything possible to prevent those conflicts, lawsuits, and disputes in the first place.
It also puts you in more control of the outcome. Those who wait until a crisis occurs before looking at their legal standing don’t have that much control over whether they’ll win or lose as someone who has planned ahead. In traditional law, it’s ultimately the jury or judge who determines the outcome. With preventative law, you can influence the end result more, even if you still end up facing litigation later on.
It’s better to work in advance and make sure your policies, practices, and operations are legally sound. In addition, some effort should be made to anticipate developments in laws, regulations, and rules that could affect your company.
Vital Components
To be truly effective, preventative law must take various elements into account. These include:
- Your current rules and policies
- Employment, management, and operational practices
- Reporting, trading, tax, and other financial matters
- Contracts and agreements with other parties
- Recent developments in local, state, and national laws and regulations
- Bills and laws currently being negotiated
- Matters of risk, liability, and so forth
It’s not simply a matter of making sure everything you do is in compliance with current regulations, though that is a major part of it. Preventative law also requires you to anticipate upcoming developments in terms of the market and the law, assess risks you already face in your business, and analyze what risks may arise in the future.
Applicable Areas and Services
There are several practice areas that are essentially preventative in nature—they help you comply with current laws and regulations while also preparing you for any difficulties or changes that may come. For example, some of the legal services we offer at Hart & David include:
- Asset protection
- Estate planning
- Tax planning
- Strategic business planning
- Corporate governance
- Securities regulations
- Investment management
- Intellectual property, trademark, patents, and licensing
- Venture capital
And the list goes on. Again, the idea is to make sure you run into as few legal complications as possible in the course of running your business. To do this, you will need attorneys with experience in corporate law, which you can find at Hart & David. To learn more, contact us today.