The work that piles up quietly
Corporate legal affairs is the ordinary legal life of a business. Minutes and consents need to match what the company actually did, equity records need to reflect every grant and transfer, and annual filings keep the entity in good standing. Customer, vendor, and lease agreements arrive on the other side's paper with terms nobody has time to read closely. Employment questions come up with every hire and every departure. None of this feels urgent until a financing, a sale, or a dispute forces someone to look, and gaps found at that stage are usually harder and more expensive to fix than they would have been earlier.
Getting the basics in one place
Most companies we meet have their legal documents scattered across email threads, shared drives, and a former employee's laptop. A practical first step is gathering the formation documents and bylaws or operating agreement, the cap table and equity paperwork, board and owner approvals, material contracts, insurance policies, and any open disputes or government correspondence. With that set in hand, it becomes clear which records are missing, which approvals should be ratified, and which agreements carry renewal dates, exclusivity, or change-of-control terms that someone needs to track. For companies with a foreign parent, intercompany agreements and the parent's approval requirements belong in the same file.
Deciding how legal work gets handled
Companies without an in-house lawyer usually benefit from deciding in advance which matters need legal review and which can follow a template. We talk through the volume and type of contracts you sign, who inside the company can approve what, and how quickly you need answers. Some clients want a standing arrangement that works much like an outside general counsel, while others prefer to call on a matter-by-matter basis. We also identify the issues that should come to a lawyer before anything is signed or sent, such as threatened litigation, regulatory inquiries, and anything touching personal data or employee discipline.
