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What Is a Business Litigator?

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What Is a Business Litigator?

A business litigator is a type of lawyer who focuses exclusively on business legal matters that could lead to litigation or going to court. Businesses can face a wide range of legal challenges, whether external (for example, product users suing a company for damage done by the product) or internal (disgruntled former employees suing, public companies having conflicts with shareholders). They either respond to litigation brought against the company they represent, or they help their company prepare legal action against other companies or people.

What Do Business Litigators Do?

Of course, business litigators act as attorneys for companies, either in the plaintiff or defendant roles. But there are many things they do before arriving in the courtroom. They do extensive research on the issue at hand, collecting and studying the evidence, interviewing witnesses and experts, and developing a legal strategy. They provide legal advice to their clients and confer with their legal teams on the best approach for the specific situation. They will keep current on relevant laws and regulations affecting the company they represent so they can provide appropriate guidance and counsel. They can also help companies prevent legal problems by looking at actions or communications the company wants to make and discovering if there are potential negative legal ramifications, and making recommendations to avoid those negative outcomes.

What Kinds of Cases Do Business Litigators Handle?

They work with nearly anything that can affect a business. That means contracts that are under dispute or have been breached, class action suits against a company, claims of negligence or fraud, intellectual property protection, issues around trade secrets, disgruntled employees, disputes between business partners or between company leadership and the board of directors or, if a public company, shareholders.

Do Business Litigators Always End Up in Court?

Just because a business litigator is working on a company case does not mean that case will end up in court. Part of what business litigators do is to work on negotiations to settle cases out of court. It’s not always in the best interests of the litigants to proceed to trial, so working with the opposing counsel to find mutually agreeable terms to avoid that case can play an important role. At other times they’ll work with mediators and arbitrators to handle the cases.

Let Us Advise You

If your company has need of a business litigator, call us at 317-663-9190 to learn more about our business litigators and how we can provide assistance.

What Is a Business Lawyer?

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What Is a Business Lawyer?

The straightforward answer to this question is that a business lawyer serves companies and corporations on a variety of matters pertaining to their business. The range of legal services needed by businesses varies depending on the nature and size of the business. In general, a business lawyer helps companies ensure their organizations are operating legally and above board.

Do Business Lawyers Work With Financial Aspects of a Business?

When a company’s finances merge with legal concerns, a business lawyer can help work through the details. This can include working with an accountant to review local, state, and federal taxes and make sure the business is in compliance with them. It can also help a business that needs to pursue bankruptcy, which can be highly complex at the business level.

How Do Business Lawyers Help Companies Stay Within the Law?

There are a number of ways business lawyers help companies avoid legal issues that could lead to court sessions and hefty fines. These lawyers will monitor local regulations that must be followed, including getting the necessary permits and licensing. Many businesses today, large and small, need some sort of licensure to open, and they need that license to actually do business.

Business lawyers can also help a company work with copyright laws, another complex area. There are two angles to copyright law. The first is researching your business idea and name to make sure they haven’t already been created and copyrighted by someone else, which would put you in violation of their copyright. The second is making sure you have proper copyrights for any relevant products or names so that you’re protected from someone trying to copy your work.

How Do Business Lawyers Help With Employee Issues?

Having employees can lead to the need for legal services to protect both sides. A business lawyer will review contracts to make sure the company is not at risk from the actions of the employee. They can also advise on matters around compensation, issues of harassment and discrimination, and other topics, as well as how to communicate to employees about these issues.

If your company has employees that travel to foreign countries or you move out of the country even temporarily, a business lawyer can help you navigate the bureaucracy and governmental regulations around this type of employment immigration.

Let Us Advise You

Whether you have an established business that is facing unexpected legal challenges, you’re in the planning stages of starting a new business, or anywhere in between, our legal team is here to help. Call us at 317-663-9190 to learn more about the legal issues facing businesses and how we can provide assistance.

What Does an Estate Planning Lawyer Do?

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What Does an Estate Planning Lawyer Do?

An estate planning lawyer helps people manage what happens to their estates after they’ve passed away. That includes financial accounts and all types of property. This type of lawyer can assist people in planning ahead, so their estate is handled the way they prefer, or the lawyer can help the remaining family members if no estate plan was put into place prior to the death. This type of lawyer can help the estate make the process not only smoother but help it avoid unnecessary delays and tax expenses.

What Services Do Estate Planning Lawyers Provide?

There are a number of services they provide, including drafting legal documents (wills and trusts), legally designating beneficiaries, setting up power of attorney for the estate’s chosen representative, ensuring that assets will be transferred to the designated heirs (including enforcing any restrictions the estate wants to be upheld), and managing retirement plans and life insurance policies.

Why Should an Estate Work With a Planning Lawyer?

One important reason is to avoid going through probate. An improperly created and managed estate could end up in probate court after the estate owner’s death. Probate court can take months, and even years, to handle settling an estate and consequently is very expensive. An estate planning lawyer can work with the estate to determine the best ways to set up a plan that will help avoid probate. They can also advise ways to reduce the tax burdens of transferring the estate.

Can’t People Just Write Their Own Will?

Estate law is complicated and varies from state to state. A simple, handwritten will could open the door to legal challenges that the estate owner never intended. Such a will might be at odds with local laws, which would then force the will into probate court. An experienced estate planning lawyer can help the estate understand the laws and how to create legal documents that are aligned with them, potentially avoiding having the estate process move into probate.

Do Estate Planning Lawyers Only Work on Property and Assets?

While that is largely the role of the estate planning lawyer, they can also provide advice on selecting someone to carry out health care wishes. They can have insight into how to select the right person to oversee health care directives, which can become emotionally wrought if delegated improperly.

Let Us Advise You

If you need assistance setting up or managing an estate plan of any kind, our legal team is here to help. Call us at 317-663-9190 to learn more about how our estate planning lawyers can assist you.

What Does a Business Litigation Lawyer Do?

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What Does a Business Litigator Do?

A business litigator is an attorney who largely focuses on legal matters that may involve lawsuits and court time. These can be legal issues of varying sizes, and they can represent either the plaintiff (the person or entity bringing a case to court) or the defendant (the person or entity being sued).

Where Do Business Litigators Work?

Business litigators work in a variety of organizations. For larger corporations, they may work as part of the in-house counsel, with that corporation as their only client. They may work for an independent legal firm that represents a number of companies.

What Services Do Business Litigators Provide?

There are a number of services business litigators provide, and in some cases, a litigator may specialize in specific services. For example, a major business litigation sector is class action suits. These involve situations where a company’s product or service is being sued by a number of people claiming damage from that product or service. This type of litigation can last for years and is complex. Contract negotiations that have derailed or conflicts arising from contracts in place are common services. They may enforce non-compete agreements. Intellectual property, trademark and patents, and trade secrets may need defense. They may work on cases involving the company’s reputation, such as claims of fraud or misrepresentation or issues involving defamation. Litigators also work on human resource issues, especially involving disgruntled current or previous employees. Taxation and business partnership issues are all part of business litigation services. For companies that are public, a business litigator might work on issues facing business and shareholder disputes.

Does Litigation Usually Mean Going to Court?

Litigation doesn’t always end up in a courtroom. Often cases are settled without being heard before a judge. In these cases, the litigator can help negotiate the settlement, working in the best interests of the client. Other times, the conflicted parties will bring in a neutral third-party mediator. The litigator can still advise the client through mediation, keeping the client apprised of their rights and monitoring the creation of the settlement to make sure it’s legally binding. Many contracts have an arbitration clause, which forbids each side from litigating. Instead, they enter arbitration, where an arbitrator hears both sides and comes to a decision about the outcome. The litigator then presents the client’s side of the dispute, laying out the case much as they would in a courtroom.

Let Us Advise You

If your business is facing litigation from another source or needs to litigate something, our legal team is here to help. Call us at 317-663-9190 to speak with one of our business litigators.

What Are the Three Requirements for Trademarks?

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What Are the Three Requirements for Trademarks?

There are multiple requirements for trademarks and for litigation around trademark infringement, but there are three primary requirements businesses need to be aware of: Trademark distinctiveness, use in commerce, and lack of conflicts.

What Makes a Trademarked Item Distinctive?

There are three levels of legally defined distinctive marks:

  • Fanciful. That means the item being trademarked is entirely invented and is not found in a dictionary. For example, Spotify was a word that wasn’t in any dictionary and was created solely to name that company.

  • Arbitrary. This is a mark that does exist in the dictionary, but how the business uses it doesn’t relate to the dictionary’s definition. An example of an arbitrary name is Camel tobacco products.

  • Suggestive. These could be in the dictionary (but not always) and are related to the product or service being sold. KitchenAid is an example of a name that indicates it’s a kitchen tool and appliance company.

There are two types of marks that are not usually eligible for trademarks.

  • Descriptive. These are dictionary terms that may be used in connection with products or services that are related to the term. International Business Machines would not have initially earned a trademark. But as the company grew, the recognition of IBM as a separate, distinct business crossed the threshold known as “secondary meaning”—when basic words become recognized in this context as something else.

  • Generic. Generic marks are things that exist in the dictionary and have a well-known definition that would make them difficult to distinguish. One example would be a hat shop called simply Hats.

What Is “Use in Commerce”?

Trademarks are not for personal use. They must involve products or services that a business offers. What’s more, trademarks cannot be retained if the products or services are no longer offered. Companies must prove to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that the trademarks they’re applying for represent actual business items.

What Does Lack of Trademark Conflicts Mean?

The most obvious reason the USPTO would reject a trademark is it duplicates a previously trademarked mark. That’s one of the reasons that researching the USPTO’s established trademarks database is important. It will save time if you know there’s another organization out there already protected with that mark.

But trademarks don’t have to be identical. The USPTO will look at similar items, particularly if they’re in the same business realm. The bottom line is if a consumer could reasonably be confused by too-similar offerings, such as a business name or logo that offers similar types of services or products, the USPTO could reject the trademark application.

Let Us Advise You

Trademark laws and regulations can be complex. Call us at 317-663-9190 to discover how our attorneys can leverage knowledge and experience to help you through the process.

Is a Litigator the Same as a Lawyer?

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Is a Litigator the Same as a Lawyer?

It’s easy to identify the person representing a client in a courtroom as a lawyer and think that’s the end of the matter. In fact, a litigator is a lawyer but essentially exists in a subsection of different types of lawyers. “Lawyer” is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of legal services and specialties. A litigator is a specific specialty.

What Is a Lawyer?

A lawyer is someone who has completed specialized legal education and earned a license to practice law for the public. Once practicing law, a lawyer can handle many different legal matters. They can represent plaintiffs or defendants in court, provide an array of legal advice, draft necessary legal documents, and in general, help their clients understand their legal rights as well as their legal obligations.

What Is a Litigator?

A litigator is a lawyer practicing in a specialty area focused on courtrooms and lawsuits. Those lawsuits can be civil or criminal, and the litigator will represent either the plaintiff or defendant in arguing their case. While litigators do frequently appear in court, they can also manage lawsuits in other ways, including mediation, arbitration, or settlement negotiations. Regardless, they provide legal advice to their clients and spend time preparing arguments on behalf of the client.

What Are the Differences Between a Lawyer and a Litigator?

The major difference between a lawyer and a litigator is in categorization. All licensed attorneys practicing law are considered lawyers. Within the broad field of lawyers, litigators are a specialty category, focused entirely on lawsuits and issues that could ultimately result in a courtroom trial.

In other words, all litigators are lawyers, but not all lawyers are litigators. Which one you hire depends on your legal needs. If a lawsuit is possible or a legal issue could end up in mediation or arbitration, if not in a courtroom, then a litigator is the type of lawyer you’d need. For other types of legal matters, seek out lawyers who work with those specific matters.

Let Us Advise You

Whether you need a litigator or other type of legal counsel, our legal team is here to help. Call us at 317-663-9190 to make an appointment to meet with one of our experienced attorneys.