A corporate attorney is a lawyer who works for and represents businesses in a corporate setting. Corporate lawyers can be transactional lawyers, meaning they help write contracts, avoid litigation, and perform other legal work behind the scenes. Litigators can also be corporate attorneys, who represent businesses in court, either bringing a lawsuit against someone who has wronged them or defending them if they are sued.
Large law firms frequently employ corporate attorneys. In-house counsel is another option. This means they work in a company’s legal department, assisting the legal department in making business decisions that are legal.
There are numerous types of corporate attorneys, as well as numerous functions that a corporate attorney can perform. Corporate attorneys, for example, are generally classified as tax lawyers. They work with a business or corporation to determine its tax liability and how to reduce that liability while remaining compliant with the law taking advantage of allowable deductions. They may also assist a business in meeting withholding requirements and other tax obligations.
Attorneys who practice employment law are typically classified as corporate attorneys. To avoid lawsuits, these lawyers assist a company in ensuring compliance with various employee protection laws. An employment law attorney in the United States, for example, would assist a company in complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act and various pieces of civil rights legislation, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A corporate attorney’s primary responsibility also includes contract writing. Many in-house counsel lawyers assist corporations in drafting contracts on a daily basis, covering a wide range of topics. Contracts to procure goods from suppliers, contracts given to customers to limit the corporation’s liability, and many other types of contracts that a business requires to operate within its industry are examples of this.
Corporate law is a broad field, and depending on which client a corporate attorney represents, he may perform a variety of tasks. For example, a corporate attorney representing an insurance company may spend a significant amount of time determining whether the company can legally deny a claim under the law and the terms of the policy. A corporate attorney who works for a commercial real estate agency, on the other hand, may be primarily concerned with drafting contracts for the sale of homes and goods.