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There is also the issue of actually selling stock or ownership interest to people inside or outside of the company. There are all kinds of rules requiring the filing of legal forms with the SEC or state secretaries of state that most of us are completely unaware of. Plus legal disclaimers must be written properly to be sure that any investor knows their money is completely at risk and can’t claim the ownership opportunity was misrepresented. And if you sell ownership outside of your employees, there are qualified investor requirements that must be met. Get an attorney who is experienced in these matters! Mergers, acquisitions, and external sales are yet another area that you should not get into without experienced legal counsel on board. Everything from whether or not the transaction will be a stock sale or asset purchase, or what the non-compete provisions for sellers are going to be, or what sellers are committing to in their warrantees and representations is critical. There is no place for an inexperienced attorney in these deals – just way too much is at risk for all parties involved. I could go on here but will conclude by saying that while I know many of our readers are self-reliant, “do-it-yourself” types and I respect and admire that, these issues and more are not where you want to go it alone or just get your regular business attorney’s input. You need specialized help. Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 5
Again, big savings for us. As sensible as that is, I never would have thought to do it without the right attorney’s original advice. “Don’t think there aren’t plenty of attorneys out there who won’t take your work even if they have no experience in that problem. Getting the right attorney on board can be extremely valuable to you.” Another area that requires specialized legal advice is internal ownership transition. Your LLC operating agreement or corporate shareholder agreement and bylaws just have too many ways to go wrong. I’m not an attorney myself, and I have zero interest in reading legal documents, but I can tell you that rarely have I looked at one of these agreements that I couldn’t find problems with (many times BIG problems). You cannot just keep using the old agreements you have that were drafted 20 years ago, or worse – something you pulled from an online source such as Rocket Lawyer or LegalZoom. The cost of good legal advice is minuscule compared to what the wrong documents could cost you.
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Booth #312
The future won’t be won by the largest firms — but by the most agile.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 22, 2025, ISSUE 1602
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