Business Law
Business Law Attorneys in California, Nevada & Arizona
Practical legal counsel for starting, operating, financing, growing, buying, selling, and protecting your business.
Business decisions have legal consequences—and legal advice should make business decisions easier. Gibbs Giden Locher Turner Senet & Wittbrodt LLP helps businesses, owners, executives, and investors navigate corporate transactions, commercial contracts, daily operations, and business disputes.
With offices in Los Angeles, Westlake Village, Irvine, San Jose, Las Vegas, and Scottsdale, our business attorneys provide coordinated counsel across business law and related practice areas. We assist clients with business formation, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, financing, private investments, strategic partnerships, employment matters, real estate, intellectual property, succession planning, and commercial litigation.
Whether you are launching a company, negotiating a critical agreement, purchasing a business, managing an ownership dispute, or planning your next stage of growth, we begin with your objectives. Our role is to help you understand your options, anticipate problems, and put a practical legal strategy into action.
Business Legal Services: How We Can Help
Business Formation, Entity Selection & Ownership Agreements
The structure of your business affects how decisions are made, how ownership is shared, and how the company can grow or change. We help entrepreneurs, business owners, and established companies evaluate entity structures and document the relationships among owners.
Our services include:
- Forming corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), partnerships, and other business entities.
- Preparing operating agreements, shareholder agreements, partnership agreements, and corporate bylaws.
- Establishing management authority, voting rights, and ownership transfer procedures.
- Negotiating buy-sell agreements and arrangements for an owner’s departure.
- Restructuring businesses and organizing parent, subsidiary, and affiliated entities.
- Coordinating entity decisions with tax, financing, succession, and operational considerations.
We focus on creating a structure that supports the business today while anticipating future investment, ownership changes, and potential disagreements.
Outside General Counsel & Ongoing Business Advice
Businesses need accessible legal guidance between major transactions and disputes. Gibbs Giden serves as an ongoing legal resource for companies that need outside counsel and works alongside in-house legal teams when additional support is needed.
We advise owners, management, officers, and boards on commercial relationships, contracts, governance, operational concerns, and legal risk. As we become familiar with your business, we can help connect individual decisions to your broader priorities.
Our goal is to provide clear answers, identify issues early, and help management make informed decisions without losing sight of cost, timing, and business relationships.
Business Contracts & Commercial Transactions
Well-drafted contracts establish expectations, allocate risk, and provide a framework for addressing problems. Our business attorneys prepare, review, and negotiate agreements involving customers, suppliers, vendors, contractors, consultants, lenders, and business partners.
These matters include:
- Purchase and sale agreements, supply contracts, and purchase order terms.
- Service, consulting, distribution, and licensing agreements.
- Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements.
- Credit agreements, guaranties, and security agreements.
- Joint venture and strategic partnership agreements.
- Contract amendments, renewals, terminations, and settlement agreements.
We help clients evaluate payment provisions, performance obligations, warranties, indemnity, insurance requirements, limitations of liability, and dispute resolution procedures. Our transactional and litigation perspectives inform how we address provisions that may become important if a relationship changes.
Mergers, Acquisitions & Business Sales
Buying or selling a business involves more than agreeing on a purchase price. Deal structure, due diligence, financing, existing liabilities, key contracts, and closing requirements can all affect the transaction’s value and feasibility.
Gibbs Giden represents buyers, sellers, and investors in mergers, stock and asset purchases, business sales, buyouts, divestitures, and corporate restructurings.
We help clients evaluate transaction structures, negotiate letters of intent and definitive agreements, conduct legal due diligence, and address issues through closing. When a transaction involves employment, real estate, intellectual property, or other related concerns, we coordinate the appropriate legal resources.
Private Equity, Venture Capital & Fund Formation
We assist investors, businesses, and portfolio companies with private equity transactions, venture capital financing, growth investments, and fund formation.
Our work includes seed and early-stage investments, growth equity, acquisitions, recapitalizations, investment documentation, management structures, and exit planning. We help clients address ownership, control, investor protections, and the relationship between current financing needs and long-term business objectives.
Business Financing & Private Securities Offerings
Access to capital can support a new venture, an acquisition, or the next phase of growth. Our attorneys advise businesses and investors on debt and equity financing, commercial lending, and private securities offerings.
We assist with secured and unsecured loans, asset-based financing, equipment financing, guaranties, letters of credit, and loan modifications and workouts. Our private offering work includes transactions involving stock, convertible securities, and debt.
We help clients understand financing terms, collateral requirements, repayment obligations, and the effect of a proposed transaction on ownership and operational flexibility.
Corporate Governance & Business Operations
Clear governance procedures help companies make decisions, document authority, and manage relationships among owners and management.
We advise companies, officers, directors, and boards on governance obligations, organizational documents, approvals, and internal decision-making. Our work includes addressing management authority, ownership rights, conflicts of interest, and the legal implications of significant corporate actions.
We also help clients identify regulatory and contractual requirements affecting their operations and coordinate advice across relevant practice areas.
Joint Ventures, Strategic Alliances, Licensing & Franchising
A business partnership can create opportunities for expansion, access to new markets, and shared investment. It also requires clear agreements about responsibilities, control, economics, and exit rights.
We assist with joint ventures, strategic alliances, licensing arrangements, and franchising matters. Our attorneys help clients define contributions, management roles, intellectual property rights, financial obligations, and procedures for resolving disagreements or ending the relationship.
Intellectual Property & Business Asset Protection
A company’s value may depend on its brand, proprietary information, creative work, technology, or contractual rights. We help businesses identify intellectual property issues and address the ownership, use, protection, and licensing of those assets.
Our advice includes confidentiality protections, intellectual property provisions in commercial agreements, licensing and assignment arrangements, and intellectual property issues arising in business transactions and disputes.
We consider both the legal rights involved and the practical steps a business can take to protect valuable information and commercial relationships.
Employment, Real Estate & Related Business Needs
Business matters frequently overlap with other legal disciplines. Gibbs Giden coordinates advice across its practice groups to address issues involving:
- Labor and employment, workplace policies, and employment disputes.
- Commercial leasing, property acquisitions and sales, and real estate financing.
- Construction contracts, development, and contractor licensing.
- Insurance coverage, indemnity, and risk management.
- Commercial credit, sales of goods, and secured transactions.
- Estate planning and business ownership transitions.
When a matter involves tax or other specialized considerations, we work with the client’s accountants and other appropriate professionals to coordinate the legal and business strategy.
Business Disputes, Commercial Litigation & Creditors’ Rights
When a business relationship breaks down, the response should reflect both the legal position and the commercial stakes. Our attorneys help clients evaluate disputes, pursue negotiated resolutions, and protect their interests through litigation or alternative dispute resolution when necessary.
Business disputes may involve contracts, unpaid obligations, ownership and management disagreements, alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, business torts, or competing claims to business assets.
Our commercial law practice also assists with credit and collection matters, enforcement of guaranties and security interests, and disputes involving the sale of goods. We evaluate the available remedies alongside the cost of enforcement, collectability, disruption to operations, and prospects for resolution.
Business Succession, Ownership Transitions & Exit Planning
An owner’s retirement, a planned sale, or a change in management can raise important questions about the future of a business.
We help clients address ownership transfers, buy-sell arrangements, management transitions, business sales, and restructuring. Where appropriate, we coordinate business planning with estate planning and the work of financial and tax advisors.
Planning ahead can help clarify expectations, prepare the company for a transition, and reduce uncertainty for owners and their families.
Businesses & Industries We Serve
Gibbs Giden advises companies at different stages of development, from new ventures to established businesses, as well as owners, investors, executives, officers, and boards of directors.
Our clients operate across industries including construction, real estate, manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality, healthcare, insurance, energy, technology, transportation, entertainment, and professional services.
Industry context matters. A manufacturer negotiating a supply agreement, a contractor planning an ownership transition, and a technology company seeking investment face different business pressures. We tailor our advice to the client’s operations, relationships, and objectives.
A Practical Approach to Business Law
We start by learning how your business works, what you want to accomplish, and what stands in the way. We then identify the legal issues, explain the available options, and help implement an appropriate strategy.
Our approach emphasizes:
- Business context. Advice that considers your operations, financial priorities, and commercial relationships.
- Clear communication. Understandable explanations of options, risks, and next steps.
- Coordinated service. Collaboration across practice areas when a matter presents overlapping issues.
- Efficient staffing. Focused teams with additional resources as the matter requires.
- Long-term relationships. Continuity that helps us advise your business as it evolves.
Some of our client relationships span more than three decades. We value the opportunity to become a continuing resource for the companies and people we represent.
Frequently Asked Questions About Business Legal Services
What does a business attorney help with?
A business attorney helps clients form and structure companies, negotiate contracts, obtain financing, complete transactions, address governance and operational issues, and resolve disputes. At Gibbs Giden, business counsel can also coordinate with attorneys handling employment, real estate, construction, commercial litigation, and estate planning matters.
Can Gibbs Giden serve as outside general counsel?
Yes. We provide ongoing legal advice to businesses and support in-house counsel with particular transactions, disputes, or additional legal needs. The scope of our work is tailored to the company’s operations and priorities.
Can one firm help with both business transactions and litigation?
Yes. Gibbs Giden handles business transactions and disputes. Having access to both capabilities helps clients consider potential enforcement issues when negotiating agreements and business objectives when evaluating litigation.
Can you help with buying, selling, or transferring a business?
Yes. Our attorneys assist with acquisitions, business sales, buyouts, ownership transfers, and related planning. Depending on the matter, that work may include transaction structuring, due diligence, negotiations, documentation, financing issues, and coordination with other advisors.
Where are Gibbs Giden’s offices?
Gibbs Giden has offices in Los Angeles, Westlake Village, Irvine, and San Jose, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Scottsdale, Arizona. Contact us to discuss your business, the jurisdictions involved, and the legal assistance you need.
Talk With a Gibbs Giden Business Attorney
Whether you need help with an immediate business issue or an ongoing legal relationship, Gibbs Giden can help you evaluate your options and determine your next steps.
Contact one of our offices:
- Los Angeles: 310-552-3400
- Westlake Village: 805-261-1777
- Irvine / Orange County: 949-287-8044
- San Jose / Silicon Valley: 669-209-7977
- Las Vegas: 702-836-9800
- Scottsdale / Phoenix Area: 480-867-9966
Visit our website’s Contact Us page to connect with our team.