Maryland Business Law Attorney

Our Frederick Business Lawyers Can Handle All Your Business Legal Needs

Business Law attorneys, Rebekah Lusk and Steven Bright of Lusk Law, LLC, know the challenges that business owners face, and we are here to help. We are dedicated to supporting our clients by providing them with the legal services necessary for prosperity and growth. We develop long-lasting client relationships to effectively and efficiently address legal problems that pop up unexpectedly, as well as routine ongoing legal matters. We will work with you to help you meet your long-term goals.

Regardless of whether you are a start-up, are looking to expand or sell your business, or are facing legal challenges, our Frederick business lawyers are here to provide businesses in Maryland with comprehensive legal representation.

When you contact us, we will ask questions to find out the areas that most concern you. We will listen to you and assess the needs of your company, provide counsel, and help you solve problems in a timely and responsive manner. In all aspects of business administration — including contract negotiations, employment disputes, and drafting business policies – our business law attorneys make sure you’re covered.

Don’t let the issues you are facing now become major problems in the future. Contact the Frederick, Maryland business law attorneys at Lusk Law, LLC to gain a long-term ally for your business.

Call us to make an appointment to discuss your business ideas and concerns and to see how we can help. Call (443) 535-9715 today.

Business Attorneys Covering the Bases – What Are Your Areas of Concern?

It’s natural for business owners to want to concentrate on making their business grow and prosper, but you still have to pay attention to legal issues and potential problems that can hurt a business, and even wind up shutting it down.

Few business owners have the training, expertise, and knowledge to handle essential issues such as creating legally binding contracts and hiring agreements, negotiating leases, and dealing with the local, state, and federal requirements for your business. When you hire a business law attorney who can take these burdens off you and make sure everything is done correctly from the start, you are free to concentrate on the business issues you want and need to deal with.

The business lawyers at Lusk Law, LLC, will help make sure you cover all your legal bases, as well as address your areas of concern. Legal tasks we can help you with include:

• Business Formation – Dealing with the legal requirements involved in registering and starting a Maryland business, whether sole proprietorship, partnership, limited-liability company (LLC), or Corporation.
• Labor and Employment Issues – Creating employment agreements, hiring or firing employees, dealing with issues such as job discrimination claims for FMLA, disability, age, race, sex, or pregnancy.
• Contract Drafting, Review, and Enforcement – Contracts need to be done correctly and be enforceable, whether dealing with employees, vendors, customers, or landlords. Our attorneys are here to see that they are done correctly and are prepared to enforce and litigate breaches if necessary.
• Risk Management and Job Site Safety and Sanitation Issues. Dealing with OSHA and other government regulatory agencies.
• Dealing with licensing, trademarks and copyrights, non-disclosure, and intellectual property issues.
• Assisting in the sale or succession of a business.
• Corporate Issues – These include setting up corporate governance, documents, and structure, mergers and acquisitions, and investor and franchising agreements.
• Financial Issues – Business reorganization and financing.
• Litigation – Representing you in civil litigation.

Lusk Law, LLC business lawyers are available to discuss any business concern or question. Call (443) 535-9715 today.

Loans and Credit for Small Businesses

Most entrepreneurs need some financial help to get their business started. As your business grows, you may also need a loan to cover the costs of improvements, expansion, or equipment. Whether you’re planning to start a business or have owned your business for years, there are plenty of state and federal organizations that may be able to offer you a loan with a low-interest rate. First, though, make sure you understand your business credit rating.

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Business Attorneys in Frederick – Some of Our Specialties

When you have special needs, our Frederick business attorneys can help.

While the attorneys at Lusk Law, LLC are prepared to tackle business law situations, over the years we have found that certain issues come up repeatedly. Some of the areas in which we have developed extensive experience include the following:

Attorneys for Business Startups

You’ve been dreaming about this day, perhaps for years. It’s time to get your small business off the ground. If you’re like a lot of entrepreneurs, your business is born out of passion. And that passion is likely not the intricacies of business regulation and business law.

That’s where we step in.

It’s important for every small business to start off on the right legal footing. If you’re considering starting a business in Maryland, our business law attorney can help guide you through the process of determining your business structure, entity selection, employee policies, and hiring. The amount of paperwork and legal considerations required to begin a business can seem daunting, especially for those who are balancing all of the many aspects of actually operating a new business venture. You have to register your company, may need licensing and permits, and need a business plan. We will make sure that you and your business are protected and that you can build your organization on solid ground.

Attorneys for Animal Businesses

Many people who decide to open a business dealing with animals do so out of love and a desire to help vulnerable creatures. But operating a business is very different than owning a few pets, and newcomers to the industry may not be aware of the regulations in place and the unique challenges these types of businesses face.

You must not only adhere to laws regarding the care of the animals who are dependent on you for food, shelter, and their overall well-being, but you must be skilled at dealing with people, too.

Lusk Law, LLC owners, Rebekah Lusk and Steven Bright, understand the intricacies of animal law well — not just as attorneys, but as the proprietors of an animal business: a horse farm and boarding facility. They will help you understand what is required of you and provide sound counsel in case a dispute does arise.

Call (443) 535-9715 to schedule a consultation today about any issues involving equine and animal law.

Attorneys for Landlords

You may think that renting a home is an easy way to make some cash. But being a landlord is a business like any other, regulated tightly by the law and likely to give you lots of headaches if you fail to do your research. At Lusk Law, LLC we are experienced in landlord-tenant law.

We will help you minimize the possibility of disputes’ arising by helping you to craft a legally compliant lease that spells out the rights and expectations for you and your future tenants. We will explain your responsibilities as a landlord — keeping the property in good repair, adhering to fair housing laws, and knowing when you can and cannot retain a security deposit, for example. And if a tenant fails to pay rent or otherwise violates his side of the lease, we will discuss your options with you, including proper eviction protocol.

Whether you are an experienced landlord or are just starting out, contact our Frederick business attorneys at Lusk Law, LLC. Call us today at (443) 535-9715.

Our Frederick Business Attorneys Will Draft and Review Business Contracts

Our business contract attorneys can guide you as to what contracts you need and ensure that they are drafted in a clear, comprehensive, and legally binding way. If you already have existing documents, we will review and revise them, if necessary, to comply with the law and meet the needs of your company. If the contract is breached by the other party, we will negotiate for you and defend your position in court if necessary.

We can help with contracts that include:

• Employment contracts, agreements, and offer letters
• Confidentiality, non-disclosure, and non-compete agreements
• Lease agreements
• Partnership, franchisee, and ownership agreements
• Sales contracts, bills of sale, and warranties
• Insurance agreements and contracts.

Our Business Attorneys Will Guide You Through the Steps of a Business Succession

If you’ve spent the better part of a lifetime building up a successful business, you don’t want to leave to chance what happens to it upon your retirement or death. America is built on family businesses, which account for half of the gross domestic product and provide about 60 percent of the nation’s jobs.

Unfortunately, far too many small-business owners don’t create a plan for the continuation of their company, because they don’t think it’s necessary, they don’t know when to do it, they think they don’t have time, or for a host of other reasons. But drafting a detailed business succession plan is vitally important to prevent disputes from arising in your family and to give your business the best chance for a successful future when you’re no longer at the helm.

Legal Considerations When Hiring Employees for Your Business

Many entrepreneurs launch their business as a sole proprietorship or a partnership, but when the work becomes too much to handle, they begin hiring employees. If you’ve reached that stage in the business lifecycle where you have made the decision to hire employees, make sure you’re prepared to address the legal requirements for hiring and on-boarding new employees.

This is an exciting time for any business. It means that the little company that you’ve nurtured and managed yourself is thriving and growing. But it also means that you are subject to a whole new set of laws, regulations, and responsibilities. At Lusk Law, LLC, we will take you through everything you need to know about bringing on employees while remaining on solid footing legally. This includes:

• Employee paperwork, like I-9 and W-4 forms
• Setting up payroll, including advising you on payroll services
• Maryland reporting requirements
• Department of Labor regulations, like which informational posters you may be required to display in your workplace
• Creating an employee handbook — not a legal requirement, but a good idea so that employees know what’s expected of them and to protect you from legal actions down the road.
• Creating non-compete agreements.

Of course, even if you do everything you can to protect yourself, employee-employer disputes do arise. You need a small-business lawyer you can trust to fight for you in court. Call Lusk Law, LLC.

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Maryland Small Business Lawyer — and More

Small Businesses Need Top-Notch Business Attorneys, Too

If you have a small business, chances are you want to grow and become even more productive and profitable. Our small business lawyers in Frederick can help with all your business needs to help ensure you are on the right path for growth and that you avoid unnecessary problems, risks, or liabilities. Even if you prefer to keep your business small, the proper legal advice can ensure that everything is done properly and in accordance with Maryland law from the start.

Some of the areas we help small businesses with include:

• Starting your small business, whether properly setting up a home business or looking for commercial property and dealing with landlords and leases
• Labor and employment issues, including hiring or firing employees and avoiding issues such as job discrimination, harassment, and accommodation of employees with a disability
• Dealing with trademarks, copyrights, licensing, contracts, and franchising
• Business financing and tax planning
• Business succession planning
• Representation in civil litigation
• Business reorganization or restructuring.

When dealing with small businesses, we provide personalized service according to your needs. Be assured that our responsive and caring legal team will be there for you, answering your questions and concerns and providing legal guidance at all times.

One quality that sets our business lawyers at Lusk Law, LLC apart is our ability to respond to many of the legal needs of our clients. In addition to business-related legal representation, we provide our clients assistance with real estate sales and acquisitions, litigation, landlord/tenant law, and estate planning, to name just a few. Our clients can count on us to be more than just their business attorneys.

As business owners ourselves, we know what it’s like running a company, and we use this experience to help you run yours.

Our clients require business law attorneys who can look out for their interests and be available when they most need us. We form relationships with our clients so that they can confidently count on us to provide them with whatever legal support they require. The demands of a small business owner go well beyond legal documents, and we are here to help you meet all of those demands.

Our Business Attorney in Frederick Helps When Disputes or Litigation Arise

Despite your best efforts to do everything correctly, there are times when accidents happen, disputes arise, and someone may bring an unwanted lawsuit against you. There may also be a valid reason to bring a lawsuit against someone else.

Maryland business laws are complicated, and lawsuits can be costly and disruptive to your business. Disputes leading to litigation or even disagreements over a contract can have a devastating effect on your company, costing you valuable customers or employees, delaying projects, or destroying a business venture.

No matter what the cause of the dispute or litigation, the business attorneys at Lusk Law, LLC will be there to protect your business, put systems in place that make litigation less likely, and fight for your rights should litigation be necessary.

Get Help from Our Business Lawyers with These Common Issues

• Breach of contract — When a contract is not adhered to, the non-breaching party may sue for damages, which can include:
  • Compensatory damages for monetary losses due to the breach and liquidated damages, if set out in the contract
  • Specific performance instead of a monetary amount.
• Lease disputes – We help create properly executed lease agreements that can protect both landlords’ and tenants’ rights and defend you should disputes arise.
• Employment contract disputes — We make sure your contracts are legally enforceable, hold employees to contract terms, and defend you against any contract claims.
• Contract negotiations – We help negotiate contracts with employees, vendors, landlords and customers, and defend your business if violations occur.
• Dispute settlement or litigation – If a lawsuit is brought against you or you need to sue an offending party, we will make every attempt to negotiate a settlement out of court, but we are fully prepared to take your case to trial if necessary.

Should the need for litigation arise, our business lawyers will be there for you, preparing your case, keeping you informed, and answering your questions at every stage from the discovery process through trial preparation and trial. At your initial consultation, we will discuss your issues and evaluate your case. We will then examine all documents and information you have relevant to the case, such as files, emails, notes, letters, contracts, and photographs, to determine the best way to proceed.

Contact Our Experienced Maryland Business Lawyers

The Lusk Law, LLC team is highly experienced in the challenges that business owners face. We can make sure you get things done properly at startup and then continue providing support to help you deal with both routine ongoing legal matters and problems that may unexpectedly arise.

Our business attorneys will be able to provide flexibility, offering both virtual and in-person meetings. At Lusk Law, LLC, there is no such thing as a boilerplate approach to clients. We provide service offerings to meet the individual needs of each client.

Contact the Maryland business law attorneys at Lusk Law, LLC to gain a long-term ally for your business. Call (443) 535-9715 today for consultation. We are advocates for life’s obstacles and opportunities.

Attorney Rebekah Damen Lusk

Rebekah Damen Lusk is the Founder and Managing Member of Lusk Law, LLC. Rebekah brings personal experiences as a small business owner, real estate investor, landlord, and farm owner to the task of practicing law and working with clients. Her practice areas include general civil litigation, business, employment, landlord/tenant, real estate, and equine/animal law. [ Attorney Bio ]