REAL WORLD SOLUTIONS

Conatus Counsel serves as outside general counsel, providing “in-house” services to businesses and brands in a wide variety of industries and stages. We enjoy working with a range of commercial and creative endeavors, in order to assist with the growth of their success and protect it along the way. We find that our work not only provides legal assistance, but sometimes helps clients developing logistics, Brand development, intellectual property rights and protection, and other assistance through an ongoing relationship. Our firm realizes the importance of commercial relationships, brand value, public perception and other factors specific and/or unique to each business, industry, and owner’s needs. We work with a Client to best learn and know its needs in order to provide cost effective and comprehensive real world solutions with analysis and application of legal rights with those other factors.

Moving forward, as a business grows, the Conatus Counsel is available to draft, review, and negotiate contracts or liability waivers with the purpose of meeting the Client’s needs and protecting its growth and success. We also find ourselves assisting with logistics and branding of companies, as our combined professional background with intellectual property and process experience allows us to provide a more complete real business solution with long term and overarching results.

The purpose of these services is to increase our Clients’ success through their customer and client satisfaction by providing top notch services and products, while assisting with clear instructions and warnings, to decrease accidents and subsequent claims (personal injury, product liability, or other) or complaints. Further, by having systems in place that create affirmative and other defenses for our Clients we can potentially greatly reduce future claims and/or provide processes, which allow Clients to remove themselves from or resolve litigation much more quickly and, therein, cheaper in the long run.

ENTITY CONSULTATION AND FORMATION

Conatus Counsel can assist with entity selection and formation, investment and partnerships between owners, contracts and liability waivers, and then more specific legal issues, such as regulatory matters, depending on the type of business and goals of the Client(s). Some of the initial considerations for entity types are investment sources and ownership control desires, but there are also other important needs from such entities, mostly being liability protection, but also tax advantages. Picking the right entity allows an owner or owners to build a business with short and long terms goals in mind, and as needed for either investment or other strategies.

One of the first goals of risk management is to separate and insulate business owners from the liabilities of the company or commercial endeavor. At the same time, the Firm assists companies and owners with entity structure to achieve investment goals and needs, future growth, and strategic partnerships that could be utilized for growth and sustainable success.

INVESTMENT AND FUNDRAISING

Forrest assists entrepreneurs and businesses with securing needed investment and funds for their enterprises, ideas, and goals. While Conatus Counsel does not provide securities or other regulated transactional services, it does have strong connections with colleagues and other outside counsel who do if there is such an elevated need or situation.  The Firm strives to provide comprehensive services and this includes the financial and money raising side of things required for business ventures.

LIABILITY ANALYSIS AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Each business may have unique liabilities to consider and address. It is usually more cost effective and much easier to prepare for and handle potential liabilities at the outset of a commercial endeavor. We have worked with a wide range of businesses on liability assessment, including, but not limited to, outfitters, manufacturers, rental companies, clothing and gear brands, construction, automotive and construction manufacturers and suppliers, retail, medical, body and fitness products. Forrest has a background in complex commercial and civil litigation defense, including premises, product, automobile, activity and outfitter, and other forms of potential liability. He pairs this experience with the Firm’s front end work to effectively handle and decrease potential liability for a number of different client endeavors, products, and businesses.

CONTRACTS, INSTRUCTIONS AND LIABILITY WAIVERS

One of the backbones of business relationships are contracts. This includes contracts between business partners, between businesses, between businesses and customers, and others. Whenever there is a commercial relationship, there is a potential need for a contractual relationship. A contract is simply a document that sets out the terms of an agreement. Better yet, a contract includes language to cover potential future contingencies and how to handle them, organic or other developed opportunities, successes, and even conflicts or problems. Generally, contracts are a “one bite of the apple” situation, so it is important to do it right the first time.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (TRADEMARKS, COPYRIGHTS, AND PATENTS)

Most commercial and creative endeavors include some sort of intellectual property rights, whether it be proprietary or confidential rights within the business, brand, tagline or logos and development, or products. If handled correctly these rights can provide additional value to a brand or company. Conatus Counsel is well versed with registering and enforcing intellectual property rights. We work with clients to understand the value and importance of intellectual property rights, along with how the processes and systems work. Our information and knowledge can assist clients to understand and strategize with respect to intellectual property rights and registration. There is great value to formally registering intellectual property rights. We also work with license agreements and other financial opportunities for clients to maximize their intellectual property.

IMPORTANCE AND COSTS

We understand many businesses cannot commit to hiring an in-house counsel, yet they still have consistent and substantial legal needs that require an ongoing relationship with a trusted attorney. Whether it is negotiating a commercial lease, providing advice on employee stock options, preparing for regulatory compliance, or filing for a trademark, we are prepared to handle your business legal needs as general counsel. The increased communication, familiarity, and predictability that come along with having a general counsel for your business can pay dividends, as potential issues are spotted and addressed before they cause headaches later. To learn more about our general counsel plans, contact us today.

We provide a number of different payment methods to assist new and growing businesses to handle such costs. This includes a popular monthly flat fee service that allows us to handle any business legal needs that arise within a certain scope of work, and other payment plans or project based opportunities. Our clients appreciate having a trusted advisor on-call whenever something comes up in the day-to-day business setting.