Emerging Business
Entrepreneurs make enormous personal and professional sacrifices to start and build their companies. They take great risks in order to bring their vision to life. They often have limited resources to confront a seemingly endless stream of competitive threats. They fight daily not just for market share, but for their companies’ very survival.
The entrepreneurial client’s unique needs demand a different type of lawyer. A lawyer who will invest the time required to understand each client’s distinctive industry and business. A lawyer who can help address critical legal issues on small legal budgets. A lawyer who offers business-centric legal solutions designed to solve problems, not create more of them. A lawyer who can translate complex legal concepts into client-friendly recommendations. A lawyer who doesn’t just highlight the legal options but identifies the path that will best advance the client’s business interests. In short, a lawyer with entrepreneurial DNA.
Snell & Wilmer’s emerging business lawyers understand and are passionate about serving entrepreneurs and their companies in all stages of development.
As a full-service law firm, Snell & Wilmer has all of the resources that an entrepreneur may need to start, grow and ultimately exit a business. Our services include:
- Entity selection and formation
- Corporate governance (including shareholder, operating, and partnership agreements)
- Employment, independent contractor and consulting agreements
- Confidentiality, invention assignment, non-competition, and non-solicitation agreements
- Employee incentive programs (including stock options, restricted stock/units and phantom stock/units, and liquidity bonus plans)
- Private debt and equity financing (including friends/family, angel, venture capital, and private equity)
- Commercial loans
- Intellectual property protection (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets)
- Website and mobile application terms of use and privacy policies
- Data protection and cyber security
- Technology transfer and licensing
- Supplier and manufacturing agreements
- Customer agreements
- Joint ventures and strategic alliances
- Regulatory compliance
- Federal, state, and local tax
- Immigration
- Franchising
- Shareholder/owner buyouts and dispute resolution
- Corporate asset protection and succession planning
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Initial public offerings
We represent entrepreneurs and emerging businesses in all market sectors, including Internet, software, social media, information technology, telecommunications, clean technology, healthcare, medical device, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, business and consumer products and services, retail and franchising, media and entertainment, financial services, education, manufacturing and real estate development.
Experienced and Knowledgeable:Â We have been representing entrepreneurs and emerging businesses for over 85 years. Whether addressing an issue for the thousandth time or tackling a brand new legal challenge, our team draws upon that extensive experience to provide comprehensive, strategic, and client-specific advice.
Passionate:Â We are passionate about entrepreneurship. To us, success is achieved by helping entrepreneurs bring new ideas to life. We are inspired by those whose innovation and risk taking drive the advancement of our local, national, and global economies.
Responsive: In the entrepreneurial world, things move very quickly. We leverage technology to enable the provision of “around the clock” rapid responses to your time-sensitive legal needs.
Cost Effective:Â When starting and growing a business, we know that every dollar counts. We bring cost effective legal solutions to entrepreneurial clients at every stage of their lifecycle. We also offer fixed fee and other alternative billing arrangements that offer predictability and promote efficiency.
Real World Experience:Â Certain members of our emerging business group have started, operated and/or participated in their own businesses. They have sat on your side of the table. They speak your language. They genuinely understand the time, commitment and sacrifice required to start and grow your company. That real world experience translates into business-centric legal solutions that enhance your chances of success.
Relationships:Â Emerging businesses require a myriad of resources to succeed. Through the years, we have developed an extensive, international network of relationships with those individuals and organizations that can help you accelerate the growth of your business. Whether you need an investor, seasoned executive, industry expert or product developer, we will help you make that critical connection.
Invested:Â Our team is deeply invested in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We spend countless hours mentoring entrepreneurs at no charge. We help form angel groups and venture capital funds. We teach classes at leading academic institutions. And we participate in, sponsor, and financially support a variety of seminars, conferences, organizations, incubators/accelerators, and industry groups.
We believe that starting and growing a new business is risky enough. Through our education initiatives, we work to empower clients so they understand and can proactively address the issues and challenges that may confront their business. A little knowledge can go a long way in helping to avoid costly, and potentially fatal, mistakes.
For more than 14 years, our Emerging Business Seminar SeriesSM has educated thousands of entrepreneurs and other members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Held monthly in Phoenix and periodically in other offices, this free program brings together subject matter, legal experts, and business leaders to cover an assortment of timely and relevant topics.
Our Emerging Business blog is designed to provide entrepreneurs and emerging businesses with useful news and information on various topics of interest. Posts include timely and practical commentary on issues facing the emerging business community, as well as links to breaking news, events, and other developments.
