Corporate & Commercial Law
Chamberlains is proud to have a team of some of the best corporate lawyers and commercial lawyers in the country. Regardless of where you are in the business life cycle, we can assist you with your legal needs. Our team is made up of experts in corporate and commercial laws. Navigating legal and regulatory obligations relevant to your business can be incredibly complex, and it's important to have expert legal knowledge with specialisation in these fields to guide you. The Chamberlains team is more than ready to help. Our corporate and commercial team are able to help you with any of your corporate law and commercial law needs. Whether you need representation to protect your commercial interests or your business is ready to take the next steps to grow from mergers and acquisitions, to capital raising, to public listing, we are ready to help you. Our team can advise you in plain language to help you understand your position under competition laws in clear, simple and thorough terms. Whatever your legal need in the corporate and commercial world, look no further than Chamberlains for help.
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We picked the most highly specialised and talented lawyers.
Our wide range of corporate law and commercial law services is tailored to small and large business alike. Here are some of the ways Chamberlains can help your company with corporate and commercial legal advice:
- Corporate Advisory Services
- Corporate Structuring
- Corporate Governance
- Capital Raising
- Buying & Selling Business Assets
- Share sales & acquisitions.
- Customers & Suppliers Relationships
- Employees & Contractor Relationships
- Financing arrangements for Investors, Borrowers & Lenders
Chamberlains provides one of the top corporate and commercial legal services in the country because of our team of experts. You will always be able to speak to an approachable and knowledgeable corporate and commercial lawyer when you contact us. Each member of our team is a specialist with extensive experience in a broad range of corporate and commercial laws, structuring solutions and compliance advice. Whether you are a sole trader, a company’s board or an in-house counsel, we’re ready to offer our expertise.
Meet our team of experts who are ready to help you with your corporate and commercial law concerns.
Process - what happens next?
Initial case evaluation
The first step in all our cases is an evaluation. During this step, we briefly examine your case, explain the type of service we can offer, and give you a quote for our services. Quotes are based on various factors and are specifically tailored to the needs of the companies. However, rest assured that we remain transparent and open with our clients throughout.
Consultation
Once we’ve agreed on the terms, we can proceed with the consultation. During this phase, we dive into all the details of your case and specific issues. From there, we use our commercial, corporate, and consumer law knowledge to propose the best path forward to achieve the most desirable outcome.
Case management
One thing you need to know about us is that we are there for the entire process, unlike other law firms. At Chamberlains, our team of corporate lawyers work tirelessly to help you reach the best possible outcome.; whether that means representing you in commercial negotiations, in court, against the corporation's creditors, or even with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Services
Structuring
The most important aspects of your business are its income and assets.
As expert lawyers with a commercial mindset we can help you structure your business—including your personal interests in the business—in such a way that ensures tax effectiveness, asset protection and the flexibility to maximise returns.
Once implemented, the structures we develop with you are effective for the long term, so you can ‘set and forget’. We can also work with you to develop the most effective business structure to achieve your commercial goals, including structuring to facilitate third-part investment such as through share or unit classes.
Corporate Advisory and Corporate Governance
At Chamberlains we combine our Corporate and Commercial know-how with industry leading pragmatic and technical solutions to provide a holistic advisory services for Corporate entities ready to take that next step to a bigger and brighter future.
We understand that the needs of a Corporate entity evolve and change with the company’s growth, and we are here to support that growth at every level with group structuring, capital raising, dynamic value creation goals and public listing support. We can assist with formulating and implementing the legal structures to set the best foundation for your business success.
When running a corporation, you need to ensure that your company complies with the relevant rules and regulations in the industry that your business operates. Here at Chamberlains, we can be your external counsel to navigate these laws and to assist you with meeting your corporate compliance obligations or implementing best practice policies and procedures.
Our team of experts and multi-disciplinary offering are across the relevant laws in Australia – for example, company laws, general laws, workplace health and safety laws, environmental laws, Australian Consumer Law, anti-bribery and corruption laws, tax laws, etc.
We can also assist you with the development and implementation of corporate governance frameworks to enhance your corporate compliance and to allow your business to adhere to practices, systems and processes that are integrous and accountable, having regard to your relevant industries. We can also prepare corporate policies to meet these legal and regulatory compliances.
At Chamberlains, our corporate and commercial team’s considered and insightful advice on complex corporate governance matters has attracted ASX-listed public companies and national not-for-profit organisations alike.
Capital Raising, Capital Management and Tax Structuring
As a business owner who needs funds to expand and grow, your fundraising options can range from the simple to the sophisticated.
At either end of the spectrum lies potential legal pitfalls, and in Australia the activity is highly regulated. One of the biggest assets you can have in embarking on a capital raising venture is sound, pragmatic and commercially-attuned legal advice.
We’ve successfully helped local and national businesses raise capital funds for expansion, including through angel investment, private equity placements and small-scale public offerings.
We can help you to structure investment opportunities, develop informal offer documentation, register offer information statements and prospectuses, and ensure compliance with relevant regulations throughout the investment process.
Our team of commercial law and corporate law experts are well-versed in tax. We can help you structure your business in a way that gives you positive and efficient tax outcomes in consultation with your accountant and external tax advisors. We can assist you to implement corporate strategies to remove any inefficient drag that naturally accompanies mandatory expenses.
Buying & Selling Assets
Businesses can buy and sell land, plant and equipment, goods or services, and even know-how.
If you’re buying something, how do you know you’re getting what you pay for? Do you have warranties and promises in writing that allow you to enforce them?
How do you ensure no-one else has a claim over what you’re buying? Are you aware that under Australia’s Personal Property Securities Register regime you could potentially be stripped of ownership even if you have paid for something?
If you are selling, what disclaimers do you need for your product or asset or services?
When and how will you be paid? Perhaps these are questions you haven’t even thought to ask. The Chamberlains business team can help formulate the right questions and explain the answers in easily digestible terms. We can also prepare easy-to-read contracts that help lower risk and get you the commercial outcome you’re seeking.
Customers & Suppliers
Streamlined procedures to minimise potential disputes with customers and suppliers start with written agreements outline everyone’s rights and responsibilities.
Such agreements are important business tools, but need to be crafted to:
- clearly define the scope of what you provide to your customer
- protect you from liability for things you can’t control
- ensure you are paid.
Chamberlains’ well-designed service contracts can provide you with a constant reference point and a useful and valuable platform for your business trade.
We’ll also help you navigate suppliers’ terms and conditions, assessing them and identifying your key commercial risks.
This may include investigating whether suppliers have created Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) security interests or have the right to do so over some or all of your assets. Clients regularly discover PPSR registrations against their assets and this may delay or impede any sales of their business or business assets.
Employees & Contractors
If you’re in business, you’re likely to have employees, and you know that employment matters can eat up enormous sums of money, time, talent and energy.
It is important to have proper documentation of all your employees, how much you’re paying, and your specific relationship with them. Chamberlains are packed with experts who can help you do that and reduce the stress of running a corporation.
Chamberlains’ employment services covers the full range of employment issues, from industry negotiations on enterprise bargaining agreements, advising on payroll tax, workplace relations disputes and the National Employment Standards.
We’re also adept at answering the question of whether your work is an employee or a contractor – a crucial distinction for the purposes of establishing your (potential) liability.
Borrowers & Lenders
You may be a parent lending money to your child to buy their home or kick-start their business.
You may be borrowing your spouse’s savings or inheritance to tip in to your business or to pay a debt, with the full expectation of repayment.
You may be selling land or a significant asset with a ‘vendor finance’ arrangement, or you may have various business entities and one entity is loaning money across to another on commercial terms.
No matter the situation, any loan arrangement should be in writing and incorporate agreements on repayments, interest, default and security.
We can help by providing clear, simple documents that cover all of this and more. We have special skills in advising on tax implications of such agreements, and we can advise you on the use of guarantees, Personal Property Securities Register interests, charges, or mortgages over land to ensure payment.
FAQs
Contact us.
Sydney CBD
Sydney Norwest
Canberra
Perth
Newcastle
P +61 2 9264 9111
E hello@chamberlains.com.au