Differences Between Transactional and Litigation Lawyers in California
There are two different attorneys as far as most legal work. There’s transactional, and litigation. At our firm we focus on litigation. The type of transactional work we typically do is a by-product of litigation. Oftentimes, a client may come to me during litigation and realize that their transactional house, their corporate compliance work, their governance documents are in a state of disrepair. I’ve been in law suits both on the giving end and on the receiving end of looking down the barrel of an alter ego or a successor corporation liability suit, where there is a piercing of a corporate veil; going into someone’s personal accounts, based on corporate malfeasance. There is a list of about 23 different factors. You could narrow them significantly if you group them together in different theories. But the courts look at these different factors in ways to pierce the veil, and it’s not a pretty sight. I’ve been in court rooms when judges have granted me the right to go into people’s personal bank accounts for something that a corporation was doing. And I’ve also been on the receiving end, when a client is just doggedly determined to fight to the bitter end for something where there is a significant risk, based on their corporate paperwork and handling. What I’m getting at here is, even though we’re not a transactional firm, we do have someone on staff who handles and focuses on the corporate compliance work, and making sure that your paperwork is in order before you go to trial; and that things are taken care of and you have a fair assessment of what kind of liabilities you may face individually, even though you’re doing business as a corporation.