Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance
Illinois Business Lawyers
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Business is defined as any activity or enterprise entered into for profit. When you form a business, you can do it in many different ways including a corporation, a LLC, a partnership or a sole proprietorship. As for which type is right for you, that depends on your goals, both short term and long term. Hiring a lawyer that has experience with business law in Illinois (e.g. they haven't done just a handful of these cases) is the best thing you can do to understand all of your options.
In general, people choose to become a corporation (and there are numerous types of those) in order to shield themselves against personal liability if the corporation gets sued. While there is no guarantee that if you form a business this way that you won't get sued, it does offer protection if you handle things correctly. The downside is that sometimes if you become a corporation you end up paying double taxes.
On the other end of the spectrum are partnerships which are defined as business enterprises entered into for profit which are owned by more than one person, each of whom is a "partner." A partnership may be created by a formal written agreement or an oral agreement. Each partner invests a certain amount (money, assets and/or effort) which establishes an agreed-upon percentage of ownership, is responsible for all the debts and contracts of the partnership even though another partner created the debt or entered into the contract, has a share in management decisions, and shares in profits and losses according to the percentage of the total investment.
A partnership which does business under a trade name must file with the county or Illinois a certificate of "doing business under a fictitious name," which gives notice to the public of the names of partners and the business address. The point of all of this is that if you are doing business in Illinois, the State wants to know about it and the public has the right to see who the owner's are.
A third type of popular business in Illinois a limited liability company (LLC). A limited liability company is a mix of the advantageous characteristics of corporations and partnerships. Limited Liability Companies are separate legal entities like corporations so you can avoid personal liability if the business is getting sued. However, for tax purposes, LLCs are treated like a partnership. LLCs are able to avoid the double taxation of a corporation.
Attorneys in Illinois that represent businesses sometimes focus on different areas within business law. For example, some attorneys only deal with business formation as discussed above. Others focus on guiding a business through their day in and day out legal concerns. Some Illinois business attorneys work with small businesses or franchises. And others deal with litigation related to a business.(this is a separate category on our site called commercial litigation).Large law firms do business law, but typically for larger corporations. For most business related legal matters you don't need to pay the typically higher fees of a large law firm.
Findgreatlawyers.com focuses on finding lawyers in every part of the state of Illinois. From Chicago to Rockford, to Central Illinois, down to Southern Illinois, and every county in between, we know the perfect lawyer for you. If you would like our help please call us at (312) 346-5320 or fill out our contact us form and we will call you. All inquiries are kept in strict confidence.