What are the specializations of a business lawyer?
A business lawyer – or business attorney – works only with professionals. This is because business law is a branch of private law.
Unlike a “classical” lawyer, a business lawyer almost never pleads in court. His main mission is to defend the interests of his clients. He will only be present in court in the event of a dispute.
A business lawyer generally works for large companies, but also for businessmen or women. He can be employed either by a law firm or directly by a large company.
His main missions?
They provide legal advice, particularly in the case of investments, mergers, acquisitions, disposals or the search for financing. Nowadays, business lawyers must be versatile: respect for intellectual property, unfair competition, tax law, contract law, labor law, real estate law, etc. Of course, in case of litigation, a business lawyer will be able to defend his client in court.
To excel in different specialties of law is an unconditional characteristic to be a good business lawyer. We detail here the different specializations of a business lawyer.
What are the different specializations that a business lawyer can have?
A business lawyer is very often specialized. They have a broad knowledge of general law, but often specialize in a specific area of expertise.
The different business lawyer specializations :
- Industrial property law ;
- Intellectual property law;
- Competition law;
- Contract law;
- Employment law;
- Arbitration law;
- Customs law;
- Law of associations and foundations;
- Insurance law;
- Tax law;
- Stock exchange law:
- Banking and finance law;
- Commercial law;
- Personal injury law;
- Real estate law;
- Environmental law;
- Trust law;
- International and European Union law;
- Law of guarantees and enforcement measures;
- Digital and communications law;
- Business criminal law;
- Personal data protection law;
- Public business law;
- Corporate law;
- Social security and social protection law;
- Transport law.
Depending on your company’s needs, you can hire one or more business lawyers.
The daily missions of a business lawyer
The primary objective of a business lawyer is to help his clients make the best strategic decisions for their companies.
On a daily basis, a business lawyer will perform the following tasks:
- Diversify his or her clientele in the event that he or she is not an employee of a large company;
- Interact with his clients and answer their questions;
- Build and present solutions to his clients’ problems;
- Continuous training and keeping abreast of developments in competitive markets;
- Drafting and supervising the signing of contracts in good standing;
- Determining the rights and duties of all parties involved;
- Setting up financial structures;
- Advise clients;
- Negotiate, modify transactions;
- Defending the interests of his clients.
When necessary, a business lawyer may also be called upon to plead in court. However, this is not his main mission. In fact, a business lawyer intervenes in court when one of his clients is in litigation. This is an exceptional situation, since the business lawyer’s job is to prevent his clients from being confronted with a dispute.
Focus on some of the specializations of a business lawyer :
Intellectual property
According to the website of the French National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), industrial property is a field of law that protects and valorizes inventions, creations and innovations. The primary ambition of intellectual property law is to protect inventors/creators and their intangible assets.
Intangible assets can be: patents, copyrights, trademarks, designs, models or logos.
The intellectual property lawyer is somewhere between a business lawyer and a criminal lawyer. His objective is to protect the intangible assets of his client(s). He intervenes as an advisor or in litigation, depending on the needs.
Unfair competition
The term “unfair competition” defines a set of abusive commercial practices exercised by one company in relation to another.
These various commercial practices can be: denigration, parasitism, imitation, massive poaching of employees, cybersquatting or confusion. The common denominator of these actions is that they harm another company, usually a competitor.
Sometimes the unfair competition is not intentional.
Hiring an unfair competition lawyer is the easiest way to counteract the unfair actions of a competitor.
