Business Legal Counsel
Mr. Hales provides comprehensive legal services to business clients. His primary goal is to help the client save time and money by helping management identify legal issues early and address them proactively. He also assists clients in the enforcement of their legal rights, resolution of legal disputes with other companies, persons or government agencies and finding solutions to legal problems. He is experienced in crafting joint ventures including collaborations between private organizations and government.
Business Compliance
All businesses face changing and usually more complex regulations and laws with which they must comply. Business managers and boards of directors are accountable for compliance, whether they are aware of a change in the law or not. Mr. Hales works with business clients to advise them about new compliance issues and to identify policies or procedures that need to be updated for compliance purposes. He also reviews the business's organizational documents, policies and procedures to ensure they are up to date and fully inclusive of new developments. An example of a new law requiring the adoption of a compliance policy is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). Another, if the company is a Business Associate of a HIPAA Covered Entity, is the HITECH law effective February 17, 2010. See the HIPAA HITECH page of this website.
Regular, Special and Annual Meetings of the Business
All businesses must conduct themselves according to their basic organizational documents and the law. This means they must follow proper procedures in making important business decisions and document the decisions appropriately. Mr. Hales works with clients to set agendas for organization meetings, conduct the meeting properly and drafts resolutions and records of the actions taken. Each organization must keep necessary records and minutes of meetings but at the same time avoid unnecessary documentation that may later prove troublesome. The Sarbanes Oxley law applies document retention and destruction requirements to all businesses, not just publicly held companies. Mr. Hales advises clients when they may destroy a document and when they must retain it and assists in the development of an appropriate document retention-destruction policy.
Contracts
Mr. Hales has considerable experience in drafting, reviewing and negotiating business contracts including contracts with all levels of government. He favors including an arbitration clause in all contracts to save the time and expense of litigation if a dispute arises later. Arbitration is a legal process which takes place outside of the courts, but results in a final and binding decision, enforceable in court if necessary. Parties to a dispute, with the assistance of counsel, submit their case for decision by a neutral arbitrator. Arbitration is usually faster and more informal than going to court, and often much less expensive. It also has the advantage of being private and confidential.
Specialized Legal Counsel
Business clients on occasion may need very specific, highly specialized legal assistance from a lawyer with expertise on a particular topic. Mr. Hales helps management recognize when it needs to employ such a lawyer, helps select the lawyer, define the lawyer's scope of work, negotiates the engagement contract, facilitates communication between the business and the lawyer and reviews the lawyer's work and bills to ensure effective, cost efficient service.
