Starting a business is mostly a series of small decisions that are cheap now and expensive to unwind later. Which entity, who owns what, and what the agreement says when the partnership stops being fun.
Anyone can file articles online in an afternoon. What that afternoon does not produce is an operating agreement, a decision about how profits and losses are allocated, a plan for what happens if one owner wants out, or a contract you can hold a customer to. Those are the documents that matter, and they are the ones that get skipped.
01
We file your articles of incorporation and guide you through forming and registering new corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies. Choosing among them is a question about liability, tax treatment, and how you intend to bring in money and people, and it is worth twenty minutes of conversation before it is worth a filing fee.
02
The operating or shareholder agreement is where a business decides in advance how it will handle the arguments it has not had yet. Deadlock, a departing owner, a new investor, a death. Written while everyone is still friendly, it is an afternoon. Written afterward, it is litigation.
03
We draft and review business contracts. Client agreements, vendor terms, leases, independent contractor agreements, and the one-page document somebody found online and has been sending out for two years. The review is usually the cheapest thing on this page and catches the most.
04
Most small businesses eventually sign a commercial lease or buy a building, and that is where a business practice and a real estate practice stop being separate. Personal guarantees, assignment rights, and what happens to the lease if you sell the company all live in the same document.
The same order every time, because most of the expensive mistakes in this area come from doing step four before step two.
The entity follows the business, not the other way round. We start with what you intend to do and who is doing it with you.
Articles filed, registrations completed, and the entity actually in good standing.
An operating or shareholder agreement that says what happens when things change.
The contracts you send customers, reviewed once so you can send them a thousand times.
For most small Illinois businesses the LLC is simpler and flexible enough. A corporation earns its extra formality when you plan to take outside investment or issue stock. It is a short conversation with a real answer.
No. The filing is valid. What you probably do not have yet is an operating agreement, and that is the document that does the work.
Illinois does not require one, but having it strengthens the separation between you and the company, which is the entire reason you formed it.
Yes, and that is one of the more common reasons people call. Send it before you sign it.
Bring it. Commercial leases are long, negotiable, and usually presented as though they are neither.
Your estate is everything you own. All of your real estate, personal property and property rights, including assets with loans against them. Estate planning is deciding who gets it, rather than letting the state decide.
In Illinois, an attorney reads the contract before you are bound by it. That is the whole job, and it is worth more than most people expect for what it costs.
Illinois is a judicial foreclosure state, which means the lender has to sue you and you have the right to answer. Doing nothing is the option that costs the most.
The rest of the practice is on the practice areas index. If you would rather judge the firm by result than by description, read what clients have said or look at who would actually be handling it.
The first consultation is free. Bring the contract, the notice, or the question, and you will get a straight read on whether you need a lawyer at all.
Contacting Land Law Firm, LLC does not create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing on this site is legal advice. Please do not send confidential information until a written engagement is in place.