Does Seraj Law Work With Both Startups and Established Companies?

A company’s legal needs change as it grows. A two-founder startup and a decades-old family business need different things from a lawyer, but both benefit from the same core idea: an attorney who knows the business and helps it avoid problems instead of only reacting to them.

What Startups Usually Need First

• Formation: choosing the right entity and filing correctly. A New York LLC must also publish notice of its formation within 120 days and file proof with the Department of State (LLC Law § 206).
• Founder agreements: who owns what, how ownership vests, each founder’s role, and what happens if a founder leaves.
• IP assignments: making sure the company, not individual founders or contractors, owns the code, brand, and content.
• First contracts: customer terms, vendor agreements, and NDAs.
• Early fundraising documents: simple instruments for early investors and the securities law issues that come with them.

Getting these right early is far cheaper than repairing them when an investor or buyer starts asking questions.

What Established Companies Usually Need

• Contract management: consistent templates and a review process as volume grows.
• Employment compliance: handbooks, New York-required policies, wage notices, and manager training.
• Disputes: early handling of customer, vendor, or employee conflicts before they become lawsuits.
• Succession: planning for the next owner, whether family members, key managers, or an outside buyer.
• Acquisitions and sales: due diligence, deal documents, and closing.

Our pages on succession planning and mergers and acquisitions explain those services in more detail.

Family-Owned Businesses

Family businesses sit where business law meets estate planning. A buy-sell agreement, the company’s operating or shareholder agreement, and each owner’s will or trust should all say the same thing about who controls the company after a death or retirement. When they conflict, the family ends up negotiating at the worst possible moment. Because Seraj Law handles both business and estate planning work, we can coordinate those documents so they fit together.

Where We Work

Our office is in Albany, and we work with businesses throughout the Capital Region and across New York State, including New York City. Much general counsel work happens by phone, email, and video, so distance is rarely an obstacle. For businesses outside the Capital Region, we schedule regular check-ins and meet in person when a negotiation, closing, or planning session calls for it. Companies with operations in several counties get one lawyer who sees the whole picture. Learn more about our New York general counsel services.

How to Get Started

The first step is a consultation to understand your business, its current documents, and what is coming in the next year. From there, we recommend a scope of work and a monthly arrangement that fits your stage and budget, and we put it in a written engagement letter before any work begins. Contact us to schedule a conversation.