Corporate Law & Business
Corporate counsel for the businesses that shape this place.
The businesses of Cape Cod are unlike those anywhere else in Massachusetts. Many are small, family-owned, and built around a community that knows the owners by their first name. Many are seasonal, with revenue patterns that swing dramatically between summer and winter. And many are tied closely to a single piece of property — a restaurant on the harbor, an inn on a side street, a shop on Route 6A — that carries decades of family history.
For fifty years, we've provided the corporate and business legal counsel that companies like these actually need: practical, plain, and proportionate to the matter at hand. We don't pad our advice with footnotes meant for a Fortune 500 boardroom. We answer the question you asked, in language you can act on, and we stay available for the next question whenever it comes.
The right structure, set up correctly the first time.
The choice of entity — limited liability company, S corporation, C corporation, partnership — sounds like a technical decision, and in some respects it is. But it is also a decision that shapes how you pay taxes, how you raise capital, how you bring on partners, and how you eventually leave the business. We help founders and owners think through those long-term consequences before settling on a structure.
For most Cape Cod small businesses, a Massachusetts LLC is the natural starting point — it offers liability protection without the formalities of a corporation, and it provides flexibility on how profits and losses are allocated among the owners. For businesses planning to take outside investment, or to issue equity to employees, a corporation may be a better fit. For professional practices, certain entity choices are required by statute. We work through the options and we set up the structure that fits your situation.
We also draft the documents that go alongside formation — operating agreements, bylaws, shareholder agreements, partnership agreements — and we make sure they actually address the decisions that will eventually need to be made: how do new owners come in, how do existing owners exit, what happens on death or divorce, who breaks a tie when the owners disagree.
The agreements that quietly run a business.
Most business disputes don't come from bad faith. They come from agreements that were never written down, or were written down too quickly, or were borrowed from a template that didn't actually fit the situation. A well-drafted contract is one of the cheapest forms of insurance a business can buy, and one of the most commonly skipped.
We draft, review, and negotiate the agreements that govern the day-to-day life of a business — vendor and supplier contracts, customer terms of service, commercial leases for retail and office space, employment and independent contractor agreements, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, and the restrictive covenants that Massachusetts law treats with particular scrutiny. We also handle the buy-sell agreements among co-owners that, when the time comes, often turn out to be the most consequential document the business ever signed.
Where it makes sense, we develop a small library of templated agreements that the business can use on its own — for routine sales, simple engagements, recurring vendor relationships — and we reserve our full attention for the contracts where the stakes actually require it.
Steady counsel through buying, selling, and growing.
When a Cape Cod business changes hands — through sale, merger, or generational transfer — the transaction is rarely just financial. It involves customers who have been loyal for thirty years, employees whose livelihoods depend on continuity, and often a piece of real estate that comes along with the deal. We guide owners and buyers through these transactions with the same patient, plain-spoken approach we bring to every other part of our practice.
Our work covers asset purchases and stock purchases, mergers and reorganizations, commercial lending and refinancing, earn-outs and seller financing arrangements, and the careful due diligence that protects buyers from inheriting problems they didn't know existed. For sellers, we help structure the transaction to minimize tax and to ensure the deal actually closes on the terms that were promised.
For owners thinking further out, we work on succession plans that move ownership gradually to family members, key employees, or outside buyers — often using a combination of estate planning, buy-sell agreements, and gradual equity transfers that minimize tax and preserve the business through the change in leadership.
A relationship, not a one-time engagement.
Most of our business clients are not occasional callers. They are companies we have known for years, sometimes decades. We handle the formation when they start, the contracts as they grow, the lease when they move into a new space, the employment agreement when they hire their first salaried staff member, and eventually the succession plan or the sale when the founders are ready to step back.
That kind of continuity is genuinely useful. We already know the cap table, the operating agreement, the personalities of the owners, and the history of the business. When a question arises, we can answer it quickly because we don't have to relearn the company every time. And because we're a small firm with deep local roots, we can usually offer that ongoing relationship at a cost that fits the scale of a Cape Cod business.
Fifty years on Willow Street.
We know Massachusetts business law
From LLC formation under the state act to non-compete reform, the Massachusetts business statutes have local quirks. We work with them every day.
We know Cape Cod commerce
Seasonality, town-specific zoning, waterfront leases, and the rhythms of a tourism-driven economy — these shape every Cape business we advise.
We know the owners
Many of our clients started with us when they formed the business and are still with us through succession. That long arc improves every decision along the way.
Let's talk about what you're building.
Whether you're forming a new venture, signing your first major contract, or planning a sale, we'd be glad to help you think through the next move.