Position your business for growth with legal expertise and personal guidance.

Starting a business is one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences you can have. When you are ready to begin, understanding the legal requirements to set-up and operate your business can be daunting. 

“Should I hire a lawyer to form a business entity?” and “What business entity is right for my business?” are just two of the many questions you will need to answer. The right answers will provide a strong legal foundation for your business, manage your liability risk, and position your business for growth. Taylor Legal helps start-ups and small businesses turn their passion into a reality.

So, why should you hire a lawyer to assist you? 

• You have questions about the process and about what type of entity is best for your goals that are not answered by the online services.
• You just don't have the time to understand the intricacies of the process and you want it done right the first time. 
• You want a "go-to" person during the process who is knowledgeable and who understands your needs.
• You are forming a corporation and neither the state website nor the online sites have the required forms for the Board of Directors Organizational Meeting, Bylaws geared to your company or stock ledgers and certificates that need to be completed.
• You have more than one owner and you want to make sure you have a solid owners' agreement among all of the owners that sets forth all of the rights and obligations of the owners and what happens when one owner wants out, becomes incapacitated or dies. 
• You realize that spending some additional dollars now may end up saving a lot of dollars in the future. 
• You realize that after your entity is formed, you will have a lawyer who is familiar with your company, your goals and your needs and will be available for future work and questions.

What business entity is right for you?

Each business entity type has its own advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the right one enables you to reduce liability exposure, minimize taxes, and ensure that you finance and run your business efficiently. We help you assess each option to select the business entity that is most advantageous for your business. Your options include structures like a sole proprietorship, LLC, and an S corporation or C corporation.

Our experience includes providing founders with:

• advice on what type of entity to choose, and the differences in choosing an LLC versus a corporation.
• the preparation and filing of Articles of Organization (for an LLC) or Articles of Incorporation (for a corporation) and, most importantly, the necessary corporate documents to ensure that your corporation retains its limited liability status.
• guidance on what it means to elect S Corporation status or "close" corporation status.
• The drafting of founder and owner agreements (operating agreements, buy-sell/shareholder agreements).
• counseling on compliance with state and local government laws.

Start your business success story today! Reach out to us for a free consultation. 

Here are our entity formation packages:

Maryland LLC -- $1050 -- includes:

• Initial meeting or phone conference regarding choice of entity, etc.
• Drafting and filing of the Articles of Organization with the state 
• State filing fees (approximately $155 for expedited service)
• Single-member LLC operating agreement (For multi-member LLCs, drafting the operating agreement is billed hourly. The additional time to draft an operating agreement can be between 2 and 10 hours, depending on the number of members, the complexity of the management structure, etc.)
• As many phone calls or e-mails to ask questions about initial setup, insurance, etc.

Maryland Corporation -- $1550 -- includes

• Initial meeting or phone conference regarding choice of entity, number of shares to issue, etc.
• Drafting and filing of the Articles of Incorporation with the state
• State filing fees (approximately $175 for expedited service)
• Corporate by-laws and organizational minutes geared to your company's specific attributes
• Corporate book with stock issuance recorded in stock ledger  
• As many phone calls or e-mails to ask questions about initial setup and get them answered quickly

What is not included in the flat fee: 

• Resident Agent Services via corporate resident agent for one year ($100 additional -- we will register you for the first year saving you the time of going to another website to order the service)
• Filing of State and Federal Tax ID Requests (we will guide you through this if you need us to)
• Filing of Sub S Election if elected (your accountant should do this)
• Buy-sell agreement among multiple shareholders, or a multi-member operating agreement for an LLC, would be billed at an hourly rate of $410 per hour, and those agreements would take approximately 2- 6 hours for the first draft; subsequent revisions to get to final can take 2 to 10 hours, depending on the complexity, number of owners, etc.
• Questions that require legal research (hourly rate)
• Formal Legal Opinions (hourly rate)