Torrence L Howell provides assistance with forming, amending, and dissolving partnership agreements in southern California.
As an expert attorney who also holds an MBA, Torrence L Howell is an excellent choice of representation for all legal issues related to partnerships in southern California. He can help you draft a partnership agreement, amend that agreement, or even dissolve the partnership if one or more partners wish to leave the business.
Formation of Partnerships in Southern California
A partnership (also known as a general partnership) is automatically formed whenever two or more individuals go into business together. You don’t necessarily have to have a written partnership agreement in order to do business and enjoy the legal status of a partnership, but it is nonetheless a good idea to create such a document in case of future disputes between the partners. An expert southern California small business attorney like Torrence L Howell can help you draft a partnership agreement that will cover all the important points including:
- Each partner’s contribution (cash, property, services)
- Allocation of profits, losses, and draws
- Partners’ authority and management duties
- Voting rules and decision-making
- If and how new partners may be admitted
- How to handle the death or withdrawal of a partner
- Dispute resolution procedures
Amending Partnerships
If you wish to change any of the provisions included in your partnership agreement, Torrence L Howell can help you draft a revised partnership agreement. For example, you might need a revised agreement to include the name of a new partner, to reflect a name change of the business, or to change how profits are allocated. Torrence L Howell will make sure the legal language of the new partnership agreement accurately reflects your wishes.
Torrence L Howell can also be of service if you are amending the partnership to reflect the loss of one or more partners. If you have a partnership agreement already, the protocols for a dissociating partner should be included in that agreement. For example, many partnership agreements in Southern California include a clause creating a buyout agreement. This buyout agreement will dictate whether the departing partner’s share must be bought out, who may buy it (another partner or an outsider), and how the price of the partner’s share of the business will be determined.
In cases where there are only two partners and one wishes to leave, the partnership will automatically enter the dissolution process because California courts have ruled that one person cannot possibly hold a partnership on their own.
Dissolution of Partnerships
In order to dissolve a southern California partnership, all partners must work together to complete three steps:
- File a statement of dissolution
- Inform all known creditors, vendors, suppliers, and customers
- Publish a specific legal notice in the newspaper for 12 consecutive days
It is important to have an experienced small business attorney like Torrence L Howell represent you during the dissolution of your partnership in Southern California so that you know all the steps are handled correctly. This will greatly reduce the odds of creditors trying to hold you personally liable for business debts at some future time. Because Torrence L Howell is also an experienced divorce attorney, he can be particularly helpful in cases where the partnership is dissolving due to divorce of the partners.
