Corporate Lawyer Meaning

Corporate lawyers are also known as a corporate attorney. The duties of a corporate lawyer include preparing documents, assessing partnerships, and negotiating deals. Also, getting into this field is one of the highest-paying jobs that you will ever see because not everyone wants to become a lawyer, and there is a need for them everywhere around the world.

Table of Contents

• What is Corporate Law?
• Who is a Corporate Lawyer?
• Corporate Lawyer Eligibility
• How to Become a Corporate Lawyer?
• Corporate Lawyer Jobs
• Corporate Lawyer Salary
• Responsibilities of Corporate Lawyer
• Importance of Corporate Lawyers

What is Corporate Law?

Corporate law is termed a body of law responsible for governing the rights, relations, and conduct of persons, companies, organizations, and businesses. It is present mainly for the legal practice of law relating it to corporations or the theory of corporations.

Corporate law often describes the law relating to matters which investigate directly into the life-cycle of a corporation. As a result, corporate lawyers are experts in the formation, funding, governance, and the death of a corporation's legal characteristics and legal problems across many jurisdictions, i.e., the nature of corporate governance as shown by a share owner's capital market.

Who is a Corporate Lawyer?

The corporate lawyer's meaning is that they make sure all commercial transactions and certain counselling corporations are fully legit when considering the legal rights and duties. This may include all of the duties and responsibilities of the corporate officers as well.

To satisfy the duties, lawyers must know all aspects of,

• Bankruptcy
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Licensing
• Contract Law
• Tax Law
• Accounting
• Securities Law
• Zoning Laws
• Laws related to specific businesses that the corporations work for

As seen in the past decade itself, controversies that included popular companies like the world-famous Walmart and General Motors have highlighted the complicated role of corporate lawyers in internal investigations, where attorney-client privilege could be considered to shield potential wrongdoing by the company.

Corporate Lawyer Eligibility

Corporate lawyers work to make sure corporations make the right decisions concerning their job role and provide the most benefit while remaining legal terms. However, since corporate law is used as a substitute in many sectors, people often think business law is related to the business corporation, company formation, registration, etc.

The requirements to become a corporate lawyer are as follows.

• Bachelor's degree in law.
• State Bar Association License to practice law.
• A minimum of 3 years experience as a corporate lawyer.
• Good communication skills, i.e., both verbal and written.
• Highly analytical with strong attention to detail.
• Outstanding managerial and negotiation skills.

How to Become a Corporate Lawyer?

There are many ways that one can become a corporate lawyer. First, it works with specific corporations to ensure the transactions are legal by providing advice on particular rights and obligations. Corporate lawyers are required to have extensive knowledge in each of these terms, namely contract law, tax law, intellectual property rights, bankruptcy, and any other branches of law that ultimately affect the activities that a particular business is conducting or dealing with.

There are certain areas that only experts can handle, and they need areas of expertise to be extensive so that the needs of a corporation in terms of abiding by the law are significant.

The following points will help you to become a corporate lawyer:

• To become an excellent corporate lawyer, one must have strong analytical skills, good interpersonal skills, and a good understanding of the business environment. Though corporate law pays well, it also involves long working hours, so be prepared for it.
• Always perform research and prepare to join a good law school; one needs to get a law degree by taking up a five-year Bachelor of Law (BA LLB) degree course after completing their higher secondary education.
• Alternatively, candidates can also pursue a three-year BA LLB after obtaining a bachelor's degree in any discipline. To be admitted into any of the law schools in our country, you need to take an entrance exam called the Common Law Admission Test.
• Choosing a good law school is one of the most important decisions of your life. Getting admission to a top law school is quite competitive, but it offers better faculty, infrastructure, and education.
• Graduating from a good law school will also give your career an edge by improving your job prospects, so prepare well for the admission test. While selecting the law schools, look at their placement record and speak to alumni or students and faculty at the school to ascertain if it is the right school for you.
• Law graduates also need to determine whether they want to pursue a postgraduate course or directly join a law firm after obtaining a B.A. LL.B, one can practice as a lawyer.
• A graduate needs to join a bar council before starting their practice as a lawyer as it is mandatory to do so. Bar councils all over the country act as statutory bodies that lay down certain standards of professional conduct and legal education in our country that are followed by all.
• However, if it is in-house counsel, they would be working as part of an organization's legal department. You can opt based on the type of experience and work environment you are looking for.
• After gaining a good amount of experience, one can even start their corporate law practice.

Corporate Lawyer Jobs

A lawyer needs to determine whether they want to work with a corporate law firm or as in-house counsel because working with a corporate law firm means that it is more fast-paced, and it also allows them to work with a wide range of clients and projects.

So to work in corporate law, one has to work in either or both the following categories:

• As an advocate practicing law
• Or as a legal officer depending on the firm, you join.

The job roles that one can expect in this field are:

1. Legal Officer
2. Legal Advisor
3. Senior Associate

Corporate Lawyer Salary

When joining the field of law, students can have the misconception that in India, the law is one of the highest paying jobs that you will find. Generally, the experienced corporate lawyers are offered between INR 25 to INR 30 lakh per annum. However, even for lawyers who just graduated from college, there is a wide potential range to earn anywhere between INR 5 Lakh per annum and INR 10 Lakh per annum.

The known salary for a fresh corporate lawyer who has just completed his graduation in a tier-1 law firm would earn anywhere between INR 12 Lakh to INR Lakh to INR 15 lakhs per annum.

Responsibilities of Corporate Lawyer

The corporate lawyers' internal company clients are not guaranteed confidentiality. The chance of seeking legal advice will be less likely, but keeping confidence can shelter society's access to vital information.

The responsibilities of a corporate lawyer usually include the following characteristics:

• Drafting and negotiating a given said agreement the right way, i.e., remaining unbiased to both parties.
• Advisory services that include research and advice in corporate law
• Depending on the type of firm, you must choose compliances looking after the company.
• Handling litigations is one of the most important responsibilities of a lawyer, as one needs to engage with external counsels and resolve litigations. It is also implied that the drafting of invoices and affidavits are common things you will need to do and appear before the court to resolve the matter.
• Drafting of the Agenda and the notices board is the company secretarial part of things. Dealing with various compliance issues that companies usually have will be something that you will regularly be working on.

Importance of Corporate Lawyers

Different law firms may organize their subdivisions in different ways. The importance of corporate lawyers are,

• Corporate lawyers regulate how certain corporations, investors, shareholders, directors, employees, creditors, and other stakeholders like consumers, the community, and the environment interact.
• Although the term a business law is commonly used interchangeably with corporate law, company law often refers to broader commercial law concepts, i.e., the law relating to commercial or business-related activities.
• In a specific area, corporate lawyers may involve matters relating to corporate governance or financial law.