Specialist Corporate and Commercial Lawyers
How we can help
Our primary objective is to help founders set up the best legal framework and the foundations to execute their business strategy in the most efficient and compliant way possible.
For more than a decade SWS Lawyers has helped new and emerging businesses with all their legal needs – from incorporation or establishment, registering intellectual property, drafting contracts, employing staff and engaging contractors, raising capital and exiting or selling the business venture. We have taken clients with good ideas from inception to PE investment and then exit; through competitor buy-out deals; and to capital raising and ASX listing.
We appreciate the biggest challenge is knowing how best to spend a limited legal budget. Our approach is to focus resources on setting a good legal foundation so that, when the time comes to attract expansion capital, private equity investment or relocate overseas, our clients are very well placed to achieve their goals.
Partly because of our location and partly due to our expertise, we have a focus on FMCG, technology, software and bio-technology start-up businesses, but we have also worked with new entrants to mining and engineering sectors and with founders who have created novel B-to-C and B-to-B product businesses.
You can read about a couple of our case studies here:
Our services for Start-Up and Scale-Up businesses include:
- Choosing the Right Structure
We help you determine the most appropriate legal structure for your business and take the time to listen and explain the alternatives to assist you to meet the specific needs and goals of the start-up venture. - Incorporation & Establishment
We work with accountants and tax advisors and assist with the incorporation process, including drafting and filing necessary documents. We also prepare the critical agreements like the constitution, shareholders’ agreement and partnership agreements that set the foundation for your new venture. - Intellectual Property
We have a solid track record in managing, registering and defending intellectual property rights. Some of our start-up clients have used litigation to protect their position in markets and others have relied on our contracts (confidentiality agreement; consultancy agreements; licence agreements and sharing or collaboration contracts) to get going and ramp up their ideas. More information here. - Customers
You will need a website and basic customer contracts, and possibly a privacy policy, before you launch a product or service. All start-up ventures need to get this right – and our approach is to do it properly, first time and as economically as possible. AI or “copied from the web” solutions don’t work and cause problems down the track, so we take the time to tailor these important documents for our start-up clients. More information here.
- Employment
Some of our scale-up clients need employee share plans; other ventures just want to ensure they have a good employment agreement or a consultancy contract. We provide these documents and also the advice you need to make the right choices and plan for your future employee goals. More information here. - Leases
When you grow out of your garage, shared or co-working hub, our property specialists can prepare, negotiate and resolve your leasing requirements. More information here. - Capital Raising and Exit
Our corporate team specialise in M&A, capital-raising and exit transactions. They can introduce you to the right people; tell you when you are giving too much away; sanity check the mandate letters and deliver the legal advice and documentation required to raise new money or exit completely. More information here.
Their approach is always professional and delivered at a standard comparable to a capital city law firm. It is the clear strategic direction that has always impressed me about the SWS team.
We believe their ability to combine first rate legal expertise, commercial judgement and strong negotiating skills is rare amongst lawyers and provides us with a real competitive advantage in corporate transactions. We use SWS because of their ability, not their post code.
Extreme gratitude to David and Andrew for all your help with our transaction. You were both fantastic to deal with (as were the rest of the SWS team) and certainly made the negotiations and dealings easy to handle for us through the whole process. I would certainly have no hesitation at all recommending you for any future work. Again, I appreciate all your assistance.
The combination of rare legal expertise, commercial judgement and strong negotiating skills is rare amongst lawyers and provides us with a real competitive advantage in corporate transactions.
SWS has assisted with advice on securing and exercising complex property and commercial contractual rights and assisting with protracted contractual management and implementation. We value legal experts who can offer pragmatic and commercial legal solutions for our complicated matters. SWS Lawyers has consistently met these criteria.
The team at SWS Lawyers have already showcased their professionalism, commitment, positive can-do attitude and insight into our needs and have a clear understanding of the disability sector.
