Working out a strong and clear contract in advance is always the best protection for both parties. Ambiguity is avoidable. Ms. Azeredo can help you craft critical contract language tailored for your unique situation. She routinely reviews, drafts, critiques, and improves the following types of contracts:
Commercial Contracts
For most small businesses, their contracts represent unique opportunities to allocate risk in advance and to preserve valuable client relationships. Having an an experienced attorney like Ms. Azeredo develop initial language, create specialized phrasing for unique situations, or review standardized contracts from large clients or vendors can save significant amounts of time, money, and stress.
Employment Contracts and Non-compete Agreements
Whether you are an employer investing in a new employee or an employee whose livelihood could be substantially affected by a non-compete agreement, it is important to have an attorney review that agreement. Even if you think that your employer is unlikely to alter its standard agreement, non-competes can be tailored through mechanisms like carve-outs which preserve your access to the existing relationships that you bring to the table.
Non-disclosure Agreements
A non-disclosure agreement protects the employer by limiting the ability of current and former employees to share trade secrets and other secrets of business operations. While these may seem reasonable, it is important to have an experienced attorney review a non-disclosure agreement so that you do not sign anything that will substantially limit your future employment prospects, or unknowingly leave yourself open to suit for a type of violation you may not have considered.
Severance Agreements
When you are facing a layoff, being asked to resign, or being terminated, you may be offered a severance agreement. Unfortunately, many employees do not look beyond the short term benefit of the additional money that comes from signing such an agreement. Severance agreements are about much more than the financial compensation. They often include non-economic terms (e.g., a non-compete clause) that will affect your ability to get another job in the future. Moreover, they frequently require you to waive valuable rights like the ability to sue your employer for any reason in the future. Many employees are not aware of what rights they have in a layoff scenario. An experienced attorney like Ms. Azeredo can review your severance agreement, counsel you on what it contains, explain the risks associated with certain terms, and even negotiate a change in the terms that will better protect your interests.
Disputes
Ms. Azeredo also handles disputes pertaining to the following types of contractual disputes:
- Business disputes
- Home Improvement contracts