Entity formation and the choice between a corporation and an LLC, shareholder and partnership agreements, commercial contracts with customers and suppliers, financing rounds, and the purchase or sale of a business. Governance work sits here too: board minutes, resolutions, and keeping the ownership records accurate. Disputes are handled by litigation firms.

Three structures dominate. Hourly billing for work whose shape is unknown, a flat fee for a defined document or filing, and a monthly retainer for companies that want counsel on call. Transactions often mix them: flat fee to form the entity, hourly for the negotiation that follows. Ask for the structure in the engagement letter, along with who bills at which rate and what triggers a new estimate.

Whatever documents already exist. Formation certificates, the operating agreement or bylaws, the ownership table, loan documents, leases, and every contract you have signed with a customer, supplier or contractor. Add a short written summary of who owns what share, who can sign, and what you are trying to do next. Lawyers price and scope work far better when they can see the paper rather than hear about it.

Ask yourself whether anyone is threatening a claim. A business attorney builds and documents the relationship: the entity, the agreement, the deal. A litigation firm steps in once that relationship has failed and a court or arbitrator may decide it. Plenty of larger practices hold both, and a transactional lawyer who spots trouble early will usually hand the file across the corridor rather than run it alone.

Match the firm to your stage. Ask what they closed for companies like yours, who would actually draft your documents, and how quickly they turn around a contract review when a counterparty is waiting. Ask how they communicate: email, a portal, a named contact. A practice that answers plainly and puts scope and fees in writing is telling you something about how the work will run.

Filing the paperwork is something you can do yourself in most states, and plenty of founders do. What you cannot download is the part that matters later: how ownership vests, what happens when a founder leaves, who can sign, how new investors come in. A lawyer earns the fee on the agreement between the owners, not on the filing itself.