Working within the legal requirements of the business world is vitally important as ending up on the wrong side of the law can at best see a company suffer considerable damage to their reputation and at worst be put out of business because of legal sanctions.

Making sure a business operates in a way that is compliant with the most up to date areas of corporation law, all companies will rely on the expertise of a corporate lawyer. While many firms will rely upon outsourcing their corporate lawyer responsibilities to specialists at a separate firm of solicitors, companies of a larger size may well have in-house corporate lawyers who are always on hand to offer advice and work exclusively on the interests of the business concerned.

Regardless of whether they are working in-house or in private practice at a law firm, corporate lawyers will usually look after the same kind of matters and oversee issues relating to corporation law.

Most common among those responsibilities would be advising and managing the legal aspects of commercial agreements and business transactions. These might include mergers and acquisitions, which are any transactions in which part or full ownership of a company is transferred to another business or is consolidated with another.

Corporate lawyers will also be involved in any contracts drawn up by a business. This can have a number of different layers including reviewing, drafting and negotiating any legally binding agreements that involve the company.

Corporate governance is another key area of work for a corporate lawyer, building a framework for a corporation to structure how it operates and is controlled with clearly defined documentation to cover the rights and responsibilities of employees and the policies used to govern this within the organisation.

In a similar fashion, securities is the process by which a corporate lawyer oversees a firm’s law compliance in relation to complex regulations which aim to, among other things, prevent fraud, insider trading and market manipulation.

Often corporate lawyers will be responsible for sourcing and negotiating venture capital agreements and finance restructuring to help businesses access funding to expand, through private or public funding.

Unlike what you might see on the TV or in movies, a corporate lawyer rarely spends time in the courtroom, instead focusing their time on ensuring a business complies with the core elements of corporation law to make sure a corporation is safe from any litigation.

If it is your ambition to become a corporate lawyer, some of the core skills that you are likely to require will include excellent written and verbal communication, as well as negotiating skills, with an exceptional understanding of the day-to-day implications of corporate law.