Are you looking for a general counsel lawyer in Aliso Viejo, CA?

At Ghassemian Law Group, we provide general counsel representation grounded in 26 years of work on behalf of clients in Aliso Viejo.

If you own or run a company in Aliso Viejo, legal questions probably reach your desk faster than you can answer them, whether that means a revised vendor agreement, a demand letter from a former employee, or a co-owner who suddenly wants out. Most companies can’t justify a full-time in-house attorney. Founder Mahyar Ghassemian earned her law degree in 1999. Our Aliso Viejo, CA general counsel lawyer has handled this work for 26 years. The first consultation is free. Contact our office and we will review where your company stands and what deserves attention.

General Counsel Lawyer Aliso Viejo, CA

A general counsel attorney is the lawyer a company consults before it signs, hires, terminates, expands, or responds to a claim. Large corporations keep one on payroll. Smaller and mid-sized companies retain outside general counsel instead, paying for the legal work they actually use rather than a salary, benefits, and an office.

Aliso Viejo businesses reported $505.8 million in retail sales and $824.3 million in health care and social assistance revenue in 2022, according to Census Bureau QuickFacts. Every dollar of that revenue passed through a contract, a lease, a payroll, or a permit. An Aliso Viejo general counsel attorney reviews those documents as they come up and flags the risks you did not know to ask about. We have filled that role for construction firms, developers, professional practices, and closely held companies throughout Orange County.

Types of General Counsel Cases We Handle in Aliso Viejo

Our firm represents companies, not the people suing them. Below are the matters that come across our desks most often when we serve as outside general counsel for Aliso Viejo, CA businesses. Some are planning work. Others start with a phone call about a problem that has already begun.

• Contract drafting and review. We draft, negotiate, and review vendor agreements, service contracts, NDAs, purchase orders, and subcontracts. Most of the litigation we see traces back to a clause nobody read closely, so we read closely.
• Business disputes. Breach of contract, fraud claims, unpaid invoices, and disagreements with customers or suppliers. We assess exposure early, send or answer the demand, and work to resolve the matter before a complaint is filed.
• Partnership disputes. Co-owner conflicts over control, distributions, buyouts, and exits. These are personal as well as financial, and we handle them with that in mind.
• Entity formation and governance. Choosing between an LLC and a corporation, drafting operating agreements and bylaws, keeping minutes, and maintaining state filings so the liability shield holds.
• Employment compliance. Offer letters, handbooks, independent contractor classification, wage and hour practices, and terminations. California employment claims are expensive to defend, and prevention costs far less.
• Commercial leases and real estate. Lease negotiation, tenant improvement disputes, non-paying tenants, and purchase agreements for business property.
• Civil litigation. When a matter cannot be settled, we represent companies that have been sued for $100,000 or more, from the answer through trial in Orange County Superior Court.
• Shareholder and fiduciary duty claims. Corporate governance battles, breach of fiduciary duty allegations, and disputes over valuation when an owner leaves.
• Trade secrets and unfair competition. Protecting customer lists, pricing data, and proprietary processes, and responding when a former employee or competitor misuses them.
• Insurance coverage and Cumis counsel. When an insurer defends your company under a reservation of rights, we act as independent counsel so that your interests, not the carrier’s, direct the defense.

Why Choose Ghassemian Law Group as my General Counsel Lawyer in Aliso Viejo, CA?

Business Law Experience Rooted in Orange County

Mahyar Ghassemian founded our firm and manages it today. She spent the early part of her career as a business and construction litigator at large Southern California firms before leaving in 2010 to open Ghassemian & Associates, which became Ghassemian Law Group in 2013. Before law school she earned a master’s degree in physics with honors from Cal State Long Beach, then graduated cum laude from Western State College of Law in 1999. She volunteers with the Orange County Bar Association and NAWBO, and she speaks English, Persian, Turkish, and French fluently, with conversational Spanish.

That background matters when you hire an outside general counsel attorney. Twenty-six years of litigating business disputes teaches you which contract terms end up in court and which handshake deals fall apart. Our business lawyer in Aliso Viejo, CA helps clients get an assessment before a problem turns into a lawsuit, and then we can defend them if it does.

Results That Back Up the Advice

General counsel work is meant to keep companies out of court, but our case results show what happens when that is not possible:

• Defeated the individual liability of our clients in a $15 million business lawsuit brought by a multi-billion-dollar multinational corporation, and the business survived.
• Obtained injunctions and a settlement that preserved our clients’ equity stake in a $10 million-plus multi-state corporate governance fight.
• Extracted our clients from a $2.3 million corporate shareholder dispute.
• Recovered $800,000 owed to a general contractor for completed work.

Consultations for general counsel matters are free. We represent companies of every size, and we will tell you at the first meeting whether an ongoing engagement makes sense or whether a single project is all you need.

What Is Important To Understand About General Counsel Cases?

Contracts, Liability, and Damages in General Counsel Matters

Most of what a general counsel lawyer does comes back to a handful of concepts:

• Contract formation. An enforceable agreement needs an offer, acceptance, and consideration. Written is better, but California enforces many verbal contracts too, which cuts both ways.
• Breach and damages. The party harmed by a breach can generally recover the money needed to put it in the position it bargained for, including lost profits when they can be proven with reasonable certainty. Punitive damages are not available for an ordinary breach of contract.
• Statute of limitations. California allows four years to sue on a written contract and two years on an oral agreement. Miss the deadline and the claim is gone regardless of its merit.
• Fiduciary duties. Partners, LLC managers, and corporate directors owe duties of loyalty and care to the company and its owners. Self-dealing and diverted opportunities are the usual triggers for litigation.
• The liability shield. A properly formed and maintained corporation or LLC protects the owners’ personal assets. Skipped formalities and commingled funds can strip that protection away.
• Indemnification and insurance. Who pays when something goes wrong is decided by contract language and policy terms long before anything goes wrong.

Important Aspects of a General Counsel Case

An outside general counsel relationship works when the lawyer knows the business well enough to give a fast, accurate answer.

• A standing set of reviewed templates, so contracts go out on your paper rather than the other side’s.
• A habit of calling counsel first, before signing, hiring, or firing, rather than after.
• Periodic review of wage and hour practices, worker classifications, and handbooks as California rules shift.
• Clear escalation. Our firm litigates, so when a dispute cannot be settled there is no hand-off to a stranger.
• Cost predictability. Scope and billing get discussed at the outset so the invoice never surprises you.

The General Counsel Case Timeline

Unlike a lawsuit, a general counsel engagement has no fixed end date. Most of ours follow a similar arc.

• Weeks one and two: consultation and review of formation documents, key contracts, leases, and any pending claims.
• First 90 days: fixing what that review turns up, usually contract templates, missing agreements among owners, and employment paperwork.
• Ongoing: calls and reviews as issues arise, from a new vendor deal to a customer who stops paying.
• Annual check-in: state filings, insurance renewals, and any changes in ownership or operations.
• When litigation is unavoidable: knowing early that your business needs a litigator keeps the dispute manageable. A business lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court often takes more than a year to reach trial, and most settle before it gets there.

What to Bring to Your General Counsel Consultation?

The more we see at the first meeting, the more useful our advice will be. Bring what you have, even if it is incomplete.

• Formation documents: articles, operating agreement or bylaws, and your most recent Secretary of State filing.
• The contracts you sign most often, along with any you are worried about.
• Employee handbook, offer letter template, and independent contractor agreements.
• Any demand letters, complaints, or notices from regulators.
• Your commercial lease and insurance policies.

We spend the consultation identifying your largest exposures and telling you what to fix first. You leave knowing which items are urgent and which can wait.

Aliso Viejo Business Resources and Orange County Courts

Aliso Viejo does not issue business licenses. New businesses instead need approval from the city’s Community Development Department and a certificate of occupancy before opening, a process laid out on the city’s business registration page.

• Entity filings, name reservations, and statements of information go through the California Secretary of State.
• If a dispute reaches court, unlimited civil cases from every Orange County city, Aliso Viejo included, are filed at the Central Justice Center at 700 Civic Center Drive West in Santa Ana. Larger, multi-party commercial cases may be assigned to the Civil Complex Center at 751 West Santa Ana Boulevard.
• Both are a short drive from our Mission Viejo headquarters, which keeps our Aliso Viejo litigation practice close to the clients it serves.

Reach Out to Ghassemian Law Group to Schedule a Consultation

The consultation is free, and there is no obligation to retain us afterward. Bring your questions and your documents, and we will tell you honestly where your company is exposed and what a general counsel arrangement would look like for a business your size. Contact us online or by phone, and our office will respond to set a time that works for you.