Name: Advising A Business – Start-Up to Exit
Price: 119 CAD
Rating: 4.5 (41 reviews)

What You'll Learn

check_circleUnderstand the key legal considerations for business start-ups, including selecting the appropriate business vehicle and avoiding common incorporation mistakes.

check_circleLearn best practices for drafting shareholder and partnership agreements, with a focus on avoiding common errors and addressing unsigned agreements.

check_circleGain insights into raising early-stage capital, including negotiating key terms in financing agreements and addressing employee equity considerations.

check_circleExplore the legal preparations necessary for purchasing or selling a business, including the implications of asset versus share transactions.

About This Course

Every business goes through a standard cycle—from start-up and growth, to considering whether to sell or exit the market completely. As lawyers, you play a critical role in guiding clients so that their businesses benefit from thoughtful legal planning and strategy.

Gain a 360-degree perspective of all the critical moments in the lifecycle of a business from seasoned corporate lawyers, and learn how to become a trusted advisor.

This program is designed for:

Business lawyers in the first 8 years of practice
Non-business lawyers with an interest in business law

Key Topics Covered:

Business Start-ups: What are the most popular business vehicles and why?
Shareholder/Partnership Agreements: Common drafting mistakes
Raising Early Stage Capital: What key items need to be negotiated in a typical financing?
Employee Equity Considerations: Interplay between employment laws and equity
Purchasing/Selling a Business: Legal preparations for selling a business
Managing Business Divorces: When to involve litigation counsel?

Detailed Agenda

1. Managing the Client Relationship

Common incorporation mistakes
Advising on which EEA (Employment Equity Agreement) is best
Interplay between employment laws and EEAs
LOI (Letter of Intent) considerations
Inside vs. outside sales
Price and payment adjustments
Key negotiation considerations
Managing M&A transactions
Root causes of corporate divorces
Assessing client objectives, legal rights, strategic options
Becoming tax aware
Understanding project management
When to involve litigation counsel

2. Effective Client Communication re Shareholder Agreements (15 minutes)

Is a basic/simple agreement possible?
Does it need to be a Unanimous Shareholders’ Agreement (USA)?
Common drafting mistakes
Legal implications of unsigned agreements
Timing for execution and review frequency
Lawyer’s role and conflict management
Binding new shareholders to a USA
Best practices and special considerations

3. Importance of Retainer Letters (5 minutes)

4. Ethical Issues During the Client Relationship (10 minutes)

Maintaining a solutions mindset
Understanding client objectives

5. Managing Conflicts from the Outset and Throughout the Relationship (10 minutes)

Asset protection strategies
Protecting shareholder loans
Recognizing and defining roles to manage conflicts
Enhancing negotiation skills

6. Client Confidentiality (5 minutes)

NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) considerations

7. Legal Preparation for Selling a Business

8. Structure of Transaction

Asset sale vs. Share sale

Presenters

Jennifer Allen
Jordan Dolgin
Fraser McDonald

Your Instructor

Toronto Lawyers Association

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For more than 135 years, the Toronto Lawyers' Association, located within the Courthouse Library, has represented the interests of lawyers practising in the City of Toronto. The association was founded to support its members in three key areas: Knowledge, Advocacy, and Community. To uphold these pillars, the association offers a year-round mix of online and in-person education programs for lawyers, hosts both free and paid events to foster in-person networking, and submits advocacy pieces on behalf of its members to the Ontario bench and bar, all levels of government, and the broader public.

Credit Information

Is this course eligible for my CPD requirements as a Canadian CPA?

Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.

Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.

What Students Are Saying

4.5

Student's Choice

41 reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.