Outside General Counsel for Family-Owned Businesses in Miami-Dade

Outside general counsel for family-owned business in Miami-Dade is an ongoing legal relationship. A business law firm acts as your company’s legal department without a full-time lawyer on staff. KEW Legal focuses on business law for owners and investors in Miami-Dade and South Florida, with offices in Coral Gables and Sunny Isles Beach.

Family companies generate legal questions that keep coming up. Relatives share ownership. Decisions get made informally. The same person may run operations, sign contracts, and hold equity. Those overlaps create disputes and gaps that a retained lawyer can help manage.

What Outside General Counsel Means for a Family-Owned Business

Outside general counsel is a retained relationship, not a one-time job. The firm handles your company’s recurring legal matters as they come up, so you don’t start from scratch each time.

Some engagements cover a single contract, one lease, or one lawsuit, and then the file closes. An outside general counsel relationship covers the steady flow of questions: a vendor invoice, a new hire’s offer letter, or a co-owner who wants out. Over time the firm learns how your company is set up, so later questions can build on that history.

Family ownership adds a layer that many owners underestimate. Handshake deals feel safe between relatives. Florida courts still apply basic contract rules.

Family owners also face questions about who controls decisions and what happens if someone leaves. A simple example shows the risk. A family company agrees to a supplier deal on a handshake, then the supplier stops delivering. Once a retained firm has the company’s contracts on file, the firm can review them when a new question comes up.

KEW Legal concentrates in partnership, contract, employment, lease, and succession matters for business owners and investors.

Who This Service Fits

Outside general counsel fits family companies that need legal help often and want one firm to handle it. If legal questions come up every few months, a retained relationship may make more sense than hiring a new lawyer each time.

It fits best for:

• Companies with two or more family owners, such as siblings, cousins, or a parent who has moved shares to children.
• Closely held businesses in Coral Gables, Sunny Isles Beach, and across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties that have outgrown informal handling of legal questions.
• Owners who want one legal contact for contracts, employee questions, and lease decisions.
• Family businesses preparing for a sale, a purchase, or a transition to the next generation.

Owners who run the company day to day often get legal questions first. A retained firm gives them one clear place to call.

A single contract review may be the better fit if you need help only once. Whether an ongoing relationship makes sense depends on the facts of your business.

What the Engagement Covers

The engagement covers six areas of business law. The written scope lists which ones apply to your company, so you know what is included before you commit.

• Partnership and co-owner disputes. The firm reviews operating agreements and handles deadlock, buyout, and decision-making conflicts. Under Fla. Stat. § 605.0105, the operating agreement governs relations among members and the company’s activities and affairs, except as otherwise provided in subsections (3) and (4), which limit what an operating agreement may do; where the operating agreement does not provide for a matter, the chapter governs it.
• A deadlock sale provision started before a court finds grounds for dissolution applies instead of a court dissolution order, where managers or members are deadlocked, cannot break the deadlock, and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or being suffered, so long as the provision is thereafter initiated and effectuated in accordance with its terms (Fla. Stat. § 605.0702). In a member-initiated proceeding under Fla. Stat. § 605.0702(1)(b), the company may elect, or, if it fails to elect, one or more other members may elect, to purchase the entire interest of the petitioning member at fair value; the election may be filed within 90 days after the petitioning member files the petition, or at a later time if the court allows, and it is irrevocable unless the court determines that it is equitable to set aside or modify the election (Fla. Stat. § 605.0706).
• Contracts and vendor disputes. The firm drafts and reviews supplier and customer agreements and handles vendor payment disputes.
• Employment for employers. The firm reviews handbooks and policies. Under Florida law, most employment relationships are at will by default, but statutes and written employment agreements can limit when and how an employer may end the relationship.
• Commercial leases and evictions. The firm drafts and negotiates commercial leases and handles evictions, including for owners who live abroad. A tenant who holds over after a rent default may be removed after a 3-day written notice requiring payment or possession (Fla. Stat. § 83.20). The landlord then files a complaint in the county where the property is located (Fla. Stat. § 83.21).
• Real estate and succession. The firm reviews purchase, financing, and management terms for investment property. It also structures ownership transfers to family members or outside buyers.

How the Engagement Works

The engagement starts with a first consultation, then moves through a written scope, a records review, and ongoing work.

1. Free first consultation. It’s confidential and carries no obligation to continue. The firm reviews your company’s structure, open issues, and pending deadlines.
2. Written scope. You and the firm agree which recurring matters are covered and how urgent requests are routed.
3. Records review. The firm reviews governing documents, contracts, leases, employment policies, and any active disputes.
4. Ongoing work. Owners and managers send requests. The firm responds and flags deadlines and legal risks as they arise.
5. Periodic reviews. Governance documents and succession plans are reviewed on a schedule tied to your business cycle.

How long each step takes depends on how many documents your company has. The written scope explains how urgent requests are routed, so owners know the path before a crisis.

Why Family-Owned Businesses Work With KEW Legal

KEW Legal is a business law firm with offices in Coral Gables and Sunny Isles Beach.

• Business law focus. The firm concentrates in business matters for owners and investors.
• Two offices. The firm has offices in Coral Gables and Sunny Isles Beach and serves owners and investors across Miami-Dade and South Florida.
• One firm for related work. Partnership, contract, employment, lease, real estate, eviction, and succession matters are handled together. Family owners don’t need several separate lawyers.
• Practical focus. The work centers on decisions family owners face: governance, contracts, staff, leases, and ownership transfers.
• Named lawyers. Kristina E. Wilson is the responsible lawyer for this page. Natalie Martinez is also a lawyer at the firm, and the firm’s lawyers share the client work.

Questions Family Business Owners Ask Before Hiring Outside Counsel

These are the questions family owners ask about this service.

Talk With a Miami-Dade Business Attorney About Your Family Company

If a deadlock between family co-owners or an unpaid vendor is holding your company back, our team can talk it through with you. Perhaps a lease is ending, a succession decision can’t wait, or an owner wants out.

Schedule a consultation through our contact page, call 305-990-2300, or send us a message.