Hartley Bernstein’s Guide to Corporate Law

TV has made corporate law one of the coolest professions in America. Yet, for all the good things it has done for the profession--an unintended (or deliberate?) effect of a lot of exposure has been on children and young students, who are increasingly flocking to the law school to enter the world of corporate law. This is good. But here is a word of caution: in vogue, though, the world of corporate law is, it is not easy. So New York based corporate lawyer Hartley Bernstein has written this blog to introduce corporate law to individuals whose only source of information of the field has been the television.

Corporate lawyer

The job of corporate lawyers is to ensure the commercial transactions happening under their watch are legal. To this end, they have to have a profound knowledge of both the statutory law and the regulations of state and federal agencies. Let’s try to understand this with an example: there are companies A and B. Company A wants to buy five computers a month from company B for the next five years. In this scenario, the job of a corporate lawyer is to draw a contract that is acceptable to both companies while making sure none of the terms and conditions in the contract goes against the tax law, zoning law, property law, and laws on licensing.

Although this sounds simple, the job is hard. It requires a lot of effort and hard work on part of lawyers who often have to burn the midnight oil to make sure nothing goes against the law. What it means for those aspiring to become corporate lawyers such as Hartley Bernstein is that fame and wealth come a lot later. And the road to become a successful law is paved with hard work, diligence, and perseverance.