Business Lawyers for Pennsylvania, West Virginia & Ohio
Starting a company is easy. Building one that can survive growth, ownership changes, acquisitions, contracts, employees, risk, and eventually an exit is harder. The Skeen Firm provides practical business counsel designed around what owners are actually trying to accomplish.
The Best Legal Answer Is Not Always the Best Business Answer
Business owners do not operate in a law-school hypothetical. Decisions involve money, customers, employees, timing, relationships, opportunity, and risk.
Legal advice has to account for all of it.
Our business practice is built around helping owners make informed decisions before a manageable problem becomes an expensive one. That can mean structuring an acquisition, improving an operating agreement, negotiating a difficult contract, planning an ownership transition, or simply having counsel available when something does not look right.
We want to understand what you are trying to accomplish first. Then we determine how the law can help you accomplish it.
Legal Counsel From Formation Through Exit
We work with closely held companies, entrepreneurs, buyers, sellers, and business owners on transactions, governance, contracts, growth, risk, and ownership transitions.
Business Formation
LLCs, corporations, entity selection, organizational documents, ownership structure, and the agreements needed to turn an entity filing into an actual business structure.
Operating & Shareholder Agreements
Agreements addressing ownership, management, voting, distributions, transfers, buyouts, death, disability, deadlock, and owner departures.
Contracts
Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial agreements with a focus on obligations, leverage, risk allocation, payment, termination, and enforcement.
Business Acquisitions
Buyer and seller representation involving letters of intent, due diligence, purchase agreements, financing coordination, closing, and post-closing obligations.
Outside General Counsel
Ongoing legal guidance for businesses that need counsel available without building an internal legal department.
Risk Management
Identifying legal weaknesses before they become disputes, including contracts, ownership documentation, policies, payment practices, and recurring operational risks.
Joint Ventures & Strategic Deals
Structuring collaborations, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, investment arrangements, and other commercial relationships.
Ownership Transitions
Buyouts, member departures, equity transfers, succession planning, and negotiated separation of business owners.
Exit & Succession Planning
Preparing businesses and owners for sale, family succession, management transition, retirement, or other long-term ownership changes.
Build. Buy. Grow. Protect. Exit.
Legal needs change as a business changes. The goal is to solve today's problem without creating tomorrow's.
Build
Choose the structure, define ownership, document expectations, and create a solid foundation.
Buy
Evaluate and structure acquisitions, conduct due diligence, negotiate terms, and close the transaction.
Grow
Improve contracts, add partners, enter new relationships, and build systems that support expansion.
Protect
Manage risk, document decisions, address problems early, and protect enterprise value.
Exit
Sell, transition, transfer, or wind down the business with the end goal considered before the transaction begins.
You Don't Need an In-House Lawyer to Have a Business Lawyer
Many growing businesses reach a point where legal questions occur too frequently to treat every issue as a one-off emergency, but hiring full-time internal counsel makes little economic sense.
Business Solutions Counsel is designed to fill that gap: ongoing access to legal advice that becomes more useful as counsel learns the company, its owners, contracts, goals, and recurring risks.
Explore Business Solutions CounselThe Purchase Price Is Only Part of the Deal
A business acquisition can transfer assets, liabilities, employees, contracts, customer relationships, real estate, intellectual property, debt, and years of undiscovered problems.
Good deal counsel looks beyond getting documents signed. The objective is understanding what you are buying, allocating risk appropriately, and making sure the transaction works after closing.
Business Counsel and Business Litigation Under One Roof
Before There Is a Lawsuit
Good contracts, clear ownership documents, careful transactions, and early intervention can reduce the likelihood that a disagreement becomes expensive litigation.
When something starts going wrong, getting counsel involved early can also preserve options and improve leverage.
Explore preventive business counsel →When the Dispute Is Already Here
Some problems cannot be negotiated away. When contracts are breached, owners turn against each other, payments stop, or misconduct causes substantial loss, litigation may become necessary.
Our litigation practice handles commercial disputes with the same focus on business economics and practical outcomes.
Explore Business & Civil Litigation →Business Lawyers Serving Pennsylvania, West Virginia & Ohio
Pennsylvania Business Lawyers
Business formation, contracts, acquisitions, governance, outside counsel, ownership transitions, and commercial legal services throughout Western Pennsylvania.
Our regional focus includes Washington, Butler, Beaver, Allegheny, and surrounding counties.
West Virginia Business Lawyers
Business counsel for owners and companies throughout Northern West Virginia and other qualifying locations, including formation, transactions, contracts, acquisitions, governance, and succession.
Ohio Business Lawyers
The firm handles qualifying Ohio business matters, including commercial agreements, ownership issues, acquisitions, and other transactions depending on jurisdiction and scope.
Better Decisions Start With Better Information
Business Solutions Counsel
Learn about ongoing outside counsel for businesses that need practical legal guidance without a full-time legal department.
Explore Business Solutions Counsel →Business & Civil Litigation
Contracts fail. Partners fight. Buyers and sellers disagree. See how we handle significant commercial disputes.
Explore business litigation →Business Legal Insights
Practical articles covering contracts, acquisitions, disputes, business risk, governance, and decisions facing growing companies.
Read Business Insights →Business Law FAQs
A business lawyer helps owners and companies address legal issues involving formation, ownership, contracts, transactions, acquisitions, governance, risk, disputes, succession, and other aspects of operating a business.
A lawyer is not required simply to file an LLC in many situations. The larger issue is whether the company has been structured properly. For businesses with multiple owners, meaningful assets, substantial risk, or growth plans, the operating agreement and ownership structure can be significantly more important than the formation filing itself.
Depending on the business, an operating agreement may address ownership percentages, management authority, voting, distributions, capital contributions, transfer restrictions, buyouts, death or disability, owner departures, dispute procedures, and dissolution.
Yes. The firm represents qualifying business buyers in transactions involving letters of intent, due diligence, purchase agreements, financing coordination, closing documents, and post-closing matters.
The firm can assist with qualifying acquisitions involving SBA financing and coordinate the legal aspects of the transaction with the buyer, lender, broker, accountants, and other professionals involved in the closing.
For a material business agreement, legal review can help identify obligations, termination rights, liability allocation, indemnification provisions, payment terms, dispute procedures, and other risks before they become binding.
Outside general counsel provides ongoing legal guidance to a business without the company employing a full-time in-house lawyer. The relationship can allow counsel to develop familiarity with the company's operations, contracts, ownership, objectives, and recurring risks.
Yes. Depending on the circumstances, an owner separation may involve the operating or shareholder agreement, valuation, ownership transfers, releases, payment terms, restrictive covenants, and other transition issues. If the matter has already become a dispute, our business litigation practice may also become relevant.
Common trigger points include adding an owner, signing a significant contract, hiring key personnel, borrowing substantial money, buying another company, selling equity, entering a new market, experiencing a serious dispute, or preparing for an eventual sale.
Yes. The firm handles qualifying buy-side and sell-side business transactions, subject to conflict checks and the circumstances of the transaction.
Build the Business. Protect What You're Building.
Whether you are starting a company, buying one, negotiating an important contract, dealing with ownership issues, planning an exit, or simply need a lawyer who understands your business, start with a conversation about what you are trying to accomplish.
Attorney Advertising. This page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Viewing this page or contacting The Skeen Firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Representation, scope, fees, and availability depend on the specific matter, jurisdiction, conflict review, and written engagement agreement.