If you’re pursuing a career in law, you probably know that you’re constantly going to be studying the law. In your early law career, and maybe even later in your professional life, people are going to come to you with legal issues; they’ll need your help, and they are going to expect you to be knowledgeable with every aspect of the law necessary to help them. This means you need to learn as much as you can about the laws you’re familiar with…in this case, business. In business, you probably will encounter clients who are using an LLC structure for their company for tax and liabilities benefits. If you understand what an LLC is, how they work, and what the process may be for forming one, you’ll likely be a better asset to your clients. Florida LLC laws are just as important as those in other states-let’s get into them a little more right now.
What Are LLCs? This sounds like a super basic question. You might be thinking, aren’t LLCs Limited Liability Companies? Isn’t that common knowledge? Well, for you maybe, but not for everyone. So let’s talk about them, and how they work in Florida. LLCs are business entities that give their owners “limited liability,” so that if the owners’ actions, or actions made on behalf of the LLC result in injury or damage to other parties or businesses, creditors cannot pursue the LLC owners for damages; only the LLC is responsible, and only the LLC can be held liable, for injuries or damages caused by the company.
How LLCs Work in Florida Florida LLC laws describe LLCs in further detail, establishing the steps involved in forming and running one. When you study these laws, you might learn that business owners must file company articles or records with the state, naming their limited company, describe the company’s initial members, and more. Florida’s statutes will also describe how the company should be run once it’s formed, including rules about how many owners there should be, who should be involved in management, and recordkeeping; how profits should be distributed, etc. In Florida, an LLC’s owner is known as a “member,” and many members are also “managers,” or people who run the company-if you have any questions about this part of forming and maintaining an LLC, you can always look back to the statutes to ensure you’re working from the law.
What About Statutes? Most obviously, statutes are the laws that govern limited liability companies in Florida. Statutes are helpful because they establish processes and standards for working and doing business within LLCs. If you’re studying business law, you need to know what LLCs are governed by and when.
How Familiarity with Florida LLC Laws Helps Law Students and Business Students If you’re pursuing a career in law, what you’ve likely done in the past is read few articles, wrote some essays about LLCs and statutes, or even had to study for an exam in business law given by a professor. That reading, writing, and studying taught you what an LLC is, how to maintain one, and how to establish a business with limited liability in Florida.
Effects of Familiarity with Florida LLC Laws This was more about completing academic assignments than learning about what you want to do for a living. But if you studied hard, you can use this knowledge later when you’re representing clients for your future law firm. When you work with your clients to address their legal needs, your understanding of LLCs can give them some amazing financial benefits. LLCs allow business owners to save money on taxes and help them manage liability. If you want to be at the front end of helping those companies register, and be part of their success, become familiar with LLCs and statutes; that knowledge will be incredibly handy when you take on new clients.
The Real World Application of LLC Laws and Statutes Just think about what we’ve already discussed. Damages and injuries caused by the LLC will not fall onto the client, and cannot be pursued. Those clients will be happy to have saved money, and will have few qualms thanking you for your wonderful service. When you are behind a desk, or sitting from your home, studying or reviewing for your next exam, it’s easy to ignore the other side of things. Although you’re not supposed to think too hard about the reality of the things you read about, pretend. What happens if you don’t study, don’t complete your assignments? What happens when you face no consequences for not getting the grades you need to graduate? What happens when it’s the last exam of your entire career, and you fail-what does that mean for your future? Without knowing the facts about how LLCs work for business law, you could enable your clients to create companies that make billions of dollars, without knowing how to help them if one of them fails.
Where Do You Go from Here? A thorough academic study of LLCs will pay off in the long run, and help you with business law even more. To get started, you want to do a little research on the process of starting an LLC in Florida. From there, you’ll need to memorize the process before your next exam, so you know exactly what you’re doing. The statute process is: • Name your company • File reports or articles with the state • Identify members and managers • Register with IRS and open a bank account • Pay taxes-here, remember the limited liability portion of this LLC; if you’re doing things right, you’ll save some money here.
It’s Going to Take More Than Just Memorization This is a fairly simple process to memorize; the statute process doesn’t change all that often, so it should be easy to remember. The hard part is how to apply the law; there’s no way to accurately guess how to run a business within statute, because many times the statute is vague and gives business owners a lot of leeway. You’ll have to study a few examples and do some case studies to find out what LLCs should be doing, and then think beyond the black and white of the law-or else you’ll have some unhappy clients someday. Think of it this way: What will your clients need to see on paper? And what will they need to follow as unwritten policy? If you want, you can review the statutes for LLCs in Florida here, Florida LLC laws.
In Closing Be aware of the law as you step into your post-collegiate career. There are a lot of statutes to know, and a lot of details you’ll need to memorize if you want to have a successful career in business law, but if you want to be the best, you will.
For more information on business law and LLCs, you can visit the IRS website.
